The Effects of Teaching Critical Thinking Persist Over Time

[EN]The aim of the work is to determine whether the skills of critical thinking persist over time; i.e., whether they endure after training. To accomplish this, we carried out a follow-up study of a sample instructed in critical thinking four years previously. We applied an instruction program, ARDESOS, to this sample and assessed the improvement in the basic skills of critical thinking. After checking the improvement in competencies we re-appraised it four years later. The results show that once the students’ university studies had been completed these competencies persisted and even improved with respect to those acquired after instruction in all the dimensions of critical thinking except one. Here we detail the whole process of evaluation and the results obtained

Critical thinking, Formation, and Change

[EN]In this paper, we propose an application of critical thinking (CT) to real-world problems, taking into account personal well-being (PB) and lifelong formation (FO). First, we raise a substantial problem with CT, which is that causal explanation is of little importance in solving everyday problems. If we care about everyday problems, we must treat the identification of causal relationships as a fundamental mechanism and action as a form of solution once the origin of the problem is unequivocally known. Decision-making and problem-solving skills should be the execution of the causal explanations reached. By acting this way, we change reality and achieve our goals, which are none other than those imposed by our PB. However, to achieve changes or results, we must have these fundamental competencies in CT, and these are not innate; we must acquire and develop them, that is, we must train ourselves to have CT competencies according to the demands of today’s world. Finally, in this paper we propose a causal model that seeks to identify and test the causal relationships that exist between the different factors or variables that determine the CT-PB-FO relationship. We present some results on the relevance of causality and how to effectively form and address real-world problems from causality. However, there are still questions to be clarified that need to be investigated in future studies

Evaluation of the effectiveness of the ARDESOS-DIAPROVE critical thinking training programme

[EN]The changes of the 21st century arising from globalisation and technology have led to a transformation both in the professional and the personal environment. Today's highly complex world demands a more in-depth way of thinking in order to adapt to these changes. In this paper, a training system has been proposed to address these issues. In recent years, our team has progressively developed a programme for teaching critical thinking to university students, obtaining very positive results in the improvement of these skills. Our experience over the years has enabled us to modify and improve the ARDESOS programme. These modifications include the addition of a new methodology called DIAPROVE. The new approach is based on primarily working on the diagnostic, prognostic, and verification procedures. Our general objective in this study was to improve critical thinking skills using the latest version of our training programme. We have implemented this programme to see if it produced the desired changes in terms of the magnitude of effect and generalisation of skills. The effectiveness of previous versions had already been demonstrated in different studies, and our aim in this study was to show whether this latest version of the programme (DIAPROVE) substantially improved the effectiveness of the teaching of transversal thinking skills. The PENCRISAL test was the tool used to evaluate the level of improvement. To verify our hypotheses, we used a quasi-experimental design involving a control and an experimental group. Pre/post intervention measures were taken in order to determine the changes in learning. The results show that the experimental group significantly improved its performance in critical thinking for the control group, both globally and in each of the dimensions; in addition, a significant interaction effect was obtained, which further supports our starting hypothesis

New teaching techniques to improve critical thinking. The DIAPROVE methodology

[EN]The objective of this research is to ascertain whether new instructional techniques can improve critical thinking. To achieve this goal, two different instruction techniques (ARDESOS, -group 1- and DIAPROVE, -group 2-) were studied and a pre-post assessment of critical thinking in various dimensions such as argumentation, inductive reasoning, causal, analogic, and deductive reasoning, decision-making and problem-solving was conducted. The results show that both forms of instruction functioned as expected. Both groups improved in all the dimensions of critical thinking. However the group with the new technique was only better in two dimensions with respect to group 1, namely in deductive and inductive reasoning, but not in problem-solving and decision-making. One possible reason accounting for this discrepancy was our inability to implement the new methodology in all dimensions, such that it was applied where there was greater improvement in group 2 than in group 1. The implications of this study are important because they allow us to know which new variables are crucial for instructional methodology

Metacognitive strategies and development of critical thinking in higher education.

[EN]More and more often, we hear that higher education should foment critical thinking. The new skills focus for university teaching grants a central role to critical thinking in new study plans; however, using these skills well requires a certain degree of conscientiousness and its regulation. Metacognition therefore plays a crucial role in developing critical thinking and consists of a person being aware of their own thinking processes in order to improve them for better knowledge acquisition. Critical thinking depends on these metacognitive mechanisms functioning well, being conscious of the processes, actions, and emotions in play, and thereby having the chance to understand what has not been done well and correcting it. Even when there is evidence of the relation between metacognitive processes and critical thinking, there are still few initiatives which seek to clarify which process determines which other one, or whether there is interdependence between both. What we present in this study is therefore an intervention proposal to develop critical thinking and meta knowledge skills. In this context, Problem-Based Learning is a useful tool to develop these skills in higher education. The ARDESOS-DIAPROVE program seeks to foment critical thinking via metacognition and Problem-Based Learning methodology. It is known that learning quality improves when students apply metacognition; it is also known that effective problem-solving depends not only on critical thinking, but also on the skill of realization, and of cognitive and non-cognitive regulation. The study presented hereinafter therefore has the fundamental objective of showing whether instruction in critical thinking (ARDESOS-DIAPROVE) influences students’ metacognitive processes. One consequence of this is that critical thinking improves with the use of metacognition. The sample was comprised of first-year psychology students at Public University of the North of Spain who were undergoing the aforementioned program; PENCRISAL was used to evaluate critical thinking skills and the Metacognitive Activities Inventory (MAI) for evaluating metacognition. We expected an increase in critical thinking scores and metacognition following this intervention. As a conclusion, we indicate actions to incentivize metacognitive work among participants, both individually via reflective questions and decision diagrams, and at the interactional level with dialogues and reflective debates which strengthen critical thinking

Relation between metacognitive strategies, motivation to think, and critical thinking skills

[EN] Critical thinking is a complex reasoning skill, and even though it is hard to reach a consensus on its definition, there is agreement on it being an eminently cognitive skill. It is strongly related with reflective and metacognitive skills, as well as attitudinal or motivational aspects, although no model has yet been able to integrate these three elements. We present herein the preliminary results of a study seeking to establish these relations, in a sample of Chilean university students. 435 students from three universities participated, of which 88 were men, 333 were women, and 14 did not indicate their gender. Their ages ranges between 18 and 51  years old (M  =  21, SD  =  3.09). Three instruments were applied, one to measure metacognitive strategies, one to measure motivation to critical thinking, and a third to measure critical thinking skills. The relation was analyzed via structural equations. The results show a positive, strong, and significant relation between metacognition and motivation to think. However, only a weak significant relation was observed between motivation to think and critical thinking, and no direct relation was found between metacognition and critical thinking. We hypothesize a significant but moderate relation between the variables, where metacognition influences motivation to think, which in turn influences critical thinking skills. Factors are discussed which could negatively affect the studied relations, as well as the importance of generating integrated models between the three variables, as they would show a theoretical and empirical link

Relation between metacognitive strategies, motivation to think, and critical thinking skills

[EN]Critical thinking is a complex reasoning skill, and even though it is hard to reach a consensus on its definition, there is agreement on it being an eminently cognitive skill. It is strongly related with reflective and metacognitive skills, as well as attitudinal or motivational aspects, although no model has yet been able to integrate these three elements. We present herein the preliminary results of a study seeking to establish these relations, in a sample of Chilean university students. 435 students from three universities participated, of which 88 were men, 333 were women, and 14 did not indicate their gender. Their ages ranges between 18 and 51  years old (M  =  21, SD  =  3.09). Three instruments were applied, one to measure metacognitive strategies, one to measure motivation to critical thinking, and a third to measure critical thinking skills. The relation was analyzed via structural equations. The results show a positive, strong, and significant relation between metacognition and motivation to think. However, only a weak significant relation was observed between motivation to think and critical thinking, and no direct relation was found between metacognition and critical thinking. We hypothesize a significant but moderate relation between the variables, where metacognition influences motivation to think, which in turn influences critical thinking skills. Factors are discussed which could negatively affect the studied relations, as well as the importance of generating integrated models between the three variables, as they would show a theoretical and empirical link

Nuevas técnicas de enseñanza para la mejora del pensamiento crítico

Memoria ID-0015. Ayudas de la Universidad de Salamanca para la innovación docente, curso 2014-2015

Critical Thinking and Everyday Problem Based Learning

[ES]El pensamiento crítico puede mejorar si va acompañado de algunas metodologías como el aprendizaje basado en problemas (ABP). Hemos desarrollado un programa de enseñar/aprender a pensar, al que hemos incorporado esta técnica, aplicándolo a un grupo de estudiantes universitarios. Los resultados obtenidos en rendimiento académico han sido muy satisfactorios. Con el fin de medir los cambios antes y después de la instrucción, se utilizó también una prueba de evaluación del pensamiento crítico (PENCRISAL), en donde se han podido comprobar igualmente unos buenos resultados. En el rendimiento académico hemos ido constatando el progreso en las diferentes dimensiones de pensamiento, a lo largo de todo el proceso de evaluación continua llevado a cabo. Las habilidades o dimensiones fundamentales instruidas han sido cinco: deducción, inducción, razonamiento práctico, toma de decisiones y solución de problemas. En todas ellas, el rendimiento ha sido notable. El estudio del nivel de competencia en el test PENCRISAL ha mostrado diferencias significativas en todas las dimensiones del mismo, en la comparación de las puntuaciones pre‐post. Las dimensiones del test son las mismas que las trabajadas en la instrucción y citadas anteriormente. En esas cinco dimensiones, ha habido cambios significativos en la medida postratamiento. En el futuro, incluiremos algunas modificaciones en el programa de instrucción y en la metodología de evaluación, fruto de la experiencia obtenida en este estudio. [EN]Critical thinking can be improved if accompanied by some methodologies like problem‐based learning (PBL). We have developed a program to teach / learn to think where we have incorporated this technique. We applied this program to group of college students with very satisfactory results as regards academic performance. We have also used a test of critical thinking (PENCRISAL) to measure changes before and after instruction. The results have also been reasonably good and meaningful. Academic performance improved significantly, and we verified this improvement along the whole process of continuous assessment that we carried out. The fundamental dimensions instructed are five: deduction, induction, practical reasoning, decision making and problem solving. The comparison of performance in the PENCRISAL test has shown significant differences in all dimensions when comparing pre‐ with post ‐scores. The dimensions of the test are the same as those worked during instruction and cited above. In these five dimensions, there have been significant changes in the post‐treatment measure. In the future, we will include some modifications in the program of instruction and assessment methodology. These changes are the result of the experience gained in this study