Critical thinking ability is imperative for nurse practitioners in the multidimensional unfolding health care arena. Consensus as to what critical thinking entails has yet to be articulated. This non-empirical study thus set out to clarify the concept "critical thinking. Walker and Avant's (1995) proposal for conducting a concept analysis was used within the qualitative research paradigm. Literature selected from the fields of education, philosophy, nursing and psychology was consulted as the main source of data. Thematic and theoretical sampling of literature were also embarked upon during the later stage of the research to add density to emergent categories and themes. Categories were organised according to the Strauss and Corbin (1995) paradigmatic model; indicating the antecedents, disposition of the thinker, attributes and critical attributes, and outcomes of critical thinking. The findings indicate that critical thinking is a complex, multidimensional, dynamic, existential and context dependent mental operation. The essence of critical thinking is further illuminated by the construction of a model case and additional cases. The concept critical thinking is finally succinctly defined. The implications that critical thinking holds for nursing education and practice are spelled out. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

Contributions from elementary education to the practice and reality of critical thinking are rare, largely because attempts in basic education to elucidate a concept of critical thinking have a hard time breaking through the elusiveness and indeterminacy that characterize the history and reality of the concept. This situation is due to, and a consequence of, the difficulty of delimiting critical thinking from related fields, such as metacognition, higher-order-thinking, problem solving, informal logic, reasoning skills, and decision making, to name a few. Texas school authorities designed and put into practice a battery of tools to evaluate critical thinking through the assessment programs TAKS and STAAR, without taking a position regarding the indeterminacy problems of the content of critical thinking. The purpose of this study was to reconstruct the pieces of the critical thinking model imparted to Texas elementary school children since 1999 and continues today. The findings indicate that the critical thinking model implemented in Texas elementary schools is a particular version of a skills-only approach of critical thinking that follows the classical logical paradigm, consisting of two sets of complementary skills. This model acquaints students with the components and structure of five types of arguments while it fails to substantiate the logic of argument support that demonstrates how reasons support claims and the strength of support. The application of an adequacy conditions rubric showed the strengths of the model at the argumentation analysis level, yet it showed clear signs of incompleteness and inconsistencies at the argument structure level that distort its purpose and function.

This study sought to develop and validate content for the Organizational Support for Critical Thinking Inventory (OSCTI). Six focus group subject matter experts participated in a workshop guided by the techniques and procedures outlined in stage one of the Smith, Milberg, and Burke (1996) instrument development and validation process to develop draft items for the OSCTI. Benson and Clarke (1982) techniques were also utilized to establish content validity and focus group participants assumed the role of expert judges by participating in an electronic survey to rank the relative importance of all draft items produced by the individual members of the focus group. To test reliability, the OSCTI was administered on a sample of forty-three (n=43) participants from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education via an electronic survey. The Chronbach Alpha method was used to estimate the proportion of variance and a reliability coefficient of 0.97 resulted. A new fundamental and powerful concept of Organizational Support for Critical Thinking was newly defined in this study. This concept is embedded in the OSCTI, along with constructs of perceived organizational support (receptivity and valuing contributions) and critical thinking dimensions based on Dr. Richard Paul’s 35 Dimensions of Critical Thought. The OSCTI can be used by organizations to determine the extent to which it supports employees’ use of critical thinking in the workplace. Further construct validity and confirmatory factor analysis should be completed on different populations to further define organizational support for critical thinking and establish the predictive qualities and generalizability of the OSCTI.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

No description available.

D.Ed.

