Methodologies for Fostering Critical Thinking Skills from University Students’ Points of View

Developing critical thinking skills appears to be a challenge for higher education institutions. However, little is known about the students’ points of view regarding the methodologies they consider to foster the development of this competence. To answer this question, a total of 263 Spanish university students participated in this study and were asked what they understood by critical thinking and the methodologies they considered to be the most effective for developing it. The results indicated that, based on students’ points of view, there were six methodologies that mainly contributed to developing critical thinking: Debates, project-based learning, practices in real contexts, doing research, cooperative learning, and case studies. These results were unanimous regardless of the student’s understanding of critical thinking: Analyzing/organizing, reasoning/arguing, questioning/asking oneself, evaluating, taking a position/taking a decision, compromising/acting. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications for teachers and educational institutions in relation to the development of critical thinking in higher education.The APC was funded by eDucaR research team through the University of Deusto/Basque Government Contract-Programme

A teachers’ based approach to assessing the perception of critical thinking in Education university students based on their age and gender

In the 21st century, critical thinking (CT) is regularly presented as one of the most important competences to be developed by a majority of educational institutions. Teachers are expected to change and enrich their teaching and learning methodologies so that students could face future challenges. Nonetheless, few are the instruments that measure the perception of critical thinking based on teachers’ conception. The aim of this study is to design and validate an instrument for the assessment of CT in university students based on the conception of CT that university teachers have. For this study, a total of 312 Spanish university students have participated. Based on a good model fit from a Confirmatory Factor Analysis and good reliability indices, the results provide strength to the theoretical model to evaluate critical thinking in university students formed by six dimensions (Analyzing/Organizing; Reasoning/Argumenting; Questioning/Asking oneself; Evaluating; Positioning /Taking decisions, and Acting /Committing oneself) and 42 items. Similarly, age was not a predictor variable for the different dimensions; while gender was statistically in favor of women in some of the dimensions, and tendentially, the dimension of Positioning/Taking decisions, in favor of men. However, despite these differences, the model guaranteed its factorial invariance. These findings have important pedagogical implications for universities in particular, and educational institutions in general, when developing curricula and teaching plans that focus on the development of students’ critical thinking.The publication has been funded by eDucaR research team through the University of Deusto/Basque Government Contract-Programme

RED. Revista de educación a distancia

Título, resumen y palabras clave en inglés y españolResumen basado en el de la publicaciónSe propone una secuencia de tareas de telecolaboración para el desarrollo de la Competencia Intercultural en el curriculum universitario. La propuesta podrá servir como referencia para futuras adaptaciones a diferentes contextos. La secuencia de tareas está actualmente pilotándose en dos proyectos de telecolaboración y se espera que los resultados puedan contribuir a su mejora.ES

El desarrollo de habilidades profesionales en los estudios de ingeniería en la UPV-EHU: ¿Aprendizaje Basado en Problemas o Proyectos?

Este artículo cuenta también con una versión en español[EN]In engineering education, when choosing methodologies to promote the development of professional skills that satisfy both, the requirements of the evaluation agencies and employers, two options, among others, are being considered: Problem-based learning (PBL) and Project-based learning (PjBL).However, there is a certain discrepancy in published research regarding to the suitability of applying one or other methodology, and about the way they should be integrated into the engineering academic programs. Moreover, no meta-analysis using a significant number of subjects has been found in the literature that quantitatively compares the influence of both methodologies to the development of professional skills. This study makes a first approach using the students' assessment of the methodologies, with a questionnaire, as common comparison test. A set of statistical tests of comparison of means values were conducted between two groups of students (PjBL and PBL students). The results show that project-based learning seems to have more influence to develop professional skills in engineering studies at the University of the Basque Country[ES]En los estudios de ingeniería, a la hora de elegir metodologías que promuevan el desarrollo de competencias profesionales que satisfagan tanto los37 requerimientos de las agencias de evaluación como de los empleadores, entre otras, se están barajando principalmente dos opciones: el Aprendizaje38 Basado en Problemas (ABP) y el Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABPY). Sin embargo, existe cierta discrepancia en las investigaciones39 publicadas en cuanto a la idoneidad de aplicar una u otra metodología, y la forma en la que se deben integrar en el programa académico. En la40 actualidad no se dispone de un metaanálisis realizado con un amplio número de asignaturas que comparen la diferencia entre las dos metodologías41 en el desarrollo de competencias profesionales de forma cuantitativa. Este estudio realiza una primera aproximación, utilizando la valoración de los42 estudiantes como prueba común de comparación, empleando para ello un cuestionario de elaboración propia. Se han llevado a cabo una serie de43 pruebas estadísticas de comparación de medias entre los dos grupos de estudiantes de la muestra (uno ABP y otro ABPY). Los resultados muestran44 que el aprendizaje basado en proyectos parece tener más influencia en el desarrollo de competencias profesionales que el ABP en los estudios de45 ingeniería de la Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU