The key purposes of this study were to determine the extent that people purport to utilise critical thinking in educational and organisational settings; second, to examine the forces that encouraged and discouraged critical thinking and third, to identify strategies and environments that encourage and foster critical thinking. The literature examined shows that the use and teaching of critical thinking has been well represented in educational settings. However, upon an initial review of literature within organisations it appeared that the term critical thinking was not commonly used. While critical thinking occurred within organisations it tended to be defined as problem solving and decision making approaches. The model of critical thinking which underpinned this research was that of Stephen Brookfield (1987). Brookfield's model was tested through the design of the methodology. A total of ninety three surveys were completed by students at the University of Canberra from the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Management. Thirteen individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a selection of these students. The data suggested that critical thinking occurred both within educational and organisational environments. One of the main impediments to the use of critical thinking was the availability of ample time and the respondents claimed that they had more time to apply critical thinking during their studies rather than at work. The respondents identified strategies such as brainstorming, role playing and modelling behaviour as some of the approaches that would increase the likelihood of the use of critical thinking at work and study. An unanticipated finding was that individuals applied a different interpretation in the application of critical thinking within organisations compared to educational settings.

This study examines the use of a digital Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ), which was originally developed by Professor Stephen Brookfield, to extract perspectives of students on the lecture/lesson they had just conducted. Three FE colleges in the UK took part in the study and utilised a blog for students to post their comments. Students conducting media production courses at level three and four were the focus groups that submitted approaching two thousand CIQ responses over two academic years. The aim of utilising the CIQ was for a course tutor to receive additional perspectives on their practice and instant on-event feedback, resulting in identifying whether the learners mimicked the course tutor’s perspective. The findings indicate that the other perspectives gathered from the CIQ provided the course tutor with a greater understanding of their practice and assisted them in becoming more critically reflective. Additionally, some CIQ comments were different from the assumptions of the course tutor, which allowed them to adapt the delivery of the programme. Furthermore, utilising the data from the CIQ has identified that some of the comments students provide to the course tutor in-class do not mimic the comments of the CIQ. Moreover, comments received through the CIQ identify that there are also managerial implications, such as the usefulness and reliability of teaching observations, student induction and exit questionnaires. Utilising a blog format allowed students to submit their responses on a variety of digital devices, but some problems remained similar to Brookfield’s carbon paper-based system. There appears to be a definite place for using the CIQ in FE educational practice, and many best practice recommendations are constructed.