Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Educational Leadership / Royce Ann Collins / Higher learning institutions identify the teaching of critical thinking skills to students as a goal of the academic programs offered. This study examined faculty perceptions for teaching critical thinking skills at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College (CGSC). CGSC is charged with educating the nation’s mid-career military officers for the world’s complexities that will challenge them during the next 5 to 10 years of their career. To accomplish this task, CGSC has a dedicated faculty development program to expose new faculty to critical thinking concepts and principles, and a curriculum that integrates critical thinking throughout the lesson plans designed to improve the students’ critical thinking skills during the course of the academic year. An exploratory mixed methods approach was used to examine the research questions. Faculty participated in a survey providing quantitative results (n = 83), and eight volunteers were interviewed expanding upon the quantitative results. Analysis of the quantitative results showed that instructors believe the most effective teaching techniques for fostering critical thinking skills are small group facilitated discussion, role play/simulation – which is manifested in planning exercises – and the use of case studies. Instructors identified monitoring classroom discussions and providing feedback on argumentative essays as the most effective techniques for assessing critical thinking. Analysis of the qualitative results uncovered three themes for effective teaching of critical thinking skills–use of instructional strategies, effectiveness in teaching, and faculty development–and four areas viewed as inhibitors to fostering critical thinking skills among students–faculty development, doctrine as a constraint, student experience, and time restraints in the curriculum. Those interviewed believed the institution has an effective program for fostering critical thinking skills among students, but identified areas for improvement in the faculty development program and the curriculum. Instructors considered the faculty development program at CGSC an effective program that provides a foundation for teaching critical thinking skills, and offered recommendations to improve the existing program. The study showed that faculty perceptions for fostering critical thinking skills among students are positive, with a belief that critical thinking skills may be taught at the graduate level.

Traditionally, education in Saudi Arabia has tended to lay considerable emphasis on the correct recall of memorised information. In the early years of the 21st century, education policy in Saudi Arabia began to consider the introduction of the concept of critical thinking into the curriculum. At the same time, the role and place of the sciences in the curriculum have increasingly been emphasized, the aim being to equip future generations with the skills thought important in taking the country forward. This study is, therefore, set in Saudi Arabia and focuses on the nature and development of critical thinking in the context of the current curriculum in the sciences. After describing the educational scene in Saudi Arabia, the thesis focuses on what is known about thinking in general and critical thinking in particular. The aim here is to move towards the development of a model of critical thinking and some kind of operational description against which test material can be developed. At that stage, it was recognised that, while critical thinking might be conceptualized as a set of cognitive skills, there is a strong attitudinal element. In simple terms, the learner needs to know how to think critically but also be willing to use these skills. There is a very brief review of some key research in the area of attitudes, including the principles of measurement which underpin the way the perceptions and attitudes of the learners are considered in this study. The cognitive nature of critical thinking is then related to two key research contributions of the 20th century: the work of Jean Piaget and David Ausubel. Critical thinking takes place in the working memory and the insights from information processing are discussed, looking at the ways information moves around the brain and the implications for the development of critical thinking are discussed. This study aims to explore how to measure critical thinking and to determine whether critical thinking skills can be developed in science subjects in school pupils. To achieve this aim, a model of critical thinking was first developed representing that thinking critically basically involves asking the questions how, what and why of new sources of information, the information itself and the linking processes involved in understanding. A test of critical thinking was developed based on this model. The data from this test were related to several other educational measures: student perceptions, working memory capacity, understanding science, school marks in science. Interviews with teachers and school inspectors were also conducted to explore their perceptions. The researcher is confident that the model and test make a contribution to the literature, as well as being of benefit to Saudi Arabia and to other countries. Critical thinking was measured with a total of 240 pupils, 120 girls and 120 boys, aged between 13 and 15, in classes 1, 2 and 3, in six Intermediate Schools in Saudi Arabia in the academic year 2009-2010. The questions in the test were designed so that success in the test relied on one or more of the aspects of critical thinking. The outcomes were