This qualitative case study sought to gain a deeper understanding of the obstacles that students from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia face when learning English in a writing course that implements critical thinking and writing process pedagogy. The study took place over five months at the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute in spring 2012. While ten participants--six female and four male Saudi Arabian ESL students--participated in this study, these findings focus primarily on one male and one female student. The aim of this focus was to give a rich and in-depth description of the two students. Two main queries guided this study: 1) How do sex differences affect Saudi students' perception of their teachers' and peers' authority? 2) How do those perceptions affect their development as writers and critical thinkers when learning in an intensive writing course at the high intermediate level? The researcher documented data through three sources: classroom observation, interviews with ESL students and teachers, and student writing samples. / Ph. D.

Summaries in Afrikaans and English / This thesis is a conceptual exploration of the concept "critical thinking" and is chiefly aimed at everyone involved in education in the new South Africa. The investigation is contextualised by critically examining certain motives for such an investigation and by assessing the importance of encouraging people to think critically. The focus is first on the relationship between the concepts "critical thinking", "thinking" and "rationality". Then follows a thorough analysis of the concept "critical thinking". Preconditions for the use of the concept are identified. The last part of the thesis deals with the relationship between critical thinking, learning and critical thinking can level. teaching, and a discussion on how be improved and promoted at school / Hierdie verhandeling is ·'n konseptuele verkenning van die begrip "kritiese denke" en is veral gerig aan almal wat by die opvoeding in die nuwe Suid- Afrika betrokke is. Die verkenning word gekontekstualiseer deur sekere motiewe vir so 'n ondersoek krities te bespreek en die belangrikheid daarvan om mense aan te moedig om krities te dink te bepaal. Daar word vervolgens eers gekonsentreer op die verhouding tussen die begrippe "kritiese denke", "denke" en "rasionaliteit". Daarna volg n grondige bespreking van die beg rip "kritiese denke". Voorwaardes vir die gebruik van die begrip word nagegaan. Die laaste gedeelte van die verhandeling handel oar die verhouding tussen kritiese denke, leer en onderrig en daar word beredeneer hoe kritiese denke op skoolvlak verbeter en bevorder kan word. / Philosophy, Practical & Ststematic Theology / M.A. (Wysbegeerte)

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.

Philosophical and physiological investigations define thought to be the result of thinking. psychological Inquiry has mainly focused on discovery of the mechanisms and topology of thought. Philosophical Inquiry either has explored the mind-body problem or has analyzed the linguistics of the expression of a thought. However, neither has Investigated adequately phenomenal characteristics of thought Itself, the Intermediary between the production and the expression of a thought. The use of thought to analyze phenomenal characteristics of thought engenders a paradox. If the expression of thought requires finite series of linked words with rules governing syntax, then analysis of both the thought and the expression of the thought must necessarily transcend the linguistic level. During the last century many examples of logical paradoxes In linguistics of thought have been given. The culminating difficulty of dealing with a finite structure, a characteristic of any language, Is Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, which says in essence that in order to render all decisions about a finite system requires the use of material outside the system. Thus, a potentially complete interpretation of thought must use some technique which is basically non-linguistic . Wittgenstein proposed such a method with his "Picture theory. " This technique solves the major paradoxical problem generated by investigation of a reflective system using the system itself , but leaves unsolved the question of ultimate resolution . Using pictorial models with examples to assist in understanding phenomenal characteristics of thought, this paper investigates basic units of thought, attempting to identify properties of a basic unit of thought and of the collection of thoughts for a person, and analyzes relationships and interactions between units of thought.

