Cognitive-behaviour intervention for critical thinking disposition of religion and social science students

Abstract

Background: The dispositions of students towards critical thinking (CT) no doubt improve their clinical practice and performance. Hence, efforts to explore ways to help students become aware and conscious of the need for CT are imperative for their selfactualization, development, and improved professional practice. It is worrisome that in spite of the limited intervention addressing CT disposition challenges, scholars are yet to study the problem, especially in developing countries.Methods: In view of that, we assessed how CT disposition can be improved among students enrolled in cognitive-behavioral reflective training programme (CBRT-P) using a group-randomized control study with three months follow-up. To achieve this, 163 students were allocated to different groups. The recruited participants were exposed to CBRT-P.Results: Repeated-measures analysis performed shows that at the posttest, the mean CT disposition scores of the participants enrolled in CBRT-programme (treatment group) were significantly greater compared to the counterpart group that is the comparison group. At the third assessment, the mean score of the dependent measure consistently remained higher in favor of the experimental group. Conclusion:Given the results, it is concluded that the treatment programme improves the CT disposition of students over time.Abbreviations: CBRT = cognitive-behavioral reflective training, CT = critical thinking, CTDI-M = critical thinking disposition inventory for Chinese medical college students, F = value from analysis of variance test, M = mean, SD = standard deviation.