Epistemological development and its relationship to critical thinking has been postulated in educational psychology since the 1970’s. By empirically examining epistemological development in relationship to thinking critically, a richer understanding of overall student development and instructional needs could be achieved. By taking into account a student’s epistemological development, issues unique to these stages could inform how to most effectively work with students to promote critical thinking development. The purpose of this study was to explore the potential relationship between collegiate epistemological development and critical thinking skills by examining differences in critical thinking skills at different levels of epistemological development. The hypothesis of the study was that students reporting an epistemological level of either Absolutist or Evaluativist would have higher critical thinking scores than students reporting a Multiplist level. The instruments employed were the Cornell Critical Thinking Test (CCTT) and the Kuhn epistemological instrument. The study population of 157 students was taken from a medium-sized private institution in the southeastern United States. The data indicated that the majority of the study population, 87%, identified as the Multiplist level of epistemological development, according to Kuhn’s definitions. Overall critical thinking scores for the sample was lower than expected but still within reported ranges. Analysis of variance tests were performed on the data and failed to indicate a statistically significant relationship in overall epistemological developmental level and four of the five individual epistemological judgement domains. This finding was not anticipated, challenges current theoretical understanding of this relationship, and indicates a need for further investigation of the nature of the relationship between critical thinking and epistemological development in the higher educational setting.

Annotation: The diploma thesis focuses on cooperative activities connected with methods of critical thinking in the teaching of music education. I follow up on my annual paper dealing with cooperative games in primary school education. In my previous teaching practice, I focused on group teaching. It is the co-operative activities that offer a synergy of a particular group of pupils, thus not only helping to achieve learning objectives, but also strengthening the positive relationships among pupils within the group. The cooperation offers scope for the development of critical thinking among pupils. In conjunction with other alternative forms of learning, it develops the pupil's musical abilities more effectively (unlike normal frontal education). I started to devote myself to this topic mainly because I did not meet with a similarly invigorating approach in my previous practice in schools. It was a strong motivation for me to explore this issue and try it practically. I would like to give my teacher colleagues new insights into the concept of music education. The work explains the basic concepts of cooperative teaching. It brings the methods and forms of teaching that are appropriate for the development of the necessary key competencies. My goal will not be to focus on all the key competencies the pupil...

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.

Constructing and understanding arguments is often difficult but key to both philosophyand other parts of the everyday life. Some methods to ease this task has been developed.One of the methods developed within informal reasoning is argument diagramming, amethod to structure and visualize arguments. This essay takes a complicated argumentabout the fate of the universe, put forward by futurist Ray Kurzweil in his book TheSingularity is Near, as well as some critique published against said argument, as a casestudy for the application of argument diagramming on unstructured arguments fromoutside the field of philosophy. To arrive at a diagram that can be easily grasped andread but still contains all information of the original argument, this essay developsa method of splitting sub-diagrams off of a main diagram. Analysing the resultingdiagrams shows that the plausibility of Kurzweil’s argument is heavily dependent on afew, critical premises at the lower levels of the diagram.

