Submitted in fulfilmentnof the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in the Department of Philosophy of Education at the University of Zululand, 2002. / This study advocates to examine the efficacy of values clarification with particular reference to its impact on critical thinking and effective communication for secondary school learners. The capability of discerning and focussing on critical aspects of situations and seeing the patterns characterising those situations is a far more holistic capability than those commonly defined in competency-based approaches. Such holistic capabilities represent the links between disciplinary knowledge and professional skills. Secondary school educators find certain values important for their learners and these are articulated by means of the curriculum and studied or taught through values clarification. Values clarification is a process of helping the individual to arrive at his or her own values in a rational and justifiable way without a set of values being imposed. Values education therefore exists in order to strengthen the transfer of values in the school while critical thinking aims to develop a reflexion on values and a value development by means of analysing and comparing opinions and communicating effectively about them. Moral development is dedicated to the stages of cognitive development for learning values and the skills to reflect on them. In this way they are both cognitive, skills-oriented educational tasks. It is clear that education is concerned with critical thinking and many skills have been formulated that learners need to acquire in order to facilitate thinking critically and communicating effectively. Critical thinking manifests itself in a plethora of skills such as identifying assumptions (both stated and unstated both one's own and others), clarifying, focussing, and remaining relevant to the topic; understanding logic and judging sources by their reliability and credibility. This calls for not only skills but dispositions such as being openminded, considerate, impartial as well as suspending judgement, taking a stance when warranted, and questioning one's critical thinking skills. By implication, this reflects on teaching values clarification and critical thinking, since critical thinking derives from the fact that learners should be taught to think, to solve problems and to communicate, and to encourage involvement in their own learning. Learners need to think critically as citizens in society — being able to detect bias, recognizing illogical thinking, avoiding stereotyping of group members, reaching conclusions based on solid evidence and guarding against propaganda. For this reason critical thinking must pervade the secondary school curriculum. In conclusion, the fundamental purpose of education should have its manifestation in the acquisition of knowledge (knowing what?) and skills (knowing how); and the manipulation thereof to think critically and communicate effectively.

No description available.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION in the Department of Philosophy of Education at the University of Zululand, 2002. / This study advocates to examine the efficacy of values clarification with particular reference to its impact on critical thinking and effective communication for secondary school learners. The capability of discerning and focusing on critical aspects of situations and seeing the patterns characterising those situations is a far more holistic capability than those commonly defined in competency-based approaches. Such holistic capabilities represent the links between disciplinary knowledge and professional skills. Secondary school educators find certain values important for their learners and these are articulated by means of the curriculum and studied or taught through values clarification. Values clarification is a process of helping the individual to arrive at his or her own values in a rational and justifiable way without a set of values being imposed. Values education therefore exists in order to strengthen the transfer of values in the school while critical thinking aims to develop a reflexion on values and a value development by means of analysing and comparing opinions and communicating effectively about them. Moral development is dedicated to the stages of cognitive development for learning values and the skills to reflect on them. In this way they are both cognitive, skills-oriented educational tasks. It is clear that education is concerned with critical thinking and many skills have been formulated that learners need to acquire in order to facilitate thinking critically and communicating effectively. Critical thinking manifests itself in a plethora of skills such as identifying assumptions (both stated and unstated both one's own and others), clarifying, focusing, and remaining relevant to the topic; understanding logic and judging sources by their reliability and credibility. This calls for not only skills but dispositions such as being open-minded, considerate, impartial as well as suspending judgment, taking a stance when warranted, and questioning one's critical thinking skills. By implication, this reflects on teaching values clarification and critical thinking, since critical thinking derives from the fact that learners should be taught to think, to solve problems and to communicate, and to encourage involvement in their own learning. Learners need to think critically as citizens in society — being able to detect bias, recognizing illogical thinking, avoiding stereotyping of group members, reaching conclusions based on solid evidence and guarding against propaganda. For this reason critical thinking must pervade the secondary school curriculum. In conclusion, the fundamental purpose of education should have its manifestation in the acquisition of knowledge (knowing what?) and skills (knowing how); and the manipulation thereof to think critically and communicate effectively