The purpose of this quantitative research study was to compare Chinese and American students’ inclined level of critical thinking using the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) (Insight Assessment, 2013). The literature of Paul and Elder (1996, 2000, 2005, 2010), Facione and Facione (1992, 1996) and Brookfield (2005, 2010, 2013) and the conceptual framework in this study provided the foundation for the main research question of whether there are differences between Chinese and American students’ scores on the seven individual scales and their total score on the CCTDI. The Sample included 41 Chinese and 50 American undergraduate and graduate students at Florida Atlantic University, a regional research university located in southeast Florida. Independent t-tests concluded that there were no differences between the 41 Chinese students and the 50 American students regarding their critical thinking dispositions on each of seven scales on the CCTDI. A factorial analysis of variance measured moderator questions to determine whether there was a difference between Chinese and American students’ CCTDI scores based on student gender, discipline of study, undergraduate or graduate status, or enrollment as an undergraduate within the United States. There were significant differences between the critical thinking dispositions of Chinese and American undergraduate and graduate students when comparing the scale of open mindedness and gender. There were also significant differences for the scale of confidence in reasoning and discipline. For the remaining questions, there were no significant differences. A Pearson’s correlation determined that there was no relationship between the length of time students had been in the United States and their scores on the CCTDI. Educational implications include that when problem-solving skills are developed in the college setting, critical thinking can be cultivated to help prepare students for work in future employment settings. Social implications include the use of critical thinking when faced with decision making in adults’ lives, as well as in their daily work. This study may be the foundation for future studies. Finally, educators may find the CCTDI helpful in positioning students’ critical thinking dispositions prior to learning or training activities. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

O presente trabalho - O Pensar e o Repensar sobre o Desenvolvimento - parte da premissa de que estamos submersos num modelo societário que é predatório e que, se por um lado, cria enorme quantidade de bens, por outro, o faz as expensas do agravamento das desigualdades sociais. Este trabalho se alicerça na \"crença\" de que esse quadro de desigualdades não poderá ser superado com a lógica que comanda o capitalismo. Vivemos num mundo controlado, ainda de forma firme, pelo capital, numa era de promessas que não podem ser cumpridas e que, em conseqüência, vem criando esperanças cada vez mais frustradas. Torna-se, então, imperativo abandonar a lógica do capital e adotar uma outra lógica - a do trabalho, para a partir dela, pensar numa outra Totalidade. Esta totalidade deverá ser construída definindo-se diferente relação de produção e, conseqüentemente, criando novas relações humanas, articuladas com outras premissas; relações que definam \"riqueza\", \"necessidades\", \"valor\" e \"utilidade\" de forma diferentes das consagradas pelo capital. Há, então, que se buscar um outro paradigma no qual o surgimento de uma nova ética permitirá uma outra regulação nas relações entre os homens, e entre estes e a natureza. Para a construção dessa outra Totalidade é absolutamente indispensável o fortalecimento da democracia - tomada como estratégia e não como tática. É no processo democrático, construído no dia a dia, sabendo-o, portanto, como processo interminável, que se poderá construir uma Totalidade de superação do capitalismo. Com novos valores e outro enfoque sobre o trabalho, há que se definir novas concepções para educação. Uma educação que pense o homem como criador, como produtor de sua própria vida criativa. Isso posto, não haveria mais lugar para uma educação utilitária, com discurso de qualificação - cuja função explícita é, inclusive, desprovida de veracidade. Não mais uma educação que pense o homem como produtor e como consumidor. Produtor sim, mas não de \"riqueza\"; de sua própria vida criativa. / The present study - The Thinking and Rethinking on the Development - presumes that we are surrendered to a society model that is predatory. Although this society model creates an enormous amount of goods, it does that at the expense of intensifying social inequality. This study is based on the \'belief\' that this inequality cannot be surpassed if the current logic that rules capitalism prevails. We live in a world yet decisively controlled by capitalism, by capital; in an era of promises that cannot be fulfilled, bringing about, as a consequence, increasingly frustrated hope. In this milieu, it is imperative to refuse capital logic and adopt a new one: the labor logic, from which it is possible to foresee another Totality. This totality must be built as a different relation of production, creating, therefore, new human relations, related with distinct premises; relations that will define \"wealth\", \"need\", \"value\" and \"utility\" in different ways than those ascribed by capital. It is urged, then, to look for another paradigm, in which the advent of new Ethics will allow a regulation of new type in the relation amongst human beings, and between them and the nature.The emergence of this distinct Totality requires the strengthening of democracy - taken as strategy and not as tactics. It will be in this democratic process, created on daily basis - therefore considered as an ongoing process - that a Totality for the capital suppression may be built. Along with new values and another viewpoint on labor, new education concepts must be defined; those that consider the human being as the creator, the producer of his/her creative life. Taking this notion in consideration, there would be no more room for a utilitarian education perspective, with its qualification speech - whose explicit objective is misleading. There will be no room for an education that looks at the human being as producer and consumer of goods and services. Indeed a producer of his own creative life, and not of \"wealth\".

