degrees in thinking in thinking: increasing students’ workplace readiness with critical thinking...

Degrees In Thinking: Increasing Students’ Workplace Readiness With Critical Thinking University

TalentLens Team

John Maketa, Director Strategic Alliances & Business Development: [email protected] Harris, Critical Thinking University Product Manager: [email protected]

Report Prepared by Dr. Judy Chartrand, Consulting Chief Scientist: [email protected]

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Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliate(s). All rights reserved.888.298.6227 | TalentLens.com

When it comes to higher education, educational institutions, accrediting bodies, students, and employers all agree—students need to develop better critical thinking skills.

“Providing graduates with the ability to think about and analyze complex problems is by far the most

important goal of postsecondary institutions” according to a recent survey of educational institutions

and organizations1. Accreditation associations agree. For example, the recently released standards

for business schools clearly emphasize critical thinking skills, such as “ethical understanding and

reasoning”, “analytical thinking”, “reflective thinking”, and “application of knowledge”2.

Ironically, at a time when recent graduates are struggling to find work, employers are struggling

to find people who can do the work. On the corporate side, critical thinking is one of the most

sought after skills in the workplace, yet demand far outweighs supply. In a recent survey of

3,481 HR professionals, critical thinking/problem solving was identified as the top skills gap for

job applicants3. On the supply side, young adults recognize the important role critical thinking

plays in securing a job, but note that they didn’t have enough opportunity to develop it in school4.

How can all of these stakeholder groups work together to create the type of employees

organizations desperately need, the ones who can organize and evaluate information and make

good judgments? How can schools give their students a competitive advantage in a tight job

market? Educational institutions across the country are looking for solutions—new ways to teach

critical thinking, measure student learning, and demonstrate efficacy. The challenge is identifying

the best practices and incorporating them into the curriculum on a systematic basis. Across most

institutions, the majority of educators have not been formally trained on critical thinking, they do

not know where critical thinking best fits into the curriculum, or where to access quality educational

resources, and as a result, they are not in the best position to teach others or to evaluate the most

effective teaching models.

Proficiency in reading, writing, and arithmetic has traditionally been the entry-level threshold to the job market, but the new workplace requires more from its employees. Employees need to think critically, solve problems, innovate, collaborate, and communicate more effectively and at every level within an organization. American Management Association, 2010 Critical Skills Survey

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The Solution Involves Explicitly Teaching Skills of Critical Thinking

Faculty who assign students to analyze an issue or compare and contrast opposing views are

encouraging deeper thinking, but these exercises will not yield the same results as explicitly

teaching critical thinking skills. Diane Halpern5, a national leader in critical thinking education,

stresses the importance of an explicit framework and skill set within which students can learn

critical thinking skills. This instructional strategy of teaching critical thinking includes:

• A model or framework of critical thinking to organize and expedite learning

• Directing learning activities in ways that increase probability of knowledge transfer

• Encouraging a disposition toward effortful thinking

• Making meta-cognitive monitoring explicit

• Providing opportunities for deeper learning (reflection, application, guided discussion)

Learning to think critically to the extent that the skill can be applied in a new situation (e.g.,

work setting) requires a comprehensive approach to skill acquisition. A tool recently developed

by Pearson TalentLens, the Critical Thinking University, incorporates Halpern’s recommended

A model or framework that organizes learning

Directing learning activities in ways that increase probability of

knowledge transfer

Encourage a disposition towards effortful thinking;

make meta-cognitive monitoring explicit;

provide opportunities for deeper learning

RED Model: Recognize Assumptions, Evaluate Information, Draw Conclusions

For each lesson, students watch videos of real life scenarios and then respond

to questions

Journal questions are presented throughout CTU, giving students

numerous opportunities to think about their learning process. Ideas exchange exchange is where members of CTU

exchange ideas to foster learning

Best Practice CTU Design CTU Graphic

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instructional strategies. The CTU is an online, self-paced program that stresses student-centered

learning via multimedia delivery and social learning activities. The curriculum, which takes about

18-25 hours to complete, is organized around a critical thinking model that emphasizes knowledge

comprehension first, followed by application. Journal writing, reflection questions, application

exercises, and guided discussion all promote deeper learning and increase the student’s ability to

transfer “academic” knowledge to real world situations.

The CTU was designed for early career professionals, with application exercises and activities

that are relevant for employees who are relatively new (1-5 years) to the workplace. Employees

across industries (e.g., finance, manufacturing, healthcare) have participated in the CTU and

have consistently shown significant gains in critical thinking skills.

Moving CTU into Higher Education

An opportunity arose to evaluate the effectiveness of the CTU in higher education, thanks

to a request from a professor who wanted to better prepare his students (mostly juniors) for

internships and work. A business school at a large public university decided to pilot the CTU by

integrating it in three sections of an undergraduate ethics course that is required of all business

students. Through the CTU, students learned a critical thinking model, specific critical thinking

skills, and how to apply those skills in the workplace. Social interaction and guided feedback

(by CTU content managers) engaged students and facilitated peer learning. These capabilities

allowed the instructor to use a blended learning approach in which classroom time was used to

deepen learning and workplace application through discussion and reflection.

