Effectiveness of Critical Thinking Instruction in Higher Education: A Systematic Review of Intervention Studies

Int J of Sci and Math Educ

Cock

Weldeslassie

et al. 2016

Self Cite

193

111

Although the development of critical thinking (CT) is a major goal of science education, adequate emphasis has not been given to the measurement of CT skills in specific science domains such as physics. Recognizing that adequately assessing CT implies the assessment of both domain-specific and domain-general CT skills, this study reports on the development and validation of a test designed to measure students' acquisition of CT skills in electricity and magnetism (CTEM). The CTEM items were designed to mirror the structural components of items identified in an existing standardized domain-general CT test, and targeted content from an introductory Electricity and Magnetism (E&M) course. A preliminary version of the CTEM test was initially piloted on three groups of samples: interviews with physics experts (N = 3), student cognitive interviews (N = 6), and small-scale paper and pencil administration (N = 19). Modifications were made afterwards and the test was administered to a different group of second-year students whose major was mechanical engineering (N = 45). The results showed that the internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .72) and inter-rater reliability (Cohen's kappa = .83) of the CTEM test are acceptable. The findings overall suggest that the CTEM test can be used to measure the acquisition of domain-specific CT skills in E&M, and a good basis for future empirical research that focuses on the integration of CT skills within specific subject matter instruction. A broader CT assessment

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Critical Thinking in Physics: Development and Validation of a Critical Thinking Test in Electricity and Magnetism

Int J of Sci and Math Educ

Cock

Weldeslassie

et al. 2016

Self Cite

193

111

“…This approach is expected to result in the acquisition of both domain-specific and domain-general CT skills. Standardized tests that measure students' ability to think critically on issues and problems that are specific to a subject matter domain, however, were hardly ever administered in the various studies that adopted an embedded approach (for review, see Tiruneh et al 2014).…”

Section: Ct Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers have employed various kinds of CT tests that use a broad range of formats, scope, and psychometric characteristics to measure CT outcomes (for reviews, see Ennis 1993;McMillan 1987;Tiruneh et al 2014). Some of the available standardized domain-general CT tests include the Cornell Critical Thinking Test (CCTT: , the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST: Facione 1990b), the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA: Watson and Glaser 2002), the Ennis-Weir CT Essay Test (Ennis and Wier 1985) and the Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment (HCTA: Halpern 2010).…”

Section: Ct Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The development of CT is largely explored through loosely defined instructional interventions that consist of teaching general CT skills within less optimally designed subject matter instruction (Tiruneh et al 2014). Research attempts to embed CT skills within subject matter instruction have not systematically built on instructional design research, and the link between the acquisition of domain-specific and domain-general CT skills appears to be vague.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Systematic design of a learning environment for domain-specific and domain-general critical thinking skills

Education Tech Research Dev

Weldeslassie

Kassa

et al. 2015

Self Cite

Identifying effective instructional approaches that stimulate students' critical thinking (CT) has been the focus of a large body of empirical research. However, there is little agreement on the instructional principles and procedures that are theoretically sound and empirically valid to developing both domain-specific and domain-general CT skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of systematically designed subject matter instruction in stimulating the development of domain-specific and domaingeneral CT skills, and to investigate the relationship between the two. The study employed a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design with two conditions: 45 students participated in an experimental condition and 44 students in a control condition. A learning environment, in the context of a freshman physics course, was designed according to the First Principles of Instruction model. The experimental condition followed the designed learning environment, while the control condition followed regular subject matter instruction that was not designed according to the First Principles of Instruction model. The experimental condition scored significantly higher than the control condition on a domain-specific CT test. The results also showed that better performance on a domain-specific CT test explained a significant proportion of the variance on a domain-general CT test. However, the experimental learning environment did not result in a significantly greater pretestposttest improvement in the acquisition of domain-general CT skills compared to the control learning environment. Instructional design principles that may contribute to the present understanding of the integration of CT skills within the regular subject matter instruction are discussed.

“…Anderson, Howe, Soden, Halliday & Low, 2001;McLean & Miller, 2010;Toy & Ok, 2012). Such variability in research outcomes has made it difficult to gain a deeper understanding of the features of Immersion-and Infusion-based interventions for CT. A recent systematic review criticized existing Immersion-and Infusion-based CT intervention studies on the ground that the processes involved in the design and development of the instructional interventions in itself was not sufficiently specified (Tiruneh, Verburgh & Elen, 2014). It is argued in the systematic review that (1) there is little explicit description of the design of previously implemented Immersion-and Infusion-based instructional interventions, and (2) even those explicitly described interventions did not systematically build on the principles of instructional design research.…”

Section: Teaching Students To Think Critically: Review Of the Empiricmentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing Learning Environments for Critical Thinking: Examining Effective Instructional Approaches

Int J of Sci and Math Educ

Cock

Elen

2017

Self Cite

Fostering the development of students' critical thinking (CT) is regarded as an essential outcome of higher education. However, despite the large body of research on this topic, there has been little consensus on how educators best support the development of CT. In view of some of the controversies surrounding the teaching of CT skills in higher education, this study examined the effects of embedding CT instruction systematically in domain-specific courses (Immersion vs. Infusion) on the acquisition of domain-specific and domain-general CT skills and course achievement. First-year university students (N = 143) enrolled in an introductory physics course were assigned to one of three instructional conditions: Immersion, Infusion, and control. The Immersion and Infusion conditions followed lessons designed systematically based on the First Principles of Instruction model, whereas the control condition followed a regular instruction. Results showed that participants in the Immersion and Infusion conditions significantly outperformed those in the control condition on domain-specific CT proficiency and course achievement. However, neither the Immersion nor the Infusion condition was helpful in fostering the acquisition of domain-general CT skills. The findings generally demonstrated that embedding CT instruction systematically in domain-specific courses requires greater clarity about what set of CT skills could be targeted in domain-specific instruction, how specific subject-matter instruction could be designed considering CT as an integral part of domain-specific instruction, and how best CT outcomes be assessed. Some considerations for the design of CT-supportive learning environments are discussed.