A criatividade no design envolve um processo, que inclui tanto o processo cognitivo do indivíduo, quanto os processos de criação, de projeto e de comunicação. O pensamento criativo do indivíduo, com suas operações cognitivas e conhecimentos armazenados, permite a criação de novas conexões entre ideias. Entretanto, considerando uma perspectiva contextual e sistêmica, os pensamentos individuais serão também estimulados e influenciados por contextos sociais e trabalhos em grupos, nos quais as ideias são desenvolvidas também a partir da expressão e comunicação do pensamento do outro. Neste processo, o pensamento por analogias mostrou-se como um procedimento cognitivo fundamental para a formação de combinações e novas relações que são percebidas e então reorganizadas em uma ideia nova. Contudo, há lacunas a respeito do assunto, sobre como auxiliar esse tipo de pensamento nos indivíduos e que estratégias, métodos e estímulos podem ser utilizados em processo criativos em grupo. Nesse sentido, o objetivo desta tese é desenvolver um framework para auxiliar o processo criativo em design, centrando-se no pensamento por analogias, que identifique estratégias e mecanismos que apoiem esse processo em indivíduos e grupos de projeto. Para tanto, foi realizada uma revisão de literatura sobre criatividade, processo e pensamento criativo, bem como a respeito do pensamento por analogias e a sua ocorrência enquanto no pensamento criativo em design. A seguir, a fim de compreender o entendimento dos designers sobre o processo criativo e os facilitadores do pensamento por analogias na prática e no ensino do design, realizou-se a coleta de dados da investigação. A coleta foi realizada através de questionários virtuais para estudantes e docentes de design e de entrevistas semiestruturadas em escritórios de design. O grupo de sujeitos da pesquisa compreendeu designers brasileiros e portugueses, com diferentes níveis de experiência. Os dados obtidos foram analisados e triangulados com a análise da literatura, o que possibilitou o desenho de um modelo contendo os fatores críticos que influenciam a criatividade em grupos e indivíduos, um modelo do processo e pensamento criativo, a identificação de estratégias e mecanismos que podem auxiliar esse tipo de pensamento e, por fim, diretrizes para o desenho do framework conceitual. Com isso, foi desenvolvida uma primeira versão do framework, que foi avaliada com a realização de workshops com três grupos distintos de participantes, incluindo docentes, estudantes e profissionais de design. A partir das avaliações, aprimorou-se o framework conceitual, organizado em cinco etapas e contendo estratégias, ações, mecanismos, recomendações e sugestões de métodos, técnicas e ferramentas para auxiliar o processo criativo e o pensamento por analogias para a criação de conceitos em grupos de design. Dentre as ferramentas sugeridas, foi também desenvolvido um mapa visual, denominado canvas, a exemplo de ferramentas similares, contendo recomendações e questões-chave geradas a partir das estratégias do framework, a fim de auxiliar a sua aplicação na prática projetual. / Creativity in design involves a process that includes both the individual cognitive process as the creative, design and communication processes. The individual creative thinking, with their cognitive operations and knowledge stored, allows the creation of new connections between ideas. However, considering a contextual and systemic perspective, individual thoughts will also be stimulated and influenced by social context and work in groups in which ideas are also developed from the expression and communication of thought the other. In this process, the analogical thinking proved to be a key cognitive procedure for the formation of combinations and new relationships that are perceived and then reorganized into a new idea. However, there are gaps on the subject, how about helping this kind of thinking in individuals and strategies, methods and stimuli can be used in creative group process. In this sense, the objective of this thesis is to develop a framework to assist the creative process in design, focusing on thinking by analogies, identifying strategies and mechanisms to support this process in individuals and project groups. Therefore, there was a review of literature on creativity, process and creative thinking as well as about the thinking by analogies and their occurrence as cognitive process of design creative thinking. Next, in order to identify the understanding of the designers on the creative process and the facilitators of thinking by analogies in practice and design education, held the collection of research data. Data collection was conducted through virtual questionnaires for students and teachers design and semi-structured interviews in design offices. The sample consisted of Brazilian and Portuguese designers with different levels of experience. The data were analyzed and triangulated with the analysis of the literature, which enabled the design of a model containing the critical factors that influence creativity in individuals and groups, a model of the process and creative thinking, the identification of strategies and mechanisms that can assist this kind of thinking, and finally, guidelines for the design of the conceptual framework. Thus, a first version of the framework was developed, which was evaluated by conducting workshops with three different participating groups, including teachers, students and design professionals. From the assessments, improved the conceptual framework, organized into five steps and containing strategies, actions, mechanisms, recommendations and suggestions of methods, techniques and tools to assist the creative process and the thinking analogies to create concepts in groups of design. Among the suggested tools was also developed a visual map, called the canvas, like similar tools, containing recommendations and key issues generated from the framework of the strategies in order to assist their application in design practice.

