Promoting Critical-Thinking Skills By Using Negotiation Exercises

Abstract

Many writers argue thatit is necessary to develop critical thinking skills in business students because these skills are needed to deal with the increasing complexities of real-life problems.Although the goal appears to be laudable, it is not always clear how to go about achieving it. In this article, the authors describe active learning experiences in a course on business negotiations that serve the dual purpose of teaching students to negotiate and sharpen their critical-thinking skills.In the current atmosphere of resource constraints, it is unlikely that separate courses can be set up for improving critical-thinking skills. A course on business negotiations, suitably designed to incorporate appropriate active-learning experiences, is one way to promote higher order thinking skills.

Enhancing Critical Thinking by Teaching Two Distinct Approaches to Management

“…This is especially important for business schools, because the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has identified critical reflection as an important goal for accreditation (AACSB, 2008;Page & Mukherjee, 2007;Peach et al, 2007). Critical thinking is also important for business school graduates because research has shown that critical thinking is an essential skill for managers in all types of settings (Muller & Turner, 2010).…”

“…However, researchers still have a limited understanding of how critical thinking is enhanced in management education (e.g., Page & Mukherjee, 2007), and management students fail to recognize that critical reflection is a part of their education (Sampson, Moore, & Jackson, 2007). We contend that deliberately teaching students what management looks like from differing perspectives is one way to enhance students' critical thinking abilities (Dehler, Welsh, & Lewis, 2001;Ghoshal, 2005;Mintzberg, 2005;Pfeffer, 2005).…”

Organizational schemata of e-portfolios for fostering higher-order thinking

“…Critical thinking has been widely discussed in the business education literature (e.g., Kurfiss 1988;Jenkins 1998;Page and Mukherjee 2007;Peach et al 2007), but is often overstated to be overall higher-order thinking. In this study, critical thinking is the ability to explore a problem, integrate all the available information about it, derive a decision, and justify the decision (Warnick and Inch 1994;Plous 1993;Kida 2006).…”

Measuring student graduateness: reliability and construct validity of the Graduate Skills and Attributes Scale

“…It also includes the ability to be creative and proactive in problem solving; offering unique and novel ideas that add new knowledge and insights to a problem or situation; and the ability to make clear decisions that spur others on (Coetzee, 2012). Creative problem solving drives the business processes that facilitate innovation, flexibility and competitiveness (Yamoah, 2010) and demands critical thinking and confidence in decision-making (Page & Mukherjee, 2007).…”