scholarly journals Critical thinking skills: The academic ability, mastering concepts and analytical skill of 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.

F1000Research ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Henri ◽  
Lesley Morrell ◽  
Graham Scott

Many undergraduate students struggle to engage with higher order skills such as evaluation and synthesis in written assignments, either because they do not understand that these are the aim of written assessment or because these critical thinking skills require more effort than writing a descriptive essay. Here, we report that students who attended a freely available workshop, in which they were coached to pose a question in the title of their assignment and then use their essay to answer that question, obtained higher marks for their essay than those who did not attend. We demonstrate that this is not a result of latent academic ability amongst students who chose to attend our workshops and suggest this increase in marks was a result of greater engagement with ‘critical thinking’ skills, which are essential for upper 2:1 and 1stclass grades. The tutoring method we used holds two particular advantages: First, we allow students to pick their own topics of interest, which increases ownership of learning, which is associated with motivation and engagement in ‘difficult’ tasks. Second, this method integrates the development of ‘inquisitiveness’ and critical thinking into subject specific learning, which is thought to be more productive than trying to develop these skills in isolation.


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.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 220
Author(s):  
Samsun Hidayat ◽  
Susilawati Susilawati ◽  
Harry Soeprianto

This study was aimed to analyzethe effect of project based learning model to understanding concepts  and critical thinking skills in optics lecture at undergraduate student of Physics Educational Program of IKIP Mataram in academic year 2013/2014. This study included in quasi experiment with posttest onlycontrol group design. All of 75 populations are included as sample. The datawere analyzed with multivariate analysis (MANOVA).The conclusion can be stated based on analysis result is (1) project based learning model having an effect on understandingconcepts of undergraduate students ((Fcal = 37,88 > Ftable = 3,91), with pvalue<0,05. (2) project based learning model having an effect on critical thinking skill of undergraduate students ((Fcal = 5,47 > Ftable = 3,91), with pvalue<0,05. (3) project based learning model having an effect on both understandingconcepts and critical thinking of undergraduate students ((Fcal = 34,86 > Ftable = 3,91), with pvalue<0,05.


Author(s):  
Edi Nurcahyo ◽  
Leo Agung S ◽  
Djono Djono

Historical learning has not reached optimal in the learning process. It is caused by the history teachers’ learning model has not used the innovative learning models. Furthermore, it supported by the perception of students to the history subject because it does not become final exam (UN) subject so it makes less improvement and builds less critical thinking in students’ daily learning. This is due to the lack of awareness of historical events and the availability of history books for students and teachers in the library are still lacking. Discovery learning with scientific approach encourages students to solve problems actively and able to improve students' critical thinking skills with scientific approach so student can build scientific thinking include observing, asking, reasoning, trying, and networking.


2017 ◽  
pp. 1556-1575
Author(s):  
Linor Lea Hadar ◽  
Lynne Genser

This study explores the development of critical thinking among undergraduate students in the context of an “English as a Second Language course”. A structured, online forum task demanding an increasing level of critical thinking was repeated four times during the year. Students' use of critical thinking skills was evaluated in terms of the variety of critical thinking skills and the number of times each skill was repeated. Two groups were compared: low advantage students versus average to high advantage students. Students of both ability groups improved their critical thinking in the three more concrete tasks and showed a decrease in the fourth more abstract task. While low advantage students started at a significantly lower level than the rest of the students, they reached the same level by the second critical thinking activity. The pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhao F Tian

This paper reports the recent development and implementation of three teaching modules in order to teach and enhance the students’ critical thinking skills in a level IV undergraduate/postgraduate course ‘Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for Engineering Applications’. These teaching modules include a lecture module, an online test module and a CFD project module. The lecture module introduces the importance of critical thinking skills by an example case, critical thinking definition and processes, and the application of critical thinking skills in formulation of CFD problems. In the online test module, seven online tests have been developed to enhance the students’ understanding of the contents of lectures and practical sessions. Meanwhile, students apply their critical thinking skills to work out some of the tests. In the project module, a student-driven CFD project is designed to help students to apply CFD techniques and critical thinking skills in engineering problems. In the project, students choose their own project topic and problems. They use CFD skills learned in the course and critical thinking skills to critically analyse their problems, identify the important parameters and review results. They apply the critical writing skills to finalise a project report. To the best knowledge of the author, this systematical integration of teaching and enhancement of critical thinking skills in computational fluid dynamics course is innovative. Feedback from students is quite positive shown by an anonymous survey in 2014.


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