Effects of Campus Culture on Students' Critical Thinking

Tsui, Lisa

doi:10.1353/rhe.2000.0020

Cited by 80 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Some studies also suggest campus culture and out-of-class experiences may play a role in the improvement of critical thinking (Tsui, 2000;Terenzini, Springer, Pascarella, & Nora, 1995). According to these studies, by participating in college courses and college life, students experience a significant improvement in their overall critical thinking abilities (Pascarella, 1987;Terenzini, Springer, Pascarella, & Nora, 1995).…”

Section: State Of Critical Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation of the State of Creativity and Critical Thinking in Engineering Undergraduates

Sola¹,

Hoekstra²,

Fiore³

et al. 2017

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The goal of an undergraduate engineering education is to provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills needed to solve real world problems. Creativity and critical thinking are two abilities essential for success in the workplace, and are highly sought after by employers. However, there is evidence of decreasing creativity and critical thinking in senior engineering students. This study sought to understand if freshman engineering students are measurably more creative, but less capable of critical thinking, than senior undergraduate engineering students. Creativity and critical thinking were measured using the Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production (TCT-DP) and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA), respectively. The data suggest that freshman engineering students were significantly more creative than senior engineering students. However, senior engineering students were found to be no better at critical thinking than their freshman counterparts. When compared to normative data, the senior engineering students underperformed significantly compared to the general population of senior college students. With study limitations in mind, these findings may suggest that senior engineering students are not only less creative, but also less capable of critical thinking, than when they started their engineering program. If this is indeed the appropriate conclusion, then there is a need to understand the underlying issues driving the decline of creativity and critical thinking in engineering undergraduate students.

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Section: State Of Critical Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation of the State of Creativity and Critical Thinking in Engineering Undergraduates

Sola¹,

Hoekstra²,

Fiore³

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although student activism represents an efective way of supporting critical thinking, collaboration, organizing, citizenship, identity consciousness, civic engagement, and leadership skills in students through a democratic process [22,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36], students are often excluded from inluencing decision-making in HEIs [23]. This results from the fact that student activists are often viewed as troublemakers who are being manipulated by political igures [37].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Students often beneit when given responsibilities and opportunities to participate in decision-making as it is preparation for their future leadership roles [60]. Involvement in the decision-making process inculcates critical thinking [36], self-direction skills, and commitment in students [29], thereby motivating them [67]. Student activism is a critical developmental aspect of the learning process [68].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Student Voice: Embracing Student Activism as a Quality Improvement Tool in Higher Education

Garwe¹

2017

Global Voices in Higher Education

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This chapter illustrates how student activism, taken in the context of the student voice, can be harnessed as a way of enhancing the quality of educational provision in higher education. Agenda 2063 of the African Commission recognizes equitable access to quality higher education as critical for national development. In the face of an increase in student protests and the resultant destruction of infrastructure and human life, it becomes imperative to ind ways of creating positive and innovative teaching and learning environments that take full advantage of student activism. The chapter draws on existing literature on student activism and the value of student voice to inform the development of a model for incorporating the "student voice" as a way of harnessing the positive aspects of student activism.

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“…The focus on exploration of the unknown as a key learning objective of all FAED programs is likely to support the development of the 'meta-knowing competences' involved in critical thinking by challenging students to test their epistemological understanding and practice their metacognitive skills (Tsui 2000). Furthermore, it is probable that the general emphasis on exploring what is unknown has influenced the teaching orientations of lecturers across the faculty.…”

Section: Epistemological Orientation Of the Facultymentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing departmental culture to support student development: evidence from a case study in Rwanda

Schendel

2016

High Educ

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In recent years, there have been numerous attempts to improve the quality of higher education in Africa, but there is limited knowledge about the impact of these initiatives on student learning. The results of a study published in 2015 offered some initial data in this regard by identifying a lack of improvement in the critical thinking ability of students enrolled at three of Rwanda's public universities, despite extensive pedagogical reforms across the sector. However, subsequent analysis of the study data suggests that this lack of improvement is not a general phenomenon, as students graduating from the KIST Faculty of Architecture and Environmental Design appear to exhibit deeper approaches to learning and stronger critical thinking skills than graduates with similar backgrounds from other Faculties involved in the study. This paper examines the factors that appear to have contributed to this outlying Faculty's success and argues that departmental culture has played a crucial role, by fostering the conditions necessary for pedagogical innovation.Keywords Critical thinking Á Pedagogy Á Higher education reform Á Higher education policy Á Architecture Á RwandaIn much of the literature on higher education in sub-Saharan Africa, there is an understandable preoccupation with low rates of enrollment, given that the most recent global statistics estimate a gross enrollment rate of 8.6 % for the region, in contrast to figures between 20 and 50 % for other regions in the Global South (UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2016). Although this focus on the challenge of access is a question of crucial concern, equally pressing is the issue of quality, as decades of limited funding for higher education from both international and domestic sources, combined with rapidly increasing & Rebecca Schendel

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Effects of Campus Culture on Students' Critical Thinking

Cited by 80 publications

References 18 publications

An Investigation of the State of Creativity and Critical Thinking in Engineering Undergraduates

An Investigation of the State of Creativity and Critical Thinking in Engineering Undergraduates

Student Voice: Embracing Student Activism as a Quality Improvement Tool in Higher Education

Constructing departmental culture to support student development: evidence from a case study in Rwanda

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