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Failure to rescue (FTR) outcomes may be one consequence of the relationship be-tween healthcare provider behaviors and attitudes, organizational factors, and environ-mental factors that intersect to potentially threaten patient safety. Early warning systems (EWS) were designed as surveillance systems to reduce failure to rescue events and avoid morbidity and mortality. Challenges with EWS include lack of standardization, organiza-tional barriers, such as culture and supports, and human factor attributes such as intuition, expertise, and experience. The experience and perceptions of nurses using EWS technolo-gy as it relates to their clinical assessment, critical thinking, and decision-making skills has yet to be undertaken. This study adds to the body of EWS and FTR literature and the broader culture of safety literature in acute care environments. The purposes of this exploratory qualitative descriptive study was to explore the experiences of nurses using EWS in acute care practice settings and how they perceive it impacts on their critical thinking and clinical decision-making processes. The study identi-fied three informative findings: a) EWS has added value particularly with novice nurses or nurses new to practice settings, b) EWS provides benefits to nurses working in acute clinical environments that experience high volumes and high acuity of patients by alerting or reminding them about potential FTR situations, and c) Existing EWS may require mod-ification to improve adequacy, reduce redundancy, and reduce alarm fatigue. Based on the evidence reviewed, a qualitative study to increase our understanding of the experi-ence of nurses and their perception of the impact of EWS and related technology on their critical thinking and other nursing practice processes has the potential to contribute to a wider evaluation of EWS systems and to improve patient outcomes. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Before patients on general medical or surgical hospital units become so ill that they need to be transferred to an intensive care unit, they have abnormal vital signs and other physiological changes that can go unnoticed for 2448 hours. As these changes can be hard to detect and serious illness can begin very slowly at first, early warning systems have been developed to help health care professionals respond to patient’s conditions before they need to be in an intensive care unit. These early warning systems can be in the form of new technology and assist nurses with preventing a serious illness from becoming critical. It is not well research or understood how nurses experience such early warning systems technology and it is not well understood how nurses think this technology impacts their nursing practice. The overall aim of the study is to learn more about the experience and perception of nurses who use this technology, how they believe it informs their nursing practice and how it supports them in making clinical decisions about patient care.

Key strategies of Problem-based learning (PBL) can contribute to students' skills development of the Profile of a Virginia Graduate's expectations of critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, and citizenship (the 5 C's). PBL is a popular trend in public education. It is generally defined as a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working collaboratively to investigate and respond to authentic and engaging open-ended questions and/or problems. This study explored the strategies teachers used when implementing PBL and what strategies aided in the skills development of the 5 C's. The research question addressed was, What key strategies of PBL instruction contributed to the development of the Profile of a Virginia Graduate's expectations of critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, and citizenship for fourth and fifth grade students at one elementary school in Virginia? Through a basic qualitative study, information was gathered on the strategies used in PBL instruction in elementary classrooms to develop students' 5 C's. Findings suggest that small group work, student-centered learning, student choice, peer-to-peer relationships, and modeling were strategies used in PBL instruction to develop the 5 C's. Participants were interviewed by a substitute researcher. Because of the researcher's role as principal of the school in which this research is being conducted, anonymity was used to protect the employer/employee relationship and reduce researcher bias. Results were analyzed using a data analysis process to identify key strategies used in PBL instruction that increase the 5 C's. Perceptions of the participants provided a better understanding of the strategies used during PBL implementation and skills development of the 5 C's. Findings suggest that participants felt PBL to be a successful instructional tool for elementary students. It increased engagement and increased skills development of the 5 C's. The information gained should support leaders in the implementation of PBL in elementary classrooms. / Doctor of Education / Key strategies of Problem-based learning (PBL) can contribute to students' skills development of the Profile of a Virginia Graduate's expectations of critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, and citizenship (the 5 C's). PBL is a popular trend in public education. It is generally defined as a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working collaboratively to investigate and respond to authentic and engaging open-ended questions and/or problems. This study explored the strategies teachers used when implementing PBL and what strategies aided in the skills development of the 5 C's. The research question addressed was, What key strategies of PBL instruction contributed to the development of the Profile of a Virginia Graduate's expectations of critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, and citizenship for fourth and fifth grade students at one elementary school in Virginia? Through a basic qualitative study, information was gathered on the strategies used in PBL instruction in elementary classrooms to develop students' 5 C's. Findings suggest that small group work, student-centered learning, student choice, peer-to-peer relationships, and modeling were strategies used in PBL instruction to develop the 5 C's.

This dissertation uses a three-manuscript style, and the ultimate purpose was to support critical thinking teaching in K-12 education from a systematic view concerning the lack of critical thinking in the young generation. The three manuscripts included in this dissertation were entirely or partly adapted based on three published or submitted research papers. The first research paper is a literature review article with an introduction to a development framework of nine principles, which provided a new view to developing critical thinking in younger children based on conceptual understanding of critical thinking. The second research paper is a study I coauthored with J. Michael Spector, which calls for more attention to the development of human intelligence given the rapid development of artificial intelligence and proposed that developing inquiry and critical thinking is a key to develop human intelligence. The third research paper reports an investigation over middle school educators' conceptualization of critical thinking and its alignment with the established theory and research. The major purpose was to connect the established theory and research with educational practices regarding what critical thinking constitutes. The significance of this study is to reveal the issues behind the abstract understanding of critical thinking and address the insufficient critical thinking teaching phenomenon from the perspective of educational practices.

