Automatic Assessment of University Teachers’ Critical Thinking Levels

Antonella Poce; Francesca Amenduni; Maria Rosaria Re; Carlo De Medio

doi:10.3991/ijac.v12i3.11259

Automatic Assessment of University Teachers’ Critical Thinking Levels

International Journal of Advanced Corporate Learning (iJAC) ◽

10.3991/ijac.v12i3.11259 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 46

Author(s):

Antonella Poce ◽

Francesca Amenduni ◽

Maria Rosaria Re ◽

Carlo De Medio

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Critical Evaluation ◽

Pedagogical Practices ◽

Automatic Assessment ◽

Multiple Choice Questions ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

University Teachers ◽

Basic Language ◽

Project Model

<p class="0abstract"><span lang="EN-US">The present work describes the structure of a pilot study which was addressed to test a tool developed to automatically assess Critical Thinking - CT Levels through language analysis techniques. Starting from Wikipedia database and lexical analysis procedures based on n-grams, a new approach aimed at the automatic assessment of the open-ended questions, where CT can be detected, is proposed. Automatic assessment is focused on four CT macro-indicators : basic language skills, relevance, importance and novelty. The pilot study was carried out through different workshops adapted from Crithinkedu � EU Erasmus + Project model aimed at training university teachers in the field of CT. The workshops were designed to support the development of CT teaching practices at higher education level and enhance University Teachers’ CT as well. The two-hour workshops were conducted in two higher educational institutions, the first in the U.S.A (CCRWT Berkeley College NYC, 26 university teachers) and the second in Italy (Inclusive memory project - University Roma Tre, 22 university teachers). After the two workshops, data were collected through an online questionnaire developed and adapted in the framework of the Erasmus + Crithinkedu project. The questionnaire includes both open-ended and multiple choice questions. The results present CT level shown by university teachers and which kind of pedagogical practices they intend to promote after such an experience within their courses. In addition, a comparison between the values inferred by the algorithm and those calculated by domain human expert is offered. Finally, following up activity is shown taking into consideration other sets of macro-indicators: argumentation and critical evaluation.</span></p>

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The dignity of the human corpse in forensic medicine

International Journal of Legal Medicine ◽

10.1007/s00414-021-02534-x ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Clara-Sophie Schwarz ◽

Nikolai Münch ◽

Johannes Müller-Salo ◽

Stefan Kramer ◽

Cleo Walz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Legal Status ◽

Multiple Choice ◽

Daily Practice ◽

Free Text ◽

Multiple Choice Questions ◽

Specific Kind ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

Human Corpse ◽

E Mail

AbstractWorking with the dead is a very specific kind of work. Although a dignified handling of the corpses is demanded by the legislator and by the general public, neither the legal status of the corpse is undisputed nor is it obvious what a dignified handling of the deceased should consist of. In our hypothesis generating pilot study, we asked which concrete considerations are involved in daily practice of forensic specialists. We used an online questionnaire (invitations via e-mail) consisting of questions with single choice, multiple choice, and free text entries. The answers to single or multiple choice questions were displayed in pivot tables. The data was thus summarized, viewed, descriptively analyzed, and displayed together with the free text answers. 84.54% of the physicians and 100% of the autopsy assistants stated that considerations concerning the dignity of the deceased should play a role in daily autopsy practice. 45.87% stated that the conditions surrounding the autopsy need improvement to be ethically suitable. The analysis of the survey’s results was based on Robert Audi’s ethics, according to which three aspects need to be lightened in order to evaluate the conduct of a person morally: the actions, the motivation, and the way in which the actions are carried out. This systematization helps to identify the need for improvement and to make the vague demands for a dignified handling of corpses more concrete.

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Promoting Critical Thinking as a Social Practice: Shaping Students’ Voice, Agency and Inter-Subjectivity in a Cohesive Framework

10.31235/osf.io/ak2bu ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Khalid Muslem Al Mashikhi ◽

