Thesis (MEd)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Much of today’s classroom learning, particularly in the senior primary phase, focuses on activities whereby learners acquire facts and rules, employing only the lower levels of cognition: knowledge, comprehension and application (Sonn, 2000). In order to bridge the gap between the real and the ideal (Hartley, Bertram & Mattson, 1999) with regards to the development of critical and creative thinking, educators need to be trained and provided with the necessary tools and relevant teaching strategies to better align their teaching to the requirements of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). This research developed quantitative and qualitative instruments to investigate Grade 6 teachers’ understanding of creative and critical thinking before and after a professional learning community (PLC) intervention. The implementation of the PLC involved the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) programme’s generating tools, and was guided by Bourdieu’s social field theory. The aim of the intervention was to consider the shifts and changes that teachers might make in their teaching practices to purposely include the development of creative and critical thinking skills in their pedagogy. A pragmatic paradigm was utilized, focusing on methodological flexibility with the use of an explanatory sequential mixed method approach. Although this small, convenient sample excludes any statistical evidence, it does reflect that given time and support, teachers’ pedagogical habitus (see Feldman & Fataar, 2014) is adaptable. The meaningful, cooperative approach of the PLC and the development of creative and critical thinking skills, through the use of the creative problem solving programme, created the platform for change.

This study focuses on the potential contribution of new information communication technologies in higher education, in particular the use of microblogging, in transforming teaching practices to enhance critical thinking skills. Recognising the dearth of critical thinking skills in higher education and its importance in the cultivation of an engaged citizenry which is necessary for the creation of a vibrant and thriving democracy, the study seeks to investigate teaching practices in the higher education sector, utilizing the Community of Inquiry model to examine the possible iterative dialogues between lecturer and students in a first year class , in the form of microblogging posts , for evidence of potential critical engagement. In its finding , the study, whilst not being able to demonstrate significant evidence of higher order thinking, ascribed to the use of the of the microblogging activity , does however support the notion that the microblogging platform offers the potential for critical engagement but emphasizes that this potential , is to a very large degree, dependent on the adoption of appropriate and sound pedagogical strategies .

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The purpose of this study was to compare the flipped and traditional classroom pedagogies in relation to retention, critical thinking skills, and student engagement as measured by the multiple choice and short answer questions on the final exams, course evaluations, and CUCEI scores. Radiologic technologists, nuclear medicine technologists, and radiation therapists play vital roles in both diagnostic and therapeutic applications in patient care. Employers today are seeking graduates who know more, are better able to apply this knowledge, and solve more challenging problems (McLean, et al., 2016). This quasi-experimental study aimed to compare the flipped and traditional classroom pedagogies at increasing retention and critical thinking skills, as measured by final exams, and student engagement, as measured by course evaluations. The model was delivered and assessed for 61 radiation science students at Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Health Professions Radiation Science program. Based on numerical results for the final exam and College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI), no significant difference in critical thinking skills, retention, or student engagement was observed between the flipped and traditional pedagogies for radiation science students. For the purpose of this study, pedagogy referred to the application of a method of teaching, the flipped or traditional classroom, in relation to constructs of the Cognitive Learning Theory (CLT). For this study retention is defined as the amount of information that a student can retain for the length of a semester, 15 weeks. Critical thinking is defined as the students’ successful ability to take several concepts and put them together to make an analysis of a given situation. Student engagement for this study was defined as the level of attention and interest for the material being taught. Further analysis of the results indicated that the demographics (gender, age, years in college, and race) did not affect preference for flipped or traditional pedagogy. Statistically significant results on the CUCEI subcategories of satisfaction and innovation indicate that students found the flipped classroom more enjoyable and innovative than the traditional classroom. These results support professor exploration of different teaching pedagogies that they are comfortable with. Further studies are needed to ensure model validity and generalizability of findings.

This dissertation concerns the relationship between the symptomatology of depression and cognition. The purpose of this study was to investigate the assumptions of Beck's negative cognition theory regarding the relationship between patients' lack of ability to reason and depression. Beck noticed that people with depression failed to consciously examine the basis upon which their negative self-defeating reality is founded. This study examined a relationship between critical thinking skills and the need for cognition (the desire to think about ambiguous information) and levels of depression and education. The participants were 75 postsecondary undergraduate and graduate students from both online and traditional universities. This study used two-way between ANOVAs. The participants completed the Zung Self-Rating Depression scale and the Need for Cognition scale, as well as the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay test. The findings showed no significant differences in scores between those with symptoms of depression and those without in terms of critical thinking skills and need for cognition. A reanalysis was performed to remove outliers in the data, which resulted in finding significant differences between education level and the need for cognition. These findings may suggest that the participants' desire to apply effort to thinking about ambiguous information or problems is related to education level. These findings might help promote positive social change by suggesting that other researchers examine the relationship between critical thinking skills and depression to add to this conversation.