D.Phil. (Mathematics Education) / In tertiary education, a statement like ‘Low graduation rates prevail around the world’ is common knowledge since the 1940s, and therefore one does not need any longer to mention references. The factors that contribute to it though, are innumerable. One of those factors is the ability of a student to solve problems. Problem solving has been accepted as a prerequisite for lifelong learning by many governments and it is enshrined in their educational policies. However, problem solving can be associated with academic performance (mastery of content knowledge being a main contributor) as well as application/transfer of content knowledge. Critical thinking on the other hand is embedded in problem solving, acquisition of knowledge and application. Then an investigation into the relationships between all these constructs is warranted. This research aimed at shedding some or more light into this proverbial problem. Problem solving is equated by some authors to learning. Learning while solving problems and solving problems result in learning. Almost all theorists see problem solving as a process and be one of the products of learning. This research concluded that problem solving is a product of its own as a result of a number of complex cognitive processes. The simple argument is: If a problem solver cannot solve a problem successfully then no product is produced by those cognitive processes. In actual fact, the possibility of the existence of misconceptions could be one of the reasons for the failure of solving the problem. If that is true, then the statement: ‘we should be diagnosing rather than teaching’ could be valid. Furthermore, teaching problem solving as a process gives rise for it to be treated as an ‘algorithm’ by students which they try to memorise without having a conceptual understanding of the problem. However if it is treated as a product the students will be encouraged to think of the various cognitive processes that are necessary to solve the problem. This research concluded that cognitive processes such as critical thinking, acquisition of (mathematical) knowledge and application thereof, can lead to a product which was guided by ‘quality control processes’. Therefore problem solving in this research is not explicitly expressed but implicitly. As a result ‘successful problem solving’, the product, is closely associated with academic achievement.

Orientador: Milton Lahuerta / Banca: Arthur Oliveira Bueno / Banca: Luís Fernandes dos Santos Nascimento / Resumo: Investiga-se o meio em que se dá o desenvolvimento das ideias dos pensadores escoceses do século XVIII por meio da identificação de linguagens políticas comuns, reconstituição histórica, estudo do pensamento político e sociabilidade, sobretudo, em relação os clubes intelectuais nos quais participavam. Trabalhamos os conceitos de "intelectual" e de "sociabilidade". Utilizamos técnica de pesquisa histórica conhecida como 'contextualismo linguístico de Cambridge', cujos grandes expoentes são Quentin Skinner e John G. A. Pocock; também está contida a "história dos conceitos" trabalhada por Reinhart Koselleck. Por meio de pesquisa qualitativa e estudo bibliográfico, analisamos textos que abordam a temática "Iluminismo Escocês" tais como coletâneas de artigos, diários de observações, revistas da época, correspondências dos membros do clube, bem como algumas obras de relevo sobre o pensamento político escocês do século XVIII. / Abstract: We investigate the development of the ideas of Scottish thinkers of the eighteenth century through the identification of common political languages, historical reconstitution, study of political thought and sociability, especially in relation to the intellectual clubs in which they participated. We work on the concepts of "intellectual" and "sociability". We use historical research technique known as 'Cambridge linguistic contextualism', whose great exponents are Quentin Skinner and John G. A. Pocock; is also contained the "history of concepts" worked by Reinhart Koselleck .Through qualitative research and bibliographical study, we analyze texts that deal with the theme of "Scottish Enlightenment" such as collections of articles, journals of remarks, periodicals, correspondence of the members of the club, as well as some important works on Scottish political thought of the eighteenth century / Mestre

This is a qualitative research study that investigated the understanding of the concept of “critical consciousness” by female teachers teaching Arabic in Saudi Arabia’s high schools, the opportunity they have to develop critical consciousness, and how and why they develop it. The researcher engaged in semi-structured interviews with 25 female teachers who have at least nine years teaching experiences. The findings revealed that these teachers: (a) have a collective sense of the importance of critical consciousness skills to better themselves and Saudi Arabian society; (b) they are interested in and motivated to develop their critical thinking skills; (c) they develop critical consciousness in informal ways; and (d) the teaching practice in Saudi Arabia mostly relies on “banking education.” This is an unprecedented study in the field of students’ critical consciousness development in Saudi Arabia. The results have a number of important implications for future work and research in Saudi Arabia, as well as in neighboring countries that share similar complications related to the role and status of women in society.

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.