scholarly journals Motivations for Continued Use of Critical Thinking Skills among First-Year Seminar Graduates

Author(s):  
Karen Sobel

Many first-year seminar courses, as well as other programs aimed at first-year undergraduate students, actively incorporate critical thinking into the curriculum. What factors motivate students who purposefully develop these critical thinking skills to continue using them during subsequent semesters? This article discusses results of a study on this topic. Twenty-four students participated in a study approximately one semester after completing a first-year seminar at their university. The study uses mixed methods to (a) discuss students’ self-reported responses regarding nine potential motivating factors for continuing use of critical thinking skills, (b) examine correlations with critical thinking performance on a writing sample, and (c) briefly compare students’ self-reported motivating factors for continued use of critical thinking skills with parallel self-reported motivating factors for continued use of information literacy skills. The article ends with recommendations for applying the findings in the undergraduate classroom.

Author(s):  
Natalie Tagge

Background: While the term “information literacy” is not often used, the skills associated with that concept are now central to the mission and accreditation process of medical schools. The simultaneous emphasis on critical thinking skills, knowledge acquisition, active learning, and development and acceptance of technology perfectly positions libraries to be central to and integrated into the curriculum.Case Presentation: This case study discusses how one medical school and health sciences library leveraged accreditation to develop a sustainable and efficient flipped classroom model for teaching information literacy skills to first-year medical students. The model provides first-year medical students with the opportunity to learn information literacy skills, critical thinking skills, and teamwork, and then practice these skills throughout the pre-clerkship years.Conclusions: The curriculum was deemed a success and will be included in next year’s first-year curriculum. Faculty have reported substantial improvements in the information sources that first-year medical students are using in subsequent clinical reasoning conferences and in other parts of the curriculum. The effectiveness of the curriculum model was assessed using a rubric.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 774
Author(s):  
Siti Supriyanti ◽  
Anna Permanasari ◽  
Fitri Khoerunnisa

Information literacy is closely related to critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are related to exploring and evaluating information to make argumentation with relevant and appropriate information. It includes analyzing and synthesizing information to solve a problem where these activities are part of information literacy. Thus, information literacy-based learning should be able to enhance critical thinking skills. This study aims to determine the correlation between critical thinking skills and student’s information literacy enhancement through learning chemistry with the PjBL-IL model on the biogas production context. This study used a pre-experimental method - one group pretest-posttest design involving 32 high school students. Students' critical thinking and information literacy skills were measured using tests. Critical thinking skills and information literacy enhancement on high and medium category with N-gain score are 72.90% and 66.20% respectively and show a low correlation with a correlation coefficient value of 0.144. Where the basic support indicator has a negative correlation (r = -0.105). Thus, critical thinking skills enhancement is not always in line with information literacy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Wender ◽  
Valerie J. D’Erman

ABSTRACT Teaching and learning in higher education is occurring, unavoidably, within the broader civic context of today’s extraordinarily polarizing political times. We seek to help students situate themselves with respect to and, above all, thoughtfully assess others’ as well as their own perspectives on issues of profound contention, without contributing to exacerbated polarization ourselves. Specifically, we offer students in our first-year exploratory political science course a vital tool—critical rigor—for navigating but not being inundated by the storm. This article discusses our experiences in teaching the course titled, “The Worlds of Politics,” as we attempt to help students deeply engage in cognitive processes of critical thinking and analysis, without undue infringement from their own—and least of all our own—personal political biases. Our focal learning objective is the cultivation of critical-thinking skills that promote students’ drawing of distinctions between advocacy and analysis, as well as their discerning civic engagement.


2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 293-298
Author(s):  
Fábio da Costa Carbogim ◽  
Larissa Bertacchini de Oliveira ◽  
Melina Mafra Toledo ◽  
Flávia Batista Barbosa de Sá Diaz ◽  
Greicy Kelly Gouveia Dias Bittencourt ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Objective: To present the experience of elaboration and implementation of the Active Teaching Model to Promote Critical Thinking (MEAPC), associated to Problem-Based Learning (PBL), for undergraduate students in Nursing. Method: Case report on the experience of the educational intervention (MEAPC + PBL) with undergraduate students in Nursing, in a 20-hour course on Basic Life Support (BLS). The MEAPC was validated by judges to guide the analysis of clinical cases. Critical Thinking (CT) skills were assessed using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test. Result: The educational intervention took place in two phases: elaboration and implementation, allowing not only the production of knowledge about BLS, but also the development of CT and exchange of experiences for teaching-learning. Conclusion: The association of the MEAPC to the PBL in the course of BLS organized the learning, gave opportunity to acquire knowledge and to stimulate the skills of the CT.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Gressick ◽  
Joel B. Langston

Fostering critical thinking skills is a ubiquitous goal across disciplines and social contexts. Productive solutions to educational, content-based and social problems can emerge through well-reasoned conversation. How best to support the development of these skills has been a topic of debate. In this study, we investigated the design and effectiveness of a card-based game focused on undergraduate student understanding of common fallacies in thinking. 13 Fallacies was designed with the intention of improving students’ reasoning. In our study, we completed an iterative design phase, play testing phase and have collected data on student learning outcomes from two semesters as a result of classroom implementation. Results indicate that 13 Fallacies improved student understanding of common fallacies in thinking and promoted social reasoning for at-risk undergraduate students.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tutut Indria Permana ◽  
Iin Hindun ◽  
Ndzani Latifatur Rofi'ah ◽  
Ardiani Samti Nur Azizah

Science and technology development in the 21st-century has been demanding educators to provide learning activities which stimulate students’ critical thinking skills. This study aimed to find out the correlated factors of the students’ critical thinking skills as well as of which was the strongest determinant in leveling the skills. The subject of this correlational research was 112 undergraduate students in the Department of Biology Education, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang who took Botany course. There were four variables measured in this study, namely academic ability, mastering concepts, analytical skill, and critical thinking skills. The data of academic ability was obtained from students' cumulative index in the previous semester while the three other variables were measured using final exam test. All of the variables then analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results showed that the three predictor variables (mastering concepts, academic ability, and analytical skill) gave effective contributions toward students’ critical thinking skills, with the percentages of 3.84%, 32.25%, and 54.26% respectively. Therefore, the results of this study could be a basic reference in designing learning process which empower the students’ critical thinking skills.


2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mugyabuso J. F. Lwehabura

This study was set to examine and identify some aspects of information literacy skills among postgraduate students at Sokoine University of Agriculture and determine challenges and problems facing them in terms of searching and use of various information resources. Systematic probability sampling and questionnaires were used to collect data from175 students out of 314 first-year postgraduate students registered. The findings showed that although information literacy exists among students, a good number of students demonstrated significant deficiency in their information literacy knowledge and skills in key aspects including searching for information from electronic sources, application of various information search techniques such as Boolean operators, use of truncation, synonyms and concept maps. Based on the findings, the paper recommends addressing the shortcomings found by introducing a mandatory information literacy course for both postgraduate and undergraduate students to ensure effective independent learning among students.


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