Uppsatsen avser att undersöka hur läroböcker förbereder ungdomar för de samhällsutmaningar som finns. Med samhällsutmaningar menas den ökade mängd information och informationsflöde som finns i samhället. Det ska undersökas genom att studera hur läroböcker i samhällskunskap på gymnasienivå framställer kritiskt tänkande. Den forskning som finns sedan tidigare är begränsad och den som finns visar att det finns skillnader i läroböckerna, men inte hur skillnaderna tar sig uttryck i praktiken. Denna uppsats ska därför undersöka kritiskt tänkande i läroböcker med utgångspunkt i att fylla den kunskapsluckan. För att göra det har tre forskningsfrågor formulerats och som ska besvaras. För att besvara de formulerade forskningsfrågorna har en kvalitativ innehållsanalys valts som metod. Den analysen kommer att genomföras på fyra läroböcker, utvalda enligt ett målstyrt urval. Analysen av böckerna kommer att ske genom att först koda materialet till små koder. Därefter kommer koderna att sättas samman till olika teman som besvarar forskningsfrågorna. Resultatet av analysen visar att läroböckerna framställer kritisk tänkande som dolt lärande. Det innebär att läroböckerna inte framställer kritiskt tänkande explicit, utan att det sker som en konsekvens av andra delar i läroböckerna. Ett annat resultat är att de typer av uppgifter som läroböckerna erbjuder eleverna är kunskaper i kritiskt tänkande. Det vill säga att eleverna får träna på att jämföra, granska och utvärdera, även om det inte är uttalat kritiskt tänkande. Kunskaper om kritiskt tänkande är en andra typ av innehåll som framkommer eftersom eleverna lär sig om behovet av att källkritiskt granska och varför det behövs i dagens samhälle. En tredje typ av innehåll är praktiska uppgifter. Eleverna ges möjlighet att kontinuerligt öva på detta i med praktiska inslag. Praktiska inslag som förekommer är debatter, uppgifter och diskussioner som alla innehåller inslag som utvecklar kritiskt tänkande. Det sista resultat som framkom i analysen var angående skillnaderna mellan studieförberedande och yrkesförberedande program angående kritiskt tänkande var att studieförberedande är mer fördjupande i uppgifterna. Läroböckerna efterfrågar mer analytiska frågor och diskussioner, medan böckerna för yrkesförberedande elever var grundläggande och efterfrågade mer vad och vem, istället för analytiska frågor. / The study aims to investigate how textbooks prepare young people for the societal challenges that exist. Here, societal challenges are meant by increased amount of information and information flow that exists in society. It should be investigated by studying how textbooks in civics, directed at pupils in upper secondary school, present critical thinking. The research that already exists is limited and the existing one shows that there are differences in the textbooks, but not how the differences are expressed in practice. This essay will therefore examine critical thinking in textbooks based on filling that knowledge gap. To do this, three research questions have been formulated and answered. To answer the formulated research questions, a qualitative content analysis has been chosen as the method. That analysis will be made on four textbooks, selected according to a goal-oriented sample. The analysis of the books will be done by first coding the material into small codes. The codes will then be put together into different themes that answer the research questions. The results of the analysis show that the textbooks present critical thinking as hidden learning. This means that the textbooks do not present critical thinking explicitly, but that it takes place as a consequence of other parts of the textbooks. Another result is that the content that the textbooks offer students is knowledge in critical thinking. That is, students are given opportunities to practice comparing, reviewing and evaluating, even if it is not explicitly critical thinking. Knowledge of critical thinking is a second type of content that emerges as students learn about the need to critically review sources and why it is needed in today's society. A third type of content is practical tasks, the pupils are given the opportunity to continuously practice this in practical tasks. Practical elements that occur are debates, tasks and discussions, all of which contain elements that develop critical thinking. The last result that emerged in the analysis was about the differences between study preparation and vocational preparation programs regarding critical thinking. The analysis showed that study preparation is more in- depth in the tasks. The textbooks call for more analytical questions and discussions, while the books for vocational students were more basic requesting questions asking for what and who instead of analytical questions.

This paper examines how we discuss social issues in the L2 classroom under the guidelines of Lgr11. To answer this, I ask the following sub-questions; How are the overall goals of education and parts (see Appendix B) of the Curriculum for English currently perceived by English teachers? How are the social subjects in the L2 classroom currently handled? Thirdly, what kind of lesson plan can be implemented in the classroom context under the guidelines of Lgr11? Looking at past research and relevant documents along with the qualitative data and through a triangulation of evidence carried out consisting of semi-structured interviews, supported by netnography research I propose a lesson plan using the collaborative action research model. All data was collected through technical means such as Zoom, phone calls and Facebook groups. The results of the interviews with teachers have shown that there is a unity in some respects with similar interpretations of Lgr11 and the curriculum. As well as differences of views and approaches concerning social issues in the L2 classroom. Based on the netnography research findings, most tasks given consisted of receptive skills while productive skills were used less. The netnography also supported the interview findings in the claim that popular topics were used more, whereas unpopular topics were neglected significantly. CLIL as a method was found to be absent in most of the collected data with some exceptions.