American educators in large numbers now believe that school curricula must include direct instruction in thinking skills. At issue for many, however, is the question of what effect that instruction has on young people. This study was developed to provide an answer to that question within a particular high school setting and to suggest a model for assessing the effect of thinking skill programs in other settings. The inquiry was naturalistic in design, responding to current criticisms of traditional quantitative methods being applied to the complex processes of acquiring thinking strategies. Stimulating recall by means of videotape, this research used interviews of students and teachers from eight different classes to investigate perceptions and cognitive processes resulting from lessons in thinking skills. Results of the study indicate that most students were aware of teachers' purposes in the lessons. Further, they were able to articulate their perceptions, which frequently coincided with teacher intentions, as well as their thought processes while instruction was in progress. Some older high school students were also able to describe ways they have applied or might apply the thinking skills outside of the classroom setting. Data collected in this project were sufficiently detailed and convincing so that they were taken by the teacher participants as valid assessments of the teaching/learning situation they had created. They can use the information to adjust instructional strategies. Additionally, the fact that this research was successful in revealing in-depth information about the effects of instruction in thinking skills argues for the inclusion of such an assessment model within any program being developed to include those skills in a curriculum.

本論文旨在探討有關提升批判性思考的學習效能。本文主要分為兩大部分：第一部分為批判性思考的技巧及態度建立量表，並以此量表分析香港中五學生在批判性思考的技巧及態度，及其兩者在學業成績組別和性別之間的關係。第二部分為探討交錯練習（interleaved practice）和同組練習（blocked practice）對提升批判性思考技巧的效應。從第一部分的結果分析顯示，男生在批判性思考的態度上優於女生；第一學業成績組別的學生在批判性思考技巧上優於第二及第三學業成績組別的學生。從第二部分的結果分析發現，無論使用交錯練習抑或同組練習，均能顯著提升批判性思考的整體技巧，而在批判性思考技巧中的解釋部分，同組練習的結果又較交錯練習為佳。整體而言，交錯練習及同組練習兩種學習模式皆能有效提升批判性思考技巧的能力，而兩者的效果相約，並無顯著的差別。 / This thesis aims to explore the learning effectiveness on promoting critical thinking competence. The first part of the thesis shows the establishment of the measuring tools of both critical thinking dispositions and critical thinking skills. The use of the tools, dispositions, skills, gender and banding of Form Five students in Hong Kong were then collected and analyzed. The second part of the thesis is to explore and compare the effectiveness between interleaved practice and blocked practice on critical thinking skills. From the results of the first part, boys scored better than girls on critical thinking dispositions; while Band One students scored better than Band Two and Band Three students on critical thinking skills. From the results of the second part, both interleaved practice and blocked practice enhanced the overall performance of critical thinking skills significantly. In the explanation component of critical thinking skills, it is found that blocked practice were more effective than interleaved practice. In sum, both of the methods can enhance the critical thinking skills with similar effect. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 張錦華. / Thesis (Ed.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-181). / Abstracts also in English. / Zhang Jinhua.