Spirituality and religiosity can play key roles in individual lives through influencing health, social relationships, political views, as well as many other facets (Newberg, D'Aquili & Rause, 2001; Milevsky & Levitt, 2004; Hirsh, Walberg & Peterson, 2013). As important as religious and spiritual beliefs are to societies, cultures, and individuals, little is known about which psychological factors determine choices of faith. Although there are likely many determinants of religious, spiritual, atheist or agnostic beliefs, this study explored four possible factors: critical thinking skills, need for cognition, need for emotional comfort/security, and need for closure. Participants included an undergraduate sample and a community sample. It was hypothesized that religious and spiritual individuals will have lower critical thinking skills, lower needs for cognition, higher needs for emotional comfort/security and higher needs for closure than agnostic and atheist individuals. Hypotheses also included potential interactions between these variables in predicting each faith path. Religiosity was measured using the I/E Religious Orientation Scale - Revised (Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989) and Spirituality was measured utilizing the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS) (Fetzer Institute, 1999). These two faith paths were also self -reported by participants after definitions of each were provided. Atheist and Agnostic beliefs were only measured through self-report. Results indicated that both measures of logic (critical thinking skills and need for cognition) and emotional comfort/security (Need to Belong and Religious Motivations) predicted various faith paths. Limitations included sample characteristics and small numbers of Atheist and Agnostic individuals. A better understanding of the motivations for choosing either spiritual or non-spiritual paths may assist in further explanation of the multiple roles each faith choice plays in individual lives.

The effect of an interdisciplinary algebra/science course on students' critical thinking skills was examined. A traditional college algebra course was used as a comparison group. The students in the sample enrolled in college algebra and then half were randomly placed into the interdisciplinary course. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest comparison group design was used. The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal was used to measure the students' critical thinking skills. This instrument consists of an overall critical thinking score as well as five subscores in the areas of Inference, Recognition of Assumptions, Deduction, Interpretation and Evaluation of Arguments. It was found that the students in the interdisciplinary course made greater gains in the overall critical thinking score as well as in four of the five subscores. However, the differences in the gains made in the two courses were not statistically significant. Disregarding course, other factors that were found to be closely related to critical thinking were Composite ACT, grade received in the course, Math ACT and grade point average. It was also found that students whose majors were in the Schools of Arts and Letters or Science and Technology scored higher on critical thinking than students whose majors were in the Schools of Business or Education. Factors found to have no relationship to critical thinking were ethnicity, gender and classification.

This study aimed to evaluate the development process of Development and Learning course according to critical thinking based instruction in the Faculty of Commerce and Tourism Education at Gazi University by using Stufflebeam&rsquo / s Context, Input, Process, and Product evaluation model. Data were collected from various sources through qualitative and quantitative methods such as questionnaires, individual and focus group interviews, student journals, achievement test, and California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI). The context evaluation results showed that there were problems in the attainment of course objectives and in the application of the effective instructional strategies for learning and improving thinking skills. Thereupon, at the input evaluation stage, the course was redesigned according to critical thinking based instruction. Pretest-posttest experimental study was carried out while implementing the redesigned course. Concerning the process evaluation, student journals pointed out that while critical thinking based instruction was effective on learning, thinking and metacognitive skills, students experienced some difficulties. Regarding the product evaluation, according to achievement pre-posttest and retention test results and CCTDI pre-posttest results, students in both groups showed a significant progress within a semester. However, there was no difference between treatment and control groups. On the other hand, in the focus groups interviews, the students from the treatment groups expressed the contributions of the course to their teaching and thinking skills, understanding and participation. In conclusion, though quantitative data addressed that critical thinking based instruction did not create difference compared to the traditional instruction, qualitative data delineated positive effects of this approach.

This research examined the critical thinking (CT) skills and conceptions of prospective teachers studying at Foreign Language Education Department at Middle East Technical University. In this way, the study intended to contribute to the field of curriculum and instruction by pointing to the currents status while constituting a basis for further actions in teacher education in terms CT. In this research, data analysis was carried out through both quantitative and qualitative analysis. A survey, including Student Information Form, and Watson and Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal- Form YM Turkish version were utilized for data gathering. Data were collected from 103 prospective teachers in the junior and senior level during the Spring Semester of 2007- 2008 Academic Year. Results demonstrated that the critical thinking (CT) levels of prospective teachers assessed by WGCTA are in medium level. In addition, WGCTA-YM cannot be predicted from reported regular reading activity, CGPA, and gender. Besides, results showed that, prospective teachers make rudiment or vague statements about critical thinking activities and do not point to a common instructional activity. In terms of critical thinking definitions, prospective teachers mostly perceive CT as a cognitive skill. Furthermore, there is a common sense view of CT rather than an understanding based on literature. The results revealed that prospective teachers are short of the essential CT skills and the CT comprehension to be able to raise individuals with CT ability. Therefore, curriculum renovation movements, projects, and research studies to improve critical thinking skills in teacher education should be developed and implemented.

For a number of years the educational community has recognized the importance of teaching critical thinking skills to all students; however, a shift in educational pedagogy and philosophy has occurred. Through recent legislation the funding of educational institutions that demonstrate competencies and gains from standardized test scores has been mandated. Although performance measurement regarding the effectiveness of learning environments is useful, students must learn critical thinking skills to compete globally, problem solve effectively, self-actualize, preserve democracy, and promote human rights. The relationship between content and critical thinking presents a unique challenge in American education. This study examined the shift in focus from critical thinking to standards-based assessment in American education and focused on data garnered and analyzed from The California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST). The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in the 5 dimensions of critical thinking based on colleges and gender based upon 1,455 graduating seniors for the 2009-2010 academic year on the (CCTST). This study used descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze data. In this quantitative study, data from the (CCTST) were gathered and distributed to the researcher for compilation and statistical analysis. Findings from this study indicate that gender and major college of study significantly influence the means on the dimensions of the CCTST. This study provides information regarding critical thinking skills in a higher education setting and is useful for higher education practitioners in facilitating the development of critical thinking skills. The results of this study add to the body of knowledge regarding critical thinking.