Vijay Singh Thakur

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Social Practice ◽

Pedagogical Practices ◽

Discursive Practice ◽

Multiple Choice Questions ◽

International Language ◽

Think Alouds ◽

Related Quality ◽

Bureaucratic Efficiency ◽

Cohesive Framework

Strict outcome-bound approaches and text-books-based instructional practices, prevalent in the pedagogy of most of the colleges and universities in English as an International Language (EIL) contexts, involve language activities, tasks, and tests that predominantly require one right answer or response. Pedagogical practices and related quality assurance mechanisms regulated by such approaches limit students’ ability to be original and skeptical in reflecting upon various issues of importance and concern based on their own thinking and experiences. Such a focus, in Sivasubramaniam’s (2015) and Nunn and Sivasubramaniam’s (2011) view, has entirely centered on bureaucratic efficiency aimed at having a uniform curriculum for the majority of the students and a scheme of research and evaluation based on recalls, think-alouds, cloze tests and multiple-choice questions in standardized texts. In line with the socially-aligned view of competence much needed spontaneity, flexibility, and diversity accrues only through a process-centered pedagogy of voice, agency and response. In the backdrop of this as a premise, this paper aims to demonstrate how Critical Thinking (CT) can be promoted in EIL classrooms as a discursive practice that could shape students’ voice, agency and inter-subjectivity in a cohesive framework. The paper shares both theoretical and practical ideas about CT and its importance in facilitating a meaningful education and aims to demonstrate some innovative tasks and activities that could be exploited to shape student’s voice and agency and develop their higher order CT skills. The paper culminates in evolving a practically viable prototype pedagogical framework for promoting CT as a social practice in EIL classrooms that is capable of making Wilga River’s (1983) notions of ‘skill-getting’ and ‘skill-using’ a reality. Such a model will be useful for EIL practitioners in designing similar lessons with innovative tasks and activities and make the EIL class atmosphere stimulating and pedagogically more fruitful.

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Algerian University Teachers’ Disposition and Experiences in Using MOOCs for their Continuous Professional Development

10.31235/osf.io/4nxtw ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Selma SIA ◽

Imane CHERIET

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Online Courses ◽

Teaching Experience ◽

Structured Interview ◽

Continuous Professional Development ◽

Pedagogical Practices ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

University Teachers ◽

Ministry Of Higher Education ◽

Training Opportunities

The professional development (PD) programmes initiated by the Algerian ministry of higher education for newly recruited teachers: “ICT and Pedagogical Practices” and “Pedagogical Accompaniment” cannot prepare the novice teachers for all the challenges they may face along their career. Accordingly, teachers need to look out for additional training opportunities. One of these opportunities is found in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Nevertheless, research on applying MOOCs for continuous professional development (CPD) with regard to Algeria is overlooked. Hence, this study aims at filling in this gap by exploring Algerian university teachers’ familiarity, disposition, and experiences of using MOOCs for CPD. To reach this end, an online questionnaire is administered and a semi-structured interview is conducted with university teachers. The results of the study evinced that: 1) Teachers have low familiarity and weak interaction with MOOCs in general and, 2) teachers acknowledge the importance of CPD and are aware that the initial training and the teaching experience are not sufficient to maintain career advancement. Yet, 3) they do not have the disposition to engage in a CPD, 4) teachers consider this study as an eye opener on MOOCs and show a positive attitude for leveraging MOOCs for their CPD in the future. In the light of these findings, urgent plans to implement and value the culture of informal CPD are recommended, in addition to creating centres at the level of the universities devoted exclusively to CPD and related research. Most importantly, MOOCs that address the Algerian teachers’ CPD needs should be developed.

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Enhancing students’ critical thinking skills through engagement with innovative pedagogical practices in Global South

Higher Education Research & Development ◽

10.1080/07294360.2021.1896482 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-15

Author(s):

Ugochukwu Chinonso Okolie ◽

Paul Agu Igwe ◽

Ifeanyi Kalu Mong ◽

Hyginus Emeka Nwosu ◽

Clementina Kanu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Global South ◽

Thinking Skills ◽

Critical Thinking Skills ◽

Pedagogical Practices

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Specialty-Training Program During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Single Center Survey on over 300 Trainees and Trainers (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.32390 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ipek Kivilcim Oguzulgen ◽

Ayşe Kalkancı ◽

Mehmet Suhan Ayhan ◽

Ulver Derici ◽

Alpaslan Senkoylu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Training Program ◽

University Hospital ◽

Computer Assisted ◽

Multiple Choice Questions ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

Elective Surgical Procedures ◽

Institutional Review ◽

Speciality Training ◽

Learning Platforms ◽

New Perspective

BACKGROUND COVID-19 pandemic caused significant modifications such as limiting the number of residents in the clinics, cancelling elective surgical procedures, stopping face to face practical education, and transforming theoretical education into distance learning platforms resulted in alterations in the curriculum. OBJECTIVE We addressed to assess the situation of trainees’ education using an online questionnaire from the trainees’ and directors’ perspective during the pandemic. METHODS The survey platform SurveyMonkey® was used to distribute the survey and to collect responses. We generated a list of multiple-choice questions about how social distancing affected the delivery of medical education, potential compromise in core training and difficulties in conducting clinical research for the thesis. RESULTS A total of 364 trainees among 552 (65.9%) under training at our university hospital and 90% of the directors (37 of 41) responded the survey. Almost 78 percent of the trainees claimed that they have been negatively affected during the pandemic. Although majority of the trainees (60,3%) reported that extension of their education program is not necessary, most of the program directors were in tendency of extending the duration of the speciality training period. The participants predominantly considered that online training would keep on being a part of the training program after the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS Education programs are negatively affected during pandemics. However, authorities should manage this deficiency by a new perspective since present trainees are familiar to use technology-driven virtual sources for their education. After the pandemic, computer-assisted online learning and web-based programs should be integrated into educational curriculum. CLINICALTRIAL The study was approved from the institutional review board of Gazi University Ethics Committee (Approval Number: 2021-276).

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An Exploratory Study of EFL Teachers’ Assessment Conceptions at a Saudi University

Arab World English Journal ◽

10.24093/awej/vol12no3.32 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 464-485

Author(s):

Ahmad Qadi

Keyword(s):

English Language ◽

Online Questionnaire ◽

Response Options ◽

University Teachers ◽

Conceptions Of Assessment ◽

Efl Teachers ◽

Beliefs About Teaching ◽

Strongly Agree ◽

Teaching Learning ◽

Level Of Agreement

Each teacher evaluates students’ learning outcomes in their own way, depending on their own ideas and beliefs about teaching, learning, and assessing. It impacts on how pupils work. As a result, concentrating on instructors’ perspectives in general appears to be vital, and exposing EFL teachers’ evaluation concepts is crucial and requires considerable investigation. The current study examines teachers’ assessment conceptions of English as a foreign language (EFL) at a Saudi University. Specifically, it investigates EFL university teachers’ assessment conceptions using Brown’s (2006) Teachers’ Conceptions of Assessment Abridged Inventory, four-factor assessment inventory conceptions that include variables like student accountability, school accountability, progress, and irrelevance. The survey employed a Likert scale with response options ranging from one (strongly disagree) to five (strongly agree). The researcher gathered the study’s data using Google Forms and administered an online questionnaire to fifteen EFL English teachers in English Language Center at a Saudi University called Afaq University (pseudonym), Saudi Arabia. The obtained quantitative data were analyzed manually by descriptive statistics. The findings demonstrated that of all participants, the enhancement principle had the primary value, whereas the conceptions of irrelevance, on the other hand, were discovered to have the lowest level of agreement. The study presented some pedagogical implications and then concluded with the need for further triangulated exploration of the phenomenon.

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Informal Logic’s Influence on Philosophy Instruction

Informal Logic ◽

10.22329/il.v26i3.454 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 259 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

J. Anthony Blair

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Informal Logic ◽

Limited Impact ◽

Argument Analysis ◽

Analysis And Evaluation ◽

Theoretical Assumptions ◽

Impact On Instruction ◽

The U.S ◽

Theoretical Developments

Informal logic began in the 1970s as a critique of then-current theoretical assumptions in the teaching of argument analysis and evaluation in philosophy departments in the U.S. and Canada. The last 35 years have seen significant developments in informal logic and critical thinking theory. The paper is a pilot study of the influence of these advances in theory on what is taught in courses on argument analysis and critical thinking in U.S. and Canadian philosophy departments. Its finding, provisional and much-qualified, is that the theoretical developments and refinements have had limited impact on instruction in leading philosophy departments.

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Science or Snake Oil? Teaching Critical Evaluation of “Research” Reports on the Internet

Teaching of Psychology ◽

10.1207/s15328023top2904_14 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 321-324 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Patricia A. Connor-Greene ◽

Dan J. Greene

Keyword(s):

Quality Control ◽

Critical Thinking ◽

Small Group ◽

Group Discussion ◽

Critical Evaluation ◽

Problem Based Learning ◽

Small Group Discussion ◽

Easy Access ◽

The Internet ◽

New Challenges

The proliferation of information on the Internet introduces new challenges for educators. Although the Internet can provide quick and easy access to a wealth of information, it has virtually no quality control. Consequently, the Internet has rendered faculty more essential than ever as teachers of the analytic and evaluative skills students need to become educated consumers of information. In this article we describe an exercise using small-group discussion and individual problem-based learning to teach critical thinking about the Internet. Data from the exercise and from student evaluations support both its need and students' perceptions of its effectiveness.

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Multimodal Narratives in Nursing Education

Multimodal Narratives in Research and Teaching Practices - Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-8570-1.ch018 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 356-375

Author(s):

Marília Rua ◽

Rita M. F. Leal ◽

Nilza Costa

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Decision Making ◽

Critical Thinking ◽

Nursing Education ◽

Classroom Practices ◽

Nurse Education ◽

Pedagogical Practices ◽

Teachers Professional Development

Nursing education is driven by emerging challenges of scientific, technological, and professional advances that require the use of strategies that promote students' development of critical thinking for decision making in different contexts. It also requires that teachers constantly reflect on their pedagogical practices and (re)think them using strategies that allow their enhancement. The use of multimodal narratives (MNs) can be an important tool for teachers' professional development, namely to improve their classroom practices. Given the novelty of the use of MNs in nursing education, this chapter presents an analysis concerning the experience of making a MN and how it has been reflected in the authors' pedagogical practices. With this experience, potentialities of continuing to use MNs in nurse education are explored.

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