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.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of teachers' behaviors and characteristics upon the development of student mathematical critical thinking skills. From a pool of 20 teachers, whose students had been pre- and post-tested for a measure of critical thinking skills, 10 middle level teachers were selected to complete extensive questionnaires on their backgrounds and experiences, submit videotaped records of classroom activity, and to maintain detailed data on their classroom actions. The teachers were ranked in accordance with their respective classes' mean gain scores on the assessment tool. From the pool of 20 teachers, the top-ranked 25% (five teachers) and the bottom-ranked 25% (five teachers) were selected for the study. Extremes of the ranking order were used to increase the probability of determining potential differences in teacher behaviors and characteristics between the two groups. The two extremes were thus placed in two groups to identify those variables which contributed to differences between the groups. Identified variables from pairwise comparisons of the teachers within each group were analyzed, following corroboration from a minimum of three data sources, to generate groups profiles. A 5 x 5 matrix was constructed for each potential group variable. Comparisons were conducted between all pairs of teachers within each group, and the differences between the two groups were compiled in the form of group profiles. The five top-ranked teachers, based upon student performances, were distinguished from the lowest-ranked five teachers by greater use of small group instruction, math manipulatives, and warmup activities; as well as by provision for teaching higher-order thinking skills, frequency of transitions between classroom activities, and the use of activities which required the application of concepts. The lowest-ranked teachers were characterized by the greater frequency of teacher-directed instruction, a higher amount of computer usage, assignment of individual student work, highly structured classes, and extensive reliance on textbooks as the primary source of instructional materials. / Graduation date: 1993

Critical thinking skills have been identified as important for practicing nurses to acquire. Therefore, nurse educators have a responsibility to improve the critical thinking skills of nursing students. There is limited research related to critical thinking and nursing education especially in the clinical environment. Nurses need finely honed critical thinking skills in order to be safe, competent, and skillful practitioners of their profession.The purpose of this research was to study the way nursing faculty use clinical situations to develop critical thinking in student nurses. The research question was: How do nursing faculty use clinical situations to develop critical thinking in nursing students?In researching this question a grounded theory approach was chosen. The grounded theory approach allows for the development of theory or extension of existing theory which can be used to build on or base future research in nursing education (Chenitz & Swanson, 1986).Data collection was completed using open-ended interviews and participant observation which is consistent with the grounded theory approach. The constant comparative method of data analysis was used to compare and contrast data between and among identified groups.Clinical nursing instructors were asked to participate in the study. The subjects were interviewed and observed teaching in the clinical environment. Confidentiality was guaranteed through coding and destruction of the field notes upon completion of the project. Participation was voluntary and subjects could withdraw at any time from the study.There were no identifiable risks involved in the study. Potential benefits were increased awareness of strategies to develop critical thinking skills and contributions to improve nursing education.Setting the stage for critical thinking in nursing education was identified as the core category. The data supported the development of critical thinking in the clinical environment related to trusting relationships in a risk-free environment. Teaching strategies that contribute to the development of critical thinking were identified. Nursing faculty recognize the importance of critical thinking to nursing and attempt to instill critical thinking in the nursing students. / School of Nursing

The South African education system is based on learner centred principles and encourages the development of critical thinking. This approach is reflected in the South African Qualifications Framework, which identifies critical thinking as a primary outcome of education. In the vocational Tourism programme, there is a link between the subject learning outcomes and critical crossfield outcomes. The role of the vocational college educator is central in facilitating the development of critical thinking skills of all learners. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the selected Tourism educators develop critical thinking skills of risk L2 students. I conducted the study in a selected FET College using a qualitative case study in order to gain deeper understanding of how the educators implement curriculum policy in their classrooms. This study used four data collection instruments to gain an in-depth understanding of the research topic. The findings of the study reveal that educators understand the value of teaching critical thinking. However, there is a gap between educators’ conceptual understanding of critical thinking and their instructional practice to develop critical thinking skills during classroom instruction. The findings also reveal that there are factors that hinder the development of at risk students’ critical thinking skills such as; limited English language proficiency, poor behaviour, and subject guidelines which do not provide educators with guidance on teaching critical thinking skills. The study recommends in-service training sessions that will support educators on how to teach critical thinking skills explicitly. This study also recommends the development of practical guidelines to enhance educators’ critical thinking teaching strategies. The findings of this research will assist me in improving the support that I provide to Tourism educators.

Linking experience and language--Interrelated curriculum--Integrating content subjects with reading--Higher level thinking skills.