Assessing Business Student Thinking Skills

Abstract

The development of student thinking skills is a major goal of business education. As with other such goals, student outcomes assessment must be undertaken to measure goal achievement. Thinking is difficult to teach; it is also difficult to assess. The purpose of this article is to improve management educators' understanding of student thinking skills, how they can be developed, and how they can be assessed, thereby enabling business schools to graduate students who can think effectively. The article begins by reviewing major conceptual perspectives on higher order thinking and how related skills have been assessed in higher education. It then provides an account of business student thinking skills that highlights the role of thinkingrelevant knowledge and the need to have students integrate and apply their thinking skills in practical situations. After explaining how the business school context and thinking skills content shape assessment efforts, the article identifies shortcomings in how business students are being taught to think, shortcomings that persist in part because of deficiencies in assessment practices. It proposes ways of improving the teaching and assessment of thinking in business schools.

Critical Thinking in Accounting Textbooks

“…Either academicians or practitioners have urged the development of critical thinking ability of accounting graduates [3], [6]. Thus, business education should regard critical thinking ability as the main goal that needs to be followed up during the learning process or evaluation [2], [8]. Due to the importance of critical thinking, the CPA (Certified Public Accountants) test always provides some contents which require critical thinking.…”

“…The role of universities in developing students' critical thinking ability is vital. Smith [2] and He, Craig, & Wen [12] suggested that the curriculum, the way of teaching and evaluation should be changed to be able to improve the critical thinking ability of students majoring in business.…”

“…Critical thinking is a high level of thinking ability encouraged in all fields of study, not only in science but also in the field of social and humanities, such as management [1] and business [2]. In accounting, students are not only expected to be able to "calculate" but also to think critically in solving various accounting issues in different contexts [3].…”

A Rubric for Evaluating Student Analyses of Business Cases

“…Some researchers have noted that the critical thinking levels are difficult to assess (Smith, 2014;White, 2007).…”

The effect of critical thinking on students’ accounting competency in vocational high school

“…Critical thinking is the ability to think that is needed in all fields of learning, not only science but also in the social field (Errington & Bubna-Litic, 2015) and humanities (Smith, 2014) such as management and business. In accounting, students are not only expected to be able to "calculate", but also to think critically in solving various accounting problems in different contexts.…”