Although the development of critical thinking in students is not an easy task, it is becoming increasingly more vital. Students need to be able to think critically to thrive in the 21st century workplace. The auditor of the future must adapt to a fast-changing, technologydriven world where critical thinking capabilities provide the ability to solve unstructured problems, analyse and interpret information, make informed decisions and interrogate information. With claims that the auditing profession is not delivering entry-level chartered accountants with the necessary skills and competencies to truly add value to auditing clients, the onus is on educators to develop critical thinking in their students. As critical thinking is a complex concept with multiple dimensions, imparting this skill to students is an intricate process. Technology-based educational interventions which include simulations, virtual reality and games can provide effective platforms for developing critical thinking. However, educators are often hesitant to use these technologies and uncertain how to instill critical thinking in students. It is therefore clear that educators need guidance and require a robust, holistic framework for critical thinking development through technology-based educational interventions. The primary objective of this study was to propose such a conceptual framework that would provide guidance to educators in addressing the growing need for auditors with welldeveloped critical thinking capabilities. To arrive at this conceptual framework, more insights into the conceptualisation and development of critical thinking were required. These insights set the foundation for a preliminary, literature-based, conceptual framework. To validate the concepts and relationships proposed in this preliminary framework and to provide insights into additional concepts and relationships, the perspectives of three groups of participants were obtained using an Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA) design. Concepts in the final conceptual framework included studentrelated factors, educator-related factors, design and development considerations, technology-based enabling tools, collaboration among stakeholders and disciplines, the learning process, ethics, globalisation, auditing content, critical thinking and other learning outcomes associated with critical thinking, constructivism and characteristics of critical thinking instruction. The end product is a novel, integrated and robust conceptual framework aimed at the development of critical thinking in auditing students through technology-based educational interventions. This framework provides a structure to the complex nature of critical thinking development. The acquisition of critical thinking capabilities is, however, not a once-off, linear event. The framework and its individual concepts and relationships should thus be seen as part of a continuous process of critical thinking growth. / Hoe moeilik dit ook al mag wees om studente te leer om krities te dink, dit word toenemend noodsaaklik. In die 21e eeu vereis die werkplek immers kritiese denke van studente. Die aspirantouditeur moet by ʼn snel veranderende, tegnologies gedrewe wêreld kan aanpas deur krities te dink om ongestruktureerde probleme op te los, inligting te ontleed, te vertolk en te betwyfel, en om ingeligte besluite te neem. Aangesien ouditeursfirmas kla dat jong geoktrooieerde rekenmeesters nie oor die nodige vaardighede beskik nie, het opvoeders die verantwoordelikheid om studente krities te leer dink. Omrede kritiese denke ʼn komplekse konsep met veelvuldige fasette is, is dit ʼn heel ingewikkelde proses om studente daarmee toe te rus. Tegnologiese onderrigintervensies deur onder meer nabootsings, virtuele werklikhede en speletjies kan hierin van groot nut wees. Opvoeders aarsel egter om hierdie tegnologieë aan te wend, en daarby is hulle onseker hoe om kritiese denke by studente in te skerp. Opvoeders het ongetwyfeld leiding hierin nodig, en ʼn stewige, holististiese raamwerk vir die ontwikkeling van kritiese denke deur middel van tegnologiese onderrigintervensies is duidelik nodig. Die doel van hierdie navorsing is om met so ʼn konseptuele raamwerk te kom wat leiding kan gee aan opvoeders wat aspirantouditeurs moet oplei om krities te dink. Hiervoor moes groter insig in die konseptualisering en ontwikkeling van kritiese denke verkry word. Hierdie insigte het die grondslag gelê vir ʼn voorlopige konseptuele raamwerk wat op die literatuur berus. Drie groepe deelnemers is gebruik om die geldigheid van die addisionele konsepte en verbande in die voorlopige raamwerk te toets en insigte in addisionele konsepte en verbande te verkry. ʼn Interaktiewe kwalitatiewe analise (IKA) is gedoen. Die konsepte in die finale konseptuele raamwerk is onder meer studentfaktore, opvoederfaktore, oorwegings