Critical Thinking Skills in Research Process, a Literature Review. An Input to Propose a New Measurement Instrument to Gauge Critical Thinking

Abstract

Critical thinking is crucial in research skills because it enables individuals to make better decisions, solve problems, and understand complex issues. For this reason, enhancing it at all educational levels is essential. This study aimed to perform a meta-analysis of the most common critical thinking skills (CTS). This was carried out through a systematic literature review based on the methodology of Barbara Kitchenham. The review revealed 29 articles that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The outcomes showed that the most featured critical thinking skills are analysis, interpretation, evaluation, inference, and self-regulation. Findings, also demonstrate that 83% of the different teaching methodologies applied at different educational institutions, clearly, contribute to develop students´ CTS. Critical thinking skills training for teachers and students, gender analysis, application of new strategies to enhance critical thinking, and their subsequent evaluation are some of the current challenges and future areas of research, which are essential for further advancement of this topic. Based on these inputs, we propose innovative ideas to tailor a new measurement instrument to assess CTS that will give guidelines on stimulating critical thinking as a skill in the research process for Ecuador's higher education students; it mainly contains three phases, initiation, inference and assumption.