Development of critical thinking in occupational therapy students

Abstract

Do students who use the Guided Reciprocal Peer Questioning (GRPQ) method increase their ability to think critically? When compared to students in a traditional senior seminar course, the results of this study indicated no significant difference between the groups regarding changes in scores on the California Critical Thinking Skills Test. However, the students in the experimental group asked more questions labelled as critical thinking than the seminar control group. These findings suggest the use of the GRPQ may improve students' skills in asking questions that include application, analysis, and synthesis. Future research regarding the role of questions in stimulating critical analysis and the role of context in the learning environment is warranted.

Teaching Methods to Complement Competencies in Reducing the “Junkyard” Curriculum in Clinical Psychology

“…There have been some opinion pieces, most of which appear to favour the notion of introducing PBL to allied health domains (Dahlgren & Dahlgren, 2002;Morris, 2003;Reynolds, 1997;Solomon, 2005). Some research has been carried out in occupational therapy and physiotherapy, but none is of a standard to make objective comparisons between PBL and lecture/ seminar teaching methods (Hammel et al, 1999;Kamwendo & Tornquist, 2001;McCannon, Robertson, Caldwell, Juwah, & Elfessi, 2004;Scaffa & Wooster, 2004;Schaber, 2005;Velde, Wittman, & Vos, 2006). Severiens and Schmidt (2009) compared first year psychology students from three different schools employing PBL, lecture/ seminar, and mixed PBL/lecture/seminar curricula.…”

A study of critical reasoning in online learning: application of the Occupational Performance Process Model

“…Results from qualitative studies of an experiential learning laboratory (Benson and Hansen, 2007) and case presentations in printed form, videotape form, live interview format, and CD-ROM format (Lysaght and Bent, 2005) provide initial evidence to support the use of these methods; however, evidence from quantitative and qualitative studies of PBL are mixed (Stern, 1997;Liotta-Kleinfeld and McPhee, 2001;McCarron and D'Amico, 2002;Reeves et al, 2004;Scaffa and Wooster, 2004). Further, in a study of guided reciprocal peer questioning, Velde et al (2006) found no significant difference between experimental and control groups in terms of changes in critical reasoning using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Facione et al, 1998). A variety of methods for developing critical reasoning were investigated, and different outcome measures were utilized in these studies; therefore, limited conclusions can be drawn regarding the effectiveness of these approaches to teaching critical reasoning.…”

“…Contradictory viewpoints and solutions are considered (Saye and Brush, 1999) while empathizing and respecting the perspectives of others (Newmann, 1991).In occupational therapy (OT), critical reasoning was recently defi ned as 'the process used by practitioners to plan, direct, perform, and refl ect on client care' (Schell and Schell, 2008, p. 5). Historically, occupational therapists have used a variety of terms to refer to this construct, including clinical reasoning (Mattingly and Fleming, 1994), critical thinking (Velde et al, 2006) and professional reasoning (Schell and Schell, 2008). In this article, the term 'critical' was chosen to indicate that the process is not limited to use in medical settings or medically based approaches.…”

Service-Learning-Based Instruction Enhances Students' Perceptions of Their Abilities to Engage in Evidence-Based Practice

“…Practice decisions require incorporation of multiple information sources, including evidence and client information as well as one's own experiences (Canadian Association of Occupational Therapy, 1999;Velde, Wittman, & Vos, 2006). This decision-making process requires strong critical thinking and reasoning skills (Velde et al, 2006).…”

“…Because the transfer of knowledge from the classroom to practice settings is difficult, some educators have suggested a shift of instructional focus from a focus on content to the process of critical thinking where personal observations are reflected upon, course of actions planned, and outcomes are evaluated (Torcivia & Gupta, 2008;Velde et al, 2006). Engaging students in the thinking process associated with active learning can assist them in becoming aware of their own assumptions and how these assumptions influence one's ability to make decisions (Torcivia & Gupta, 2008).…”