soos ontwerp en ontwikkeling, tegnologiese instrumente, samewerking tussen belanghebbers en dissiplines, die leerproses, etiek, globalisering, die ouditkunde-inhoud, kritiese denke en ander leeruitkomste wat met kritiese denke gepaard gaan, konstruktivisme en die kenmerke van onderrig in kritiese denke. Die eindproduk is ʼn nuwe, geïntegreerde en stewige konseptuele raamwerk waarmee ouditkundestudente met tegnologiese onderrigintervensies opgelei kan word om krities te dink. Hierdie raamwerk verleen struktuur aan die komplekse aard van opleiding in kritiese denke. Die verwerwing van die vermoë om krities te dink is egter nie eenmalig en lineêr nie. Hierdie raamwerk met sy afsonderlike konsepte en verbande moet beskou word as ʼn onderdeel van ʼn deurlopende proses om kritiese denke te ontwikkel. / Nakuba ukuthuthukiswa kokucabanga sakuhlaziya kubafundi kungesiwo umsebenzi olula, kuya ngokuya kubaluleka kakhulu. Abafundi kumele bakwazi ukucabanga sakuhlaziya ukuze baphumelele emsebenzini kwikhuluminyaka lama21. Umcwaningimabhuku wesikhathi esizayo kufanele ajwayele isimo sezwe elishintsha masinya, esiholwa ubuchwepheshe nokuyilapho ukukwazi ukucabanga sakuhlaziya kuhlinzeka ikhono lokusombulula izinkinga ezingahlelekile, ukuhlaziya nokuhumusha imininingwane, ukuthatha izinqumo ezikahle nokuphenyisisa imininingwane. Njengoba kuthiwa umkhakha wezocwaningomabhuku awukhiqizi abagcinimabhuku bezinga lomhlaba abasaqala abanamakhono nokuqonda okufanele ukwenza umehluko kumakhasimende ocwaningomabhuku, kungumsebenzi wabafundisayo ukusungula ukucabanga sakuhlaziya kubafundi babo. Njengoba ukucabanga sakuhlaziya kungumqondo olukhuni ozigabaningi, ukudlulisela leli khono kubafundi kungumsebenzi oxakayo. Ukusebenzisa izindlela zokufunda ezincike kubuchwepheshe, ezifaka kuzo ukulinganisa, okwenzeka ngempela nemidlalo, kunganikeza izinkundla ezisebenza ngempumelelo ukuthuthukisa ukucabanga sakuhlaziya. Nakuba kunjalo, othisha bavame ukuba manqikanqika ukusebenzisa lobu buchwepheshe futhi abanasiqiniseko sokuthi bangakufaka kanjani ukucabanga sakuhlaziya kubafundi. Ngakho-ke kusobala ukuthi othisha badinga ukwelulekwa kanye nohlaka olunamandla olufaka konke maqondana nokuthuthukiswa kokucabanga sakuhlaziya ngokusebenzisa izindlela zokufunda ezincike kubuchwepheshe. Injongo enkulu yalolu cwaningo ngukuhlongoza uhlaka lomqondo oluzohlinzeka umhlahlandlela kothisha ukubhekana nesidingo esikhulayo sabacwaningimabhuku abanamakhono athuthukile okucabanga sakuhlaziya. Ukuze kufinyelelwe kulolu hlaka, kwadingeka ulwazi olwengeziwe ekucabangeni nasekusungulweni kokucabanga sakuhlaziya. Lolu lwazi lwaba yisisekelo sohlaka lomqondo lokuqala olugxile emibhalweni. Ukuze kuqinisekiswe imiqondo nobudlelwano obuhlongozwayo kulolu hlaka lokuqala futhi kuhlinzekwe ulwazi emicabangweni nasebudlelwaneni obengeziwe, imibono yamaqoqo amathathu ababambiqhaza yatholakala ngokusetshenziswa komklamo ongukuHlaziya Izingahle Ngokusebenzisana owaziwa ngokuthi yi-Interactive Qualitative Analysis (i-IQA). Imiqondo esohlakeni lomqondo lokugcina yayibandakanya okuphathelene nabafundi, okuphathelene nothisha, okumayelana nomklamo nentuthuko, amathuluzi okusiza ancike kubuchwepheshe, ukuhlanganyela phakathi kwabathintekayo nemikhakha, indlela yokufunda, okuphathelene nokulunga, ukusabalalisa umhlaba wonke, ukucwaninga imininingwane yokuqukethwe, ukucabanga sakuhlaziya kanye neminye imiphumela yokufunda ehambisana nokucabanga sakuhlaziya, nobunjalo bendlela yokufunda ukucabanga sakuhlaziya. Umkhiqizo ovela ekugcineni kuba yinoveli nohlaka lomqondo olunamandla okuhloswe ngalo ukuba kuthuthukiswe ukucabanga sakuhlaziya kubafundi bezocwaningomabhuku ngokusebenzisa izindlela zokufunda ezincike kubuchwepheshe. Lolu hlaka luhlinzeka umumo esimweni esingaqondakali sokuthuthukiswa kokucabanga sakuhlaziya. Kodwa-ke, ukutholakala kwamakhono okucabanga sakuhlaziya, akusiyo into eyenzeka kanye, ngendlela efanayo. Ngakho-ke, uhlaka kanye nemiqondo yalo ngaminye nobudlelwano bayo kumele kubonakale njengengxenye yomsebenzi oqhubekayo wokukhula kokucabanga sakuhlaziya. / Taxation / D. Phil. (Accounting Sciences)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Few writing teachers will disagree that teaching writing conventions in isolation is a fruitless, even harmful, pedagogy which does little, if anything, to improve student writing. Teaching conventions, style, and usage (often collectively referred to as grammar) in context, however, proves difficult when struggling secondary students develop good ideas and evidence but fail to clearly articulate them because of their lack of understanding of various writing conventions. The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a carefully designed discovery learning activity which intends to push students into metacognition about what they read, how it is structured, and how that structure