Critical Thinking in Education

Abstract: Active teaching methodologies have been placed as a hope for changing education at different levels, transiting from passive lecture‐centered to student‐centered learning. With the health measures of social distance, the COVID‐19 pandemic forced a strong shift to remote education. With the challenge of delivering quality education through a computer screen, we validated and applied an online course model using active teaching tools for higher education.

Rossi, I. V., Lima, J. D., Sabatke, B., Nunes, M. A. F., Ramirez, G. E., & Ramirez, M. I. (2021). Active learning tools improve the learning outcomes, scientific attitude, and critical thinking in higher education: Experiences in an online course during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 49(6), 888–903. https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.21574

Abstract: Critical thinking features in university syllabi, programmes, and classes both in the UK and US and is considered one of the primary learning outcomes of higher education. Yet empirically we still know very little about how critical thinking is taught or the extent to which teaching practice is informed by academic research. Further work is needed to understand teaching practice across disciplines through the light of critical thinking research. In the present study, we surveyed 176 UK and US university instructors from a range of humanities and social sciences subjects about their teaching practices. The instructors ranked ten critical thinking skills drawn from the research literature and they identified the approaches and learning activities that they used to teach critical thinking.

Bellaera, L., Weinstein-Jones, Y., Ilie, S., & Baker, S. T. (2021). Critical thinking in practice: The priorities and practices of instructors teaching in higher education. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 41, 100856–. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2021.100856

Abstract: This paper examines how critical thinking is perceived and transmitted in higher education (HE) classrooms using two Vietnamese undergraduate programmes as case studies. The analysis of semi-structured interviews with teachers, supervisors and institutional leaders from both programmes reveals transmission of critical thinking is impacted upon by power relations from not only outside, in the form of cultural and political ideologies, but also within the pedagogic discourse itself.

An Le, D. T. B., & Hockey, J. (2022). Critical thinking in the higher education classroom: knowledge, power, control and identities. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 43(1), 140–158. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2021.2003182

Abstract: Critical thinking is a competency which is being required from students in their personal and professional life. For this reason, universities must do their most to include it in their syllabus, programs, and classes. However, there is still much work to be done since there is not a clear definition of this competency, and also new active methodologies need to be enhanced for its development.

Bezanilla, M. J., Fernández-Nogueira, D., Poblete, M., & Galindo-Domínguez, H. (2019). Methodologies for teaching-learning critical thinking in higher education: The teacher’s view. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 33, 100584. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2019.100584

Abstract: An effective instructional approach for promoting critical thinking is a challenge not only for Higher Education but also for lower educational levels. In this paper, we argue that values and knowledge education (VaKE) is an instructional approach, which could be implemented in Higher Education to promote students' critical thinking skills and dispositions.

Pnevmatikos, D., Christodoulou, P., & Georgiadou, T. (2019). Promoting critical thinking in higher education through the values and knowledge education (VaKE) method. Studies in Higher Education, 44(5), 892–901. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1586340

Abstract: Teachers play a crucial role in attaining a major objective of higher education: fostering students’ critical thinking (CT). Yet, little is known about how to foster teachers’ own CT-skills and attitudes towards teaching CT. In a quasi-experimental study (N = 54), we investigated whether a three-session teacher training on (teaching) CT (n = 32) positively affected higher education teachers’ CT-skills and their attitudes towards teaching CT compared to a control condition (n = 22).

Janssen, E. M., Mainhard, T., Buisman, R. S. M., Verkoeijen, P. P. J. L., Heijltjes, A. E. G., van Peppen, L. M., & van Gog, T. (2019). Training higher education teachers’ critical thinking and attitudes towards teaching it. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 58, 310–322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.03.007

Abstract: It is widely agreed that contemporary higher education should teach critical thinking. In order to explore how university programmes can do so more effectively, this paper examines how students in European Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) programmes, which are renowned for developing critical thinking skills, experience how they acquire this ability.

Dekker, T. J. (2020). Teaching critical thinking through engagement with multiplicity. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 37, 100701–. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2020.100701