Education literature is replete with articles on critical thinking in secondary and post secondary education. However, the bulk of this literature focuses on the process from the educators perspective of student performance and understanding of critical thinking. Very little research seems to have been done to uncover what the students themselves may think. <p>This thesis attempts to address this lack of enquiry into student perceptions by illuminating how a group of pre-service teachers (and one long service master teacher) have experienced critical thinking in their education, and how they define and understand it. The thesis consists of a literature review that briefly examines the history of critical thinking in education, and how student understandings of critical thinking are perceived by professors and others at the post secondary level.<p>Then, through a series of semi-structured interviews, the thesis examines the perspectives of eleven participants in comparison to those commonly held by writers and educators in the field. The data indicate that most of the participants did not acknowledge encountering critical thinking methodologies or structures during their K-12 education in any significant way, and that K-12 did not prepare them for critical thinking at the University level- and in fact often did not meet the criteria laid out in Saskatchewan Curricula. This finding is in general agreement with the literature. However, in addition, most of the students asserted that their experience indicated that high level critical thinking was not actually required for success at the undergraduate level.<p>The data from this thesis suggest that further study may be useful in understanding how critical thinking may be better taught and encouraged at all levels of education.

Education literature is replete with articles on critical thinking in secondary and post secondary education. However, the bulk of this literature focuses on the process from the educators perspective of student performance and understanding of critical thinking. Very little research seems to have been done to uncover what the students themselves may think. <p>This thesis attempts to address this lack of enquiry into student perceptions by illuminating how a group of pre-service teachers (and one long service master teacher) have experienced critical thinking in their education, and how they define and understand it. The thesis consists of a literature review that briefly examines the history of critical thinking in education, and how student understandings of critical thinking are perceived by professors and others at the post secondary level.<p>Then, through a series of semi-structured interviews, the thesis examines the perspectives of eleven participants in comparison to those commonly held by writers and educators in the field. The data indicate that most of the participants did not acknowledge encountering critical thinking methodologies or structures during their K-12 education in any significant way, and that K-12 did not prepare them for critical thinking at the University level- and in fact often did not meet the criteria laid out in Saskatchewan Curricula. This finding is in general agreement with the literature. However, in addition, most of the students asserted that their experience indicated that high level critical thinking was not actually required for success at the undergraduate level.<p>The data from this thesis suggest that further study may be useful in understanding how critical thinking may be better taught and encouraged at all levels of education.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between critical thinking abilities and critical thinking dispositions of preservice teachers in Taiwan. Critical Thinking Scale and Critical Thinking Disposition Scale were administrated to preservice teachers in Taiwan. A total of 1094 valid samples were obtained for investigating preservice teachers¡¦ critical thinking abilities, and 853 valid samples were obtained for investigating preservice teachers¡¦ critical thinking dispositions and the relationship between critical thinking abilities and critical thinking dispositions. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, one-way MANOVA, and canonical correlation. The results showed: (1) the scores of preservice teachers¡¦ critical thinking abilities and critical thinking dispositions were quite high; (2) female preservice teachers¡¦critical thinking abilities were significantly higher than male preservice teachers¡¦; (3) significant differences of critical thinking abilities across age levels were only found in Interpretation Subscale; (4) there were no significant differences of critical thinking abilities in education levels; (5) critical thinking abilities of preservice teachers at technological and vocational universities were significantly lower than general universities and universities of education; (6)critical thinking abilities of preservice teachers from college of social sciences were significantly lower than those from college of liberal arts and college of science; (7) there were significant differences of critical thinking abilities between those who took philosophical courses and those who did not take philosophical courses; (8) there was no significant relation between preservice teachers¡¦ critical thinking abilities and critical thinking dispositions; (9) preservice teachers¡¦ background, relevant curriculum experiences, and critical thinking dispositions accounted for 13% of critical thinking abilities through two canonical factors.