affects the reader. Three sources of data were used to determine whether students who had learned by discovery were better able to avoid and revise run-on sentences than students who did not learn through discovery pedagogy. The data sources include two sets of essays, surveys taken by the students, and teacher analyses of essays for readability. The results of the data analysis indicate that use of run-on sentences, especially early in an essay, detrimentally affects the readability of student written work; discovery learning activities improve student understanding, application, and transfer of skill; and while students believe they understand more than their written work indicates, the results provide teachers direction for further instruction. The findings of this study indicate that use of discovery learning for writing instruction with struggling learners holds great promise: a group of students generally regarded as academically weak showed greater understanding and application of run-on sentence avoidance than slightly stronger students who learned without discovery methods. This indicates that discovery learning is a method that improves learning among reluctant secondary students, a population many teachers struggle to reach effectively. Discovery learning is not limited to conventions, though: the promise of its application potential extends into a variety of writing skills and concepts. In addition to the run-on sentence discovery activity studied here, discovery activities for various other skills—from semicolon use through creating characterization with dialogue—are included.

Critical thinking is emphasized as a desirable and important ability across disciplines, occupations, governments, and cultures. Experts describe critical thinking as a collection of individually quantifiable skills that should be directly trained; however, existing interventions for improving critical thinking skills can be time consuming. Equivalence-based instruction reliably yields rapid and efficient acquisition of a variety of academic skills. The ability to identify logical fallacies was selected as a subset of critical thinking skills and compared across 30 college undergraduates who received either equivalence-based instruction, self-instruction, or no instruction in a pretest-train-posttest group design. Equivalence-based instruction resulted in greater mean score increases with shorter instructional duration than self-instruction and no instruction; however, mean session length and Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test scores did not differ between groups.

As a popular co-curricular activity, forensic participation is considered as an effective educational tool in sharping students’ logic thinking abilities (Allen & Berkowitz, 1999; Bellon, 2000; Lieberman, Trumble & Smith, 2000). However, in China, compared with the growing enthusiasm in debate among the Chinese students, research in this field is relatively thin. Therefore, in order to gain an in-depth understanding of how forensic participation influence students’ critical thinking abilities, I conducted this multiple case study which was grounded in the Paul-Elder Model of Critical Thinking. My respondents are three national or regional champions from a well-known forensic team in Eastern China. My major data collection include three one-on-one interviews with the respondents, some secondary interviews with their coach and teachers, observations on their debate training, and some online data such as the official blog of the team, my e-mail correspondence with the students and information culled from their personal social networking sites. My two research questions are “How does college students’ thinking change as a result of participating in forensics?” and “What features of forensic participation support students’ development of critical thinking?” In terms of research question one, I have found that first, as a result of forensic participation, my respondents’ questioning, critical reading, analyzing and evaluating skills have improved. Second, they developed some intellectual traits that are indispensable to their critical thinking abilities. Third, forensic participation has to some extent helped them to get rid of ego-centric and socio-centric thinking, which paved the way for them to become an accomplished and responsible thinker. As to research question two, I found that both the educational and epistemic features support students’ development of critical thinking. I also found out motivation plays such an important role in students’ critical thinking development that it could be added into the framework of Paul’s Model of critical thinking. My recommendations include improving the instruction methods in debate courses and enhance both the quantity and quality of the intercollegiate and national competitions.