Student learning was evaluated in several ways. A pre-post test design was used to measure

learning of critical thinking concepts. Gain scores were large and statistically significant, t

(134) = 14.88,p < .01, d = 1.28, which indicates that students did acquire knowledge and

increase comprehension. However, the goal was to push students to an even higher level of

learning that reflects acquisition of meta-cognitive skills and ability to translate learning into

daily applications. To this end, students were asked to provide an evaluation of CTU and their

own level of learning (note: this feedback was independent of course requirements or grade)

and 80 students complied. As shown in the table, an impressive 90% reported that their CTU

experience made them more aware of their thought processes, which suggests increased meta-

cognitive monitoring. Although students had just finished the CTU, 70% said they were already

using the concepts that they had learned when making decisions or solving problems. Consistent

with the pre-post test results, 88% reported that CTU helped them understand critical thinking

skills. Finally, 83% found the content in the CTU curriculum interesting and engaging. Individual

student comments were also compelling, as many students shared how they were using their

critical thinking skills in group work, to approach their career, and to gain internships.

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One Student’s Perspective – Bryan Loftus

Having completed the CTU course, I have come to understand that this experience was not meant

to simply provide us with the terms and definitions associated with the material; it was meant to

improve the way we interpret, utilize, and comprehend various sources of information so that

we may develop more accurate and sound conclusions to make stronger decisions. For me, this

helped to enhance my way of analyzing and discerning useful information, a critical thinking skill

that will benefit me in many areas outside of this course. With better decision-making skills, we can

gain credibility and respect in our academic, professional, and personal lives.

The most challenging, yet enjoyable, aspect of the CTU was its use of open-ended questions to get

participants more involved in the course work. These stimulating questions forced us to think very

deeply on the benefits, costs, and consequences of various situations and dilemmas, but supplied

us with the individualized freedom to rationalize our decisions through our own points-of-view.

The lack of one-word, concrete answers throughout the course definitely made the material more

thought provoking and challenging, but it ultimately helped to benefit us as we became more

engaged in the material on a personal level.

The CTU experience has greatly reshaped the way I accept information. Growing up in the

Information Era, I tend to embrace various sources of information with little skepticism. Having

learned how to recognize such things as assumptions, unstated biases, missing information, and

persuasion techniques, I have come to develop a better understanding of how best to identify

incomplete information and to employ this useful skill to my advantage. That is, by more efficiently

distinguishing between accurate and inaccurate information, I can begin to formulate more

evidence-based and relevant conclusions that can assist in all aspects of learning.

The CTU

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

88%

5%

6%

70%

20%

10%

90%

3%

6%

83%

7%

10%

Helped me understand critial

thinking skills

Helped me in decision making and

Problem Solving

Made me more aware of my

thought processes

Courses were interesting and

engaging

5


Summary

The CTU example shows that critical thinking can be learned and applied. If the goal is to make a

nationwide impact and improve students’ ability to think critically when they enter the workforce,

then explicit skills instruction needs to become an intrinsic part of the curriculum across educational

levels (K through post-secondary). Current practices are not systemic, and all too often, result in

transitory learning. In addition, as students get closer to entering the workforce, more emphasis

needs to be placed on work-relevant application to insure skill transfer6.

The good news is that everyone agrees that more needs to be done, and having stakeholders

in agreement is a powerful base from which to begin. The next steps involve identifying quality

resources to support educators, reaching agreement on when and how to integrate critical

thinking into the curriculum, and having much deeper discussions between corporate human

resource departments and post-secondary educators on what critical thinking looks like in the

work setting. These steps are straightforward and action holds the promise of better prepared

employees and citizens.

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References

1. Postsecondary Education in the 21st Century: Students & Institutions (2011). Research

Division of Atlantic Media Company, commissioned by University of Phoenix, June 2011.

Atlantic Media Inc.

2. AACSB International - Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (2013).

Eligibility Procedures and Accreditation Standards for Business Accreditation (adopted April

8, 2013), 1-50.

3. The ongoing impact of the recession series. @shrm.org. Society for Human Resource

Management. March 13, 2013.

4. 21st Century skills and the workplace: A 2013 Microsoft Partners in Learning and Pearson

Foundation Study. Gallup, Inc., May 28, 2013.

5. Halpern, D.F. (1998). Teaching critical thinking for transfer across domains: Dispositions

skills, structure training, and meta-cognitive monitoring. American Psychologist, 53 (4), 449-455.

Marin, L. M & Halpern, D. F. (20911). Pedagogy for developing critical thinking in

adolescents: Explicit instruction produces greatest gains. Thinking and Creativity, 6, 1-13

6. Chartrand, Judy. “The Great Divide: Post Secondary Education and Workforce Readiness.”

@ThinkWatson.com. Pearson TalentLens. May 13, 2103.

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