The thesis investigates activism in the context of an empowering teaching of economics in two educational settings: TAFE and university. The chosen research methodology is critical action research and the thesis is framed as an emergent process, incorporating critical reflection on the researcher's own assumptions from the outset.The study showed that critical reflection requires a continual process of critical questioning to explore and undercover deeply held assumptions and beliefs. A key finding is the significance of relationship within an atmosphere of openness and trust in enhancing critical reflection. A significant finding was the emergent distinction between 'critical reflection' and 'critical reflexivity' and a significant implication from investigating the process of reflexivity is that an important role for activism may be that of the 'relexive inquirer', the person who assists the deeper reflection, with no agenda other than to explore, to understand and to reveal deeper meanings. Activism may well offer empowerment of a very different kind - the freedom to experience the world free of materialist desire, valuing the building of communities through connectedness with others and the environment / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This qualitative research project explored the experiences of nurse educators who sought to assess aspects, which could be related to facilitation of emotional competence, in nursing students. Focus groups were conducted in three different educational institutions, offering a Bachelor of nursing degree. Each of the participants had a teaching and assessment role within the school of nursing. The contributions of the nurse educators and their interactions were audio taped, transcribed and then later, analysed using thematic and focus group analysis practices.From the analysis of the experiences of the nurse educators, four predominant themes arose which capture the areas of importance to the participants. Student nurses can develop emotional competence by critically reflecting during classroom and clinical experiences. Continuous consideration must be made within each practicing area of nursing, of the environmental and relational challenges which inhibit or facilitate nurse's ability to practice with emotional competence. Educators and practicing nurses, who work alongside students, must uphold the expectation that emotional competence is a requisite ability and provide opportunities to foster emotional growth and skills to resolve conflict within the culture of nursing.A common view shared by the educators was that the profession of nursing needs to have a clear understanding of what constitutes emotional competence. Strategies to realistically incorporate emotional competence into the educational curriculum and competency based assessment opportunities within nursing education are required.Suggestions are presented from which undergraduate nursing education can facilitate development of emotional competence with those students working toward becoming a registered nurse. Emotional competence is suggested as an essential learning outcome in the movement toward transformative nursing education and a collaborative nursing profession.

This qualitative research study investigated the expression of critical thinking in environmental subjects at university level in Australia. It also explored the strategies used by lecturers to encourage student critical thinking. Initially an open-ended questionnaire was sent to lecturers and tutors in universities across Australia and the responses from thirty participants were analysed thematically. From these participants semi-structured interviews were arranged with six lecturers and eight students from three different universities. The third phase of the research process involved analysing subject outlines and student assignments. Findings were triangulated to create a picture of the teaching and learning practices of critical thinking in this field. The three cases of Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering and Environmental Law were identified as having some common yet distinctively different themes in relation to critical thinking. In each discipline area three broad approaches to the expression of critical thinking were identified: scientific/technical, paradigmatic and reflective. The scientific/technical approach in science was most concerned with critique of experiments and studies, in engineering with problem solving and in law with the technical aspects of language and application of the law. The paradigmatic approach included critical analysis of the different theories, frameworks and paradigms of each subject. The reflective approach to critical thinking included students’ self evaluation of their learning within a specific subject. Notable differences between the three cases were the types of strategies used by lecturers to encourage student critical thinking. The Environmental Science lecturers were more inclined to use a wide variety of strategies, including provision of written material about critical thinking with critical thinking identified in marking criteria, discussion in class and guided exercises. The Environmental Engineering lecturers placed more emphasis on discussion in class than on providing written materials. The Environmental Law lecturers predominantly focused on the strategy of debating in class for the development of student critical thinking. The findings of this study are significant in providing support for the argument that development of critical thinking is subject specific rather than generic. This calls into question the use of generic skills testing for university graduates as a reliable measure of their ability to think critically in their field. The findings indicate that it is necessary for subject lecturers to be explicit with students about their expectations regarding critical thinking, particularly in relation to assessment. Findings suggest guidelines for lecturers including strategies and attitudes that encourage or hinder student critical thinking. Findings also suggest that the nature of the field of environmental and sustainability subjects lends itself to developing critical thinking, which is considered to be important.

