Critical Thinking in the Undergraduate Classroom: Attitudes and Preferences from Emerging and Adult Learners

One of the primary goals of higher education is to improve student critical thinking. Critical thought is a key factor in career readiness, a tool for survival that can enable one to escape oppression, and is ultimately a component of civic engagement. Even with this import, significant gains in critical thinking prove challenging to accomplish in the undergraduate setting. There is a growing body of research detailing which instructional interventions are most promising. While these studies have expanded our understanding of critical thinking instruction in the undergraduate classroom, there is scant data on undergraduate perceptions and preferences toward it. What is more, existing studies predominantly focus on traditionally aged, emerging adult learners. The number of adult undergraduate learners, however, is growing. Undergraduate students are not empty vessels. They arrive in classrooms with life experiences, individual and group identities, and pre-conceptions about the world. Students process classroom instruction in light of these factors. Individual and group identity factors can aid or inhibit a learner’s ability to engage with and assimilate course information. Emerging adulthood is markedly a time for identity exploration and instability. Adulthood, on the other hand, is not. Ultimately, these differences could factor into differential attitudes, preferences, and needs for critical thinking instruction for the two life stages. The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes and preferences of undergraduate learners, both emerging and adult, toward critical thinking instruction in the college classroom. Critical thinking instruction is typically less common, less explicit, or ill-defined in the undergraduate classroom. This investigation provides context and additional perspective with emerging and adult student voices and experiences in mind. Findings suggest that undergraduate learners had few classroom experiences with critical thinking instruction. These experiences, both positive and negative, informed the undergraduate learners’ attitudes and preferences for critical thinking instruction. Accordingly, learners’ sense of identity played an important role in their perspectives on critical thinking. Some identity components inhibited learners’ abilities to engage in critical thinking. Participants defined and self-identified life stages aligned with the theory of emergent adulthood, with some notable exceptions. Additional differences in life stage and religiosity appeared to coincide with the perceived acceptability of course topics. Undergraduate attitudes and preferences for critical thinking instruction aligned with research prescribed instructional interventions. These perceptions, however, added to the missing context and nuance in the literature. The implications from this study indicate that critical thinking instruction is just as nuanced as the students themselves. Due to this nuance and complexity, critical thinking instruction requires training and practice. Additionally, just as learning is both an individual and social endeavor, critical thinking also appears to have both individual and social elements. Greater research into this interplay could deepen our understanding of this phenomenon. Undergraduate adult learners in this study reported significant exploration in some areas of their identity. Additional inquiry into this phenomenon is needed, as returning adult undergraduate learners could be different in this way from adults engaging in other forms of adult learning. Identity exploration could impact the learning process. The interplay between identity, politics, and religiosity appeared to greatly influence some participants’ ability to engage in critical thought. This reticence is unaccounted for in the undergraduate critical thinking literature and deserves greater scrutiny as well

Gerard Albert Mourou, UM College of Engineering, 1988

(shared 2018 Nobel prize for physics for work on lasers

William Mumler (image)

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61112/1/2703.pd

Role of prothrombin 19911 A > G polymorphism, blood group and male gender in patients with venous thromboembolism:Results of a German cohort study

The role of the A>G polymorphism at position 19911 in the prothrombin gene (factor [F] 2 at rs3136516) as a risk factor for venous thromboembolism [VTE] is still unclear. To evaluate the presence of the F2 polymorphism in VTE patients compared to healthy blood donors and to adjust the results for common inherited thrombophilias [IT], age at onset and blood group [BG], and to calculate the risk of VTE recurrence. We investigated 1012 Caucasian patients with a diagnosis of VTE for the presence of the F2 rs3136516 polymorphism and compared these with 902 healthy blood donors. Odds ratios [OR] together with their 95% confidence intervals were calculated adjusted for F5 at rs6025, F2 at rs1799963, blood group, age and gender. In addition, we evaluated the risk of recurrent VTE during patient follow-up calculating hazard ratios [HR] together with their 95% CI. Compared with the AA wildtype, the F2 GG and AG genotypes (rs3136516) were associated with VTE (OR 1.48 and 1.45). The OR in F5 carriers compared to controls was 5.68 and 2.38 in patients with F2 (rs1799963). BG "non-O" was significantly more often diagnosed in patients compared to BG "O" (OR 2.74). VTE recurrence more often occurred in males (HR 2.3) and in carriers with combined thrombophilia (HR 2.11). Noteworthy, the rs3136516 polymorphism alone was not associated significantly with recurrence. In Caucasian patients with VTE the F2 GG/GA genotypes (rs3136516) were moderate risk factors for VTE. Recurrence was associated with male gender and combined thrombophilia