NAIA to NCAA D-II Sports Transition

The intent of this chapter is to provide results of a self-study of the transition process of a medium-sized, independent university from affiliation with National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics to National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II. This transitional movement by a four-year, liberal arts University represented real-world application of critical thinking to decision making, which created an impact on all stakeholders. The study purpose was to provide documentation of the transition with analysis of potential barriers and challenges, an examination of procedures placed, and quantitative verification of potential academic impact on both athletes and non-athletes. Data informed the original decision. This project continued analysis with before-to-after comparisons of measureable characteristics, such as athlete and non-athlete GPA, extent to which NCAA involvement influenced both athlete and non-athlete student choice to attend University, and before-to-after perceptions of University's reputation and stature within the academic community.

Globalization, Cross Border Education, and Student Migration

Presently, there are more than two million students studying outside their home countries and the total number is expected to grow to eight million by 2025. This trend has inspired research into the “push” and “pull” factors that drive student mobility within the global higher education environment. However, despite the growing presence of cross border student enrollments throughout the United States, which is also the number one location for cross border students to study in the world, limited efforts have been made to identify what characteristics motivate particular groups of cross border students to leave their home countries to attend particular types of higher education in the United States. This chapter addresses that gap in the literature. In response, this study sought to build upon existing global higher education literature by determining the relationship between the perceived importance of institutional characteristics and cross border students' age, gender, and country of origin.

Developing Critical Thinking in Doctoral Students

The PhD is the highest level of academic qualification, and is by its very nature an exercise in the development of critical thinking. This chapter discusses what it means to study for a PhD and the problems that students have with developing skills of criticality. The author discusses his own experiences of supervising over 50 doctoral students and relates this to the relevant literature. The role that the supervisor, research training, the thesis, dissemination and the viva can play in developing critical thinking are discussed. The power of specific techniques including reflection, action research and action learning are also explored. The chapter presents areas worthy of future study and concludes by presenting an agenda which PhD students and their supervisors might follow.

Watching TV News

This chapter focuses on the shortcomings of learning about complex policy issues from television news. The chapter uses the Vanderbilt University Television News Archive website to examine issues raised and not raised by television news, as well as the duration of time spent on issues by news shows. Examining the limitations of television news' ability to present and address complex public policy issues serves as a means to focus on critical thinking in the higher education setting. Two public policy issues are explored in this chapter, Constitutional interpretation and the Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as ObamaCare, as the means to show how limited television news is regarding presenting the often frustrating aspects of complex policy issues. Several methods used by the author to help students apply critical thinking skills are discussed. The results of these methods are also addressed.

Faculty Support and Guidance for Doctoral Candidates

This chapter describes practices of doctoral faculty in their efforts to support and encourage doctoral candidates for the EdD in conducting reliable and valid research for the writing of the dissertation. The setting of the degree program is in the School of Education in a private, four-year, liberal arts university in the Midwest United States. In guiding the doctoral candidates in their research endeavors, the faculty are promoting critical thinking applied to research design. Critical thinking is a process that represents a collection of skills difficult to teach in a doctoral program, as students who enroll bring a wide range of skills. The chapter includes a description of the doctoral program, some of the challenges faced by the doctoral faculty, and some of the strategies applied to promotion of strong research design among student work.

Critical Thinking as a Multifaceted Phenomenon

The chapter deals with critical thinking (CT) theoretical modeling. CT is explained as a multifaceted phenomenon that should be examined systematically on interdisciplinary platform. The prototype of such a platform is that of cognitive sciences. The basic issues linked to an interdisciplinary research of CT are: relations between CT and language, logical and cognitive operations in the process of critical analysis, methods of CT and their anchoring in the methodology of science, the process of CT in relation to personal dispositions and attitudes, possibilities of development, and evaluation of CT within educational and learning processes. The possibilities of a CT development are specified in the scientific methodology classes where students are guided through propositional logic, towards the analysis of judgments and arguments so they are capable of drafting research papers that have explanatory and argumentative character. The mutual conditionality between the scientific methodology, the procedure of scientific research, and the basic thought operation of CT is stressed.

Teaching Critical Thinking and the Role of Team Teaching

Critical thinking pedagogy is usually conceived as a solo teacher working with multiple students. Yet, if we take seriously the finding that students benefit enormously from seeing their instructors model critical thinking in front of them, and telling them that this is what they are doing, then team teaching represents a missed opportunity in this pedagogy. Instructors teaching as part of a team can show students how to ask questions of each other, how to disagree without condemning a peer, how to open each other up to multiple perspectives, and how to point out assumptions that each other holds. When all members of a teaching participate in all planning, instruction and evaluation, then students can see a critical dialogue unfolding before them. After laying out research on how students learn to think critically this chapter outlines the benefits of team teaching for both students and faculty members.

Developing Meaning-Making to Promote Critical Thinking

Promoting critical thinking is a demand today's teachers are asked to meet (Association of American Colleges and University [AAC&U], 2005; Hart Research Associates, 2013), yet doing so requires that teachers themselves are critical thinkers. In order to critically think, teachers must have the capacity to make meaning complexly. Making meaning complexly allows for individuals to consider experiences from multiple perspectives and make responsible, ethical decisions for the common good. In other words, complex meaning making allows for critical thinking. Thus, a method for promoting critical thinking is to develop complexity in how meaning is made, and one way to do so is to implement the learning partnerships model (Baxter Magolda, 2004). This chapter explores using the learning partnerships model in the classroom to engage in the development of how one makes meaning, so as to develop critical thinking.

The Erosion of Critical Thinking Development in Post-Secondary Education

A quick look at virtually any list of college-level learning outcomes will almost certainly uncover the desire to develop critical thinking skills. While prioritizing the development of critical thinking skills on campuses nationwide is a noble cause, issues quickly arise because the definition of critical thinking varies widely amongst the different disciplines, so this chapter provides a history of the idea of critical thinking in higher education, as well as various critical thinking development strategies and assessment instruments. This chapter also outlines the need for the academe to move from simply mentioning the development of critical thinking skills in various institutional documents to prioritizing such skills through the return of liberal education.

Mapping Problems to Solutions

Faculty used visualization and inquiry methods to help teacher leaders in a master's course design problem-to-solution exercises. These assignments were based on an actual educational issue present in their school. By developing both a problem and solution model, students were able to experience real-world problem-based learning. This chapter presents theories supporting the approach, examples of exercises, and some lessons learned after working with 300 students over two years. Although taught online and to geographically dispersed students, the logic model exercise replicated many aspects of clinical experiences and provided professional skill development. The value of using logic models to represent real-world phenomena and to provide authentic learning experiences to teacher leaders is discussed.