This thesis sets for itself the task of testing the viability of a dialogic model of learning as a methodology for teaching critical thinking in reading and writing to undergraduate students of Thai in Thailand. To this end, we conducted an experiment involving twenty-one undergraduate students of Thai at KhonKaen University, Thailand. This study presents the intellectual background of the pedagogic framework supporting the experiment and a discussion of its outcomes. The assessment of the results of the experiment focuses on the forms of evidence resulting directly from this pedagogic framework. The study concludes with a number of considerations for future research in critical thinking which our project helped us to identify. For the purpose of our work, we adopt the model of dialogic learning which involves students in looking for perspectives enabling them to challenge, and as a result to enhance, the relevance of the understandings in which they frame their interactions. The process is dialogic because it involves students in working with different points of view by identifying challenging perspectives, constructing conflicting arguments and exploring the strategic potential that the interaction of these arguments may have on the students? initial assumptions. In this sense, the concept of dialogue that we use refers to the methodology of students? inquiry (learning), rather than a specific form of linguistic genre. In our view, this definition is suitable to all fields of inquiry considering that each field deals with evaluation of the strategic (enabling) power of its assumptions. In the course of this work, we establish the relevance of the above concept of dialogic inquiry against a multitude of ideas regarding the suitability of different approaches to the teaching of critical thinking. We illustrate that, typically, teaching approaches value questioning as a means for generating reasoned arguments. However, the originality of the dialogic model used in this thesis lies in its ability to focus pedagogic environments on students? strategic engagement in social interactions, rather than on the process of questioning alone. Consequently, in our study we assess the quality of students? learning by identifying the contexts indicating the quality of students? social engagement. These included gauging the community?s interest in the students? project, the depth of students? exploratory work, their ability to work together and students? own personal involvement in their project. These outcomes helped us to reflect on the quality of the teaching model which we designed in order to promote the critical thinking process. The emphasis on students? strategic engagement in social interactions allowed us to break away from the conventional concerns with the link between classroom learning and real-world tasks. Instead, our students engaged in the task of creating a Thai News Network (TNN), an Internet-based broadcasting channel, involving students in generating for themselves the meaning of the objectives of their academic subject in the contexts of challenges that they experienced when creating the channel and its (news) articles. Our data analysis shows that the concept of a Thai News Network proved very successful despite the conventional beliefs that Thai students would find it difficult to be critical thinkers. As we demonstrate throughout the entire thesis, the main issue in teaching critical thinking is not, as it is often assumed, to ask students to critique the teacher or other authority texts. Rather, it is to create conditions enabling students to identify, and to work with, conflicting perspectives in order to create for themselves increasingly better informed and more inclusive strategies for acting in the world. This may not be an original purpose, but our study offers an original pedagogic framework for facilitating this objective.

One of the key thrusts in Singapore’s Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) educational vision, launched in 1997, is the emphasis on critical thinking in schools. This entails pedagogical changes and challenges for teachers, especially, in terms of their knowledge, dispositions and practices of critical thinking, which are argued to be fundamental in fulfilling the TSLN thrust. Although TSLN is now 10 years into its implementation, to date, there has been little research undertaken to determine the efficacy of the implementation of the critical thinking policy thrust through the perspectives and voices of both teachers and students — the key stakeholders of education and the ultimate agents in the successful implementation of educational initiatives. Therefore, in gaining an in-depth understanding of teachers’ and students’ perspectives of the implementation of critical thinking from the ‘swampy lowlands’, a qualitative case study approach was used. Six government school teachers and their students participated in the case study and data were gathered through lesson observations, interviews, and the analysis of documents. / Findings suggest that a multitude of interrelated systemic and contextual factors, which are predisposed by underlying ‘technocratic and instrumental rationalities’ that govern Singaporean education, remain major barriers to the realisation of TSLN’s critical thinking thrust. The study found that there are gaps and uncertainties in the teachers’ knowledge base of critical thinking and that the incorporation of critical thinking as part of their pedagogy and classroom practice is marginal. Student data corroborate the general lack of emphasis and the limited role of critical thinking in the classroom and they indicate that the hegemony of both school curricula and high stakes examination perpetuate rote learning and didactic pedagogies. / Implications of the study suggest the need to reorientate teacher education and professional development programmes with the explicit aim of transforming teachers’ knowledge base and dispositions to engage with the pedagogical changes that TSLN’s critical thinking policy thrust necessitates. However, to effect deep change and realize the core aspiration of ‘thinking learners’, there must not only be restructuring; reculturing also needs to occur across and beyond the educational system. Importantly, such changes need to be primarily informed by the reconceptualisation of teachers — from mere ‘technicians’ to ‘transformative intellectuals’ — and teachers’ work — from ‘technical work’ to ‘intellectual work’. It is also vital that teachers who are entrusted with the task of developing ‘thinking learners’ under TSLN teach curricula and work in school contexts that explicitly encourage, value and reward critical thinking.