Do instructional interventions influence college students’ critical thinking skills? A meta-analysis

Niu, Lian; Behar‐Horenstein, Linda S.; Garvan, Cynthia

doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2012.12.002

Cited by 163 publications

(123 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

109

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition to general critical thinking tests measuring a broad range of skills by using multiple choice items, another approach is to use essays or other forms of constructed measures (Butler & Halpern, 2011;Niu et al, 2013). In this study, the latter approach was selected as argumentative writing tasks, in particular, require the use of many critical thinking skills in the same task.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast to this common epistemic element is the claim that there is no unanimous definition of critical thinking (Flores, Matkin, Burbach, Quinn & Harding, 2012). Nevertheless, three common dimensions for critical thinking have been suggested, namely the ability to perform rational and reasonable thinking, the ability to see alternative viewpoints, and the ability to reflect on one's own thinking and its quality (Niu et al, 2013;Flores et al, 2012).Like the definitions of critical thinking, the research results on learning critical thinking skills as an outcome of university studies are also conflicting. In some studies, participation in higher education has been found to develop certain elements of students' critical thinking, that is, the ability to approach problems from various viewpoints (Kim, Sharma, Land & Furlong, 2013), and to evaluate knowledge and make informed judgments (Wass, Harland & Mercer, 2011).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence it is not surprising that university students' critical thinking skills have been widely studied (e.g., reviews by Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005;Niu, Behar-Horenstein & Garvan, 2013), and also that various definitions of critical thinking have been proposed. For example, Elder and Paul (2010) define critical thinking as a process of assessing and analyzing one's own thinking with the aim of improving it, whereas Ennis (1993) conceptualizes critical thinking as reasonable reflective thinking, aiming at deciding what to believe or not.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

University Applicants’ Critical Thinking Skills: The Case of the Finnish Educational Sciences

Utriainen

Marttunen

Kallio

et al. 2016

Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study investigates the quality of the critical thinking skills of applicants (n=77) seeking entry to the faculty of educational sciences in a Finnish university and how these skills are associated with the applicant's age, previous higher education experience and matriculation and entrance examination scores. The data consist of the applicants' responses to problem-solving tasks and their matriculation and entrance examination scores. Critical thinking skills were measured with comparison and argumentation tasks. The results indicate that comparison of the texts and analysis of the arguments they contained were more difficult tasks than putting forward arguments both for and against of one's personal standpoint. In addition, previous experience of higher education predicted participants' comparison skills and their matriculation examination grades predicted their argumentation skills. The feasibility of using critical comparison tasks in the entrance examination tests is discussed.Keywords: critical thinking, argumentation, entrance examination, academic achievement, higher education 3Critical thinking and well-developed argumentation skills are commonly seen as important from the civic participation perspective (Arum & Roksa, 2011;Kuhn, 2005;Williams, Foster & Krohn, 2008), and are also regarded as key learning outcomes by higher education institutions (Halpern, 2001). Hence it is not surprising that university students' critical thinking skills have been widely studied (e.g., reviews by Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005;Niu, Behar-Horenstein & Garvan, 2013), and also that various definitions of critical thinking have been proposed. For example, Elder and Paul (2010) define critical thinking as a process of assessing and analyzing one's own thinking with the aim of improving it, whereas Ennis (1993) conceptualizes critical thinking as reasonable reflective thinking, aiming at deciding what to believe or not. These definitions highlight the importance of knowledge and its justification in conceptions of critical thinking. Ennis (2008) has labeled views of this kind as epistemic approaches to the conception of critical thinking, since they share the purpose of finding the truth or at least the closest approximation to it. In contrast to this common epistemic element is the claim that there is no unanimous definition of critical thinking (Flores, Matkin, Burbach, Quinn & Harding, 2012). Nevertheless, three common dimensions for critical thinking have been suggested, namely the ability to perform rational and reasonable thinking, the ability to see alternative viewpoints, and the ability to reflect on one's own thinking and its quality (Niu et al., 2013;Flores et al., 2012).Like the definitions of critical thinking, the research results on learning critical thinking skills as an outcome of university studies are also conflicting. In some studies, participation in higher education has been found to develop certain elements of students' critical thinking, that is, the ability to approach problems from various...

show abstract

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

University Applicants’ Critical Thinking Skills: The Case of the Finnish Educational Sciences

Utriainen

Marttunen

Kallio

et al. 2016

Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Niu et al (2013) considered whole academic degree program as "holistic approach". Due to its long duration of non-obvious and indirect instruction, holistic approach is discussed independently of the other instructional approaches.…”

Section: Theory and Practice In Language Studies 1273mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Exploration into Research on Critical Thinking and Its Cultivation: An Overview

Wang¹

2017

TPLS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract-The intellectual root of critical thinking can trace back to Socratics in ancient Greece. Since then, a variety of conceptions and models have been proposed, which constitute the theoretic core of critical thinking. They place different weights on different aspects of critical thinking. In the meantime, the cultivation of critical thinking commenced when Socrates attempted to apply theories of critical thinking into the instruction. Consequently, a variety of instruction approaches and strategies and assessment of critical thinking have been developed. However, there is still a dispute on whether critical thinking can be developed independently of subject content. The paper attempts to review research on critical thinking with the aim to discover commonalities and clarify the subtle differences among diversities of conceptions, models, instruction approaches and strategies, and assessment. The discovery and clarification could be significant for the instruction of critical thinking, especially, conducted in non-western countries. Index Terms-critical thinking, theoretic core, critical thinking instruction, critical thinking assessmentThe research on critical thinking can date back to Socratic time in ancient Greece. Since then, a variety of definitions, models and theories on critical thinking have been developed. The intellectual development of critical thinking is in parallel with its instruction which commenced when Socrates attempted to instruct people how to justify their confident claims to knowledge. The variation of definitions, models and theories which leads to a variety of the instruction approaches and strategies, and assessment of critical thinking requires the discovery of the threads among them. The paper aims to explore the commonalities and clarify differences among the various conceptions, models, instruction approaches and strategies for the purpose to facilitate the development of critical thinking in non-western culture. The discovery and clarification would be significant for the instruction of critical thinking conducted in non-western countries, in particular, Confucian culture. It includes two general topics: theoretical background of critical thinking and critical thinking instruction.

show abstract

Improving Students' Critical Thinking: Empirical Support for Explicit Instructions Combined with Practice

Heijltjes

Gog

Paas

2014

Applied Cognitive Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This experiment investigated the impact of different types of critical thinking instruction and dispositions on bias in economics students' (N = 141) reasoning performance. The following conditions were compared: (A) implicit instruction; (B) implicit instruction with practice; (C) implicit instruction with explicit instruction and practice; (D) implicit instruction with explicit instruction, practice, and self-explanation prompts; and (E) implicit instruction with explicit instruction, practice, and activation prompts. Results showed that explicit instruction combined with practice is required to improve critical thinking (i.e., conditions A/ B < C/D/E). Prompting during practice had no added performance benefits. Participants' dispositions toward actively openminded thinking predicted their pre-test and post-test scores but did not interact with instruction condition, suggesting that receiving explicit instruction combined with practice was equally effective for all students.

show abstract

Do instructional interventions influence college students’ critical thinking skills? A meta-analysis

Cited by 163 publications

References 46 publications

University Applicants’ Critical Thinking Skills: The Case of the Finnish Educational Sciences

University Applicants’ Critical Thinking Skills: The Case of the Finnish Educational Sciences

An Exploration into Research on Critical Thinking and Its Cultivation: An Overview

Improving Students' Critical Thinking: Empirical Support for Explicit Instructions Combined with Practice

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About