No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

We describe an exercise involving the power balance wristband (PBW) designed to enhance students’ ability to design scientific tests. An instructor demonstrated that the PBW improved a student’s balance, strength, and flexibility and invited students to design and conduct a brief scientific test of the PBW. Research methods students who participated in the exercise significantly improved their ability to design scientific tests of the PBW and another pseudoscientific practice (i.e., Healing Touch); students enrolled in the control sections of the course showed no improvement. Incorporating this single-class exercise into research methods courses has the potential to not only improve students’ critical thinking about pseudoscience but also improve their research-design skills.

This project study addressed the decline in successful passing rates for the National Licensure Exam for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) in a nursing program at a private university in the Midwestern United States. There is support from the literature for a connection between critical thinking skills of nursing students and successful passing of the NCLEX-RN. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether significant differences existed in mean critical thinking skill scores across time within groups (pretest to posttest) and between groups (simulation versus written case studies), as measured by the Health Science Reasoning Test. Cognitive learning theory as interpreted by Ausubel along with the Paul Elder critical thinking model comprised the frameworks for this study. In a quantitative causal-comparative pretest/posttest design, baccalaureate junior nursing students (N = 69) were investigated. A repeated measures mixed analysis of variance indicated there was no statistically significant difference in participants' mean critical thinking scores across time within groups (pretest to posttest) or between a simulation group (n = 36) and a written case studies comparison group (n = 33). The use of high-fidelity simulation as a teaching strategy versus written case studies to increase critical thinking skills of nursing students was not supported. The resulting project deliverable is a skills-development workshop for nursing faculty that would focus on multiple methods (as opposed to one method) of evidence-based teaching strategies that have been shown to increase critical thinking of nursing students. This study promotes positive social change by examining factors that can strengthen critical thinking in nurses. Factors associated with critical thinking can be addressed in training for nurses to enhance patient safety and outcomes.

Demand for the skill of critical thinking is extensive in both higher education and in the workforce. The purpose of the current research is to examine the relationship between critical thinking educational efforts (e.g., programs incorporating high impact practices) and higher education student outcomes. For this study, student outcomes were defined as cumulative grade point average and student program retention. The study used existing data which were obtained from a large public research university in the southwest United States. The study found that higher critical thinking was significantly associated with higher overall GPA, and this relationship was stronger in males as compared to females. However, students' critical thinking was not significantly related to program retention. Findings from this study appear to confirm previous studies indicating a positive relationship between students' ability to think critically and GPA. The study also suggests that elements promoting critical thinking can be successfully embedded into undergraduate curricula through various means, including the use of high impact practices.