related to working memory capacity and school science performance while student perceptions were measured. Principal Components analysis using Varimax rotation showed that the test designed to measure critical thinking was not measuring either science knowledge or understanding nor was it a measure of working memory capacity, but the school marks were highly correlated with working memory capacity. It was found that the measured critical thinking grew from year 1 to year 3; possible reasons are suggested. While the validity of the critical thinking test is not certain, it is not simply a measure of knowledge and understanding or of working memory capacity although any critical thinking would take place in the working memory. The survey offered many insights but, in particular, it revealed that most pupils had a negative attitude to science and showed broadly negative perceptions of science. The following experiment aimed to determine whether critical thinking skills could be developed in science subjects in school pupils. A fresh sample for the second experiment consisted of 1,600 pupils, from 12 schools, 800 girls and 800 boys, 400 of each in grade 1 (aged 13) and 400 in grade 3 (aged 15). Of these 400, 200 were in control groups and 200 in experimental groups. The pupils in the experimental groups were taught critical thinking skills using teaching material specifically developed for this research (which took 9 weeks to complete) and with a method proposed for it, while those in the control groups were taught in the normal way. The following were measured: student perceptions, working memory capacity, critical thinking, and understanding. The first two tests were identical to those used in experiment 1 and the critical thinking test was only slightly modified. In addition, their school marks were taken to make a fifth data set. Analysis of the data showed that critical thinking skills grew significantly after use of the new materials, with year 3 showing greater growth. Despite attempts to make the material gender neutral, boys were found to be better at critical thinking skills, although this may simply reflect gender-separated education. Principal components analysis again showed that critical thinking test data is unrelated to measured working memory capacity, measures of recall, and measures of understanding. The student survey was carried out with the purpose of examining pupils’ attitudes towards various aspects of thinking and critical thinking in the context of science teaching and some unexpected gender differences were observed. In the test of critical thinking skills, girls and boys in the experimental groups both performed better than did the control groups but the girls did not appear to be convinced that this is the case.A total of 98 science teachers and science inspectors were interviewed in order to explore their perceptions of critical thinking in science education. A range of themes was explored and there were some differences in their views which, in turn, did not seem to match the views of the students. Implications are discussed. The overall conclusions are that critical thinking can be measured and that it can be enhanced with school learners aged in the range 13 to 15. However, it is vital that educational policies, resources, national assessment and teacher training be adjusted if the development of critical thinking is to make much progress in Saudi Arabia. The limitations and implications of the study are outlined.

This study aimed to explore teachers&rsquo / conceptions of critical thinking and practices for critical thinking development in Turkish, social studies, science and technology and mathematics courses at seventh grade level. The study was conducted with a phenomenological approach in which 70 teachers from 14 elementary schools in Ankara participated. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with teachers. The findings of the study revealed that there were cognitive skills, dispositions and criteria that teachers perceived to relate to critical thinking. The results also shed light on teachers&rsquo / perceptions on the acquisition of critical thinking, the roles that they assumed in the process of enhancing students&rsquo / critical thinking, teaching approaches they held with regard to the enhancement of students&rsquo / critical thinking, and the conditions that they deemed necessary to develop critical thinking in class. Moreover, teachers&rsquo / planning for the integration of critical thinking into their instruction revealed the limitations of the programs in teaching for critical thinking and the alterations that they made to eliminate these limitations and set the stage for students to think critically. In addition, teachers&rsquo / practices for the incorporation of critical thinking into instruction at seventh grade level illuminated instructional strategies that teachers used, in-class activities that they conducted, and assignments that they gave to students for the purpose of fostering their critical thinking. Furthermore, perceptions on teachers&rsquo / assessment of students&rsquo / critical thinking provided insight into the instruments that teachers used in the assessment of students&rsquo / critical thinking, the kind of critical thinking skills and dispositions that they aimed to assess, their perceptions on criteria by which they judged students&rsquo / critical thinking, and reasons behind any reservations about the assessment of students&rsquo / critical thinking. Besides, teachers&rsquo / perceptions on obstacles to and opportunities for the development of students&rsquo / critical thinking helped to identify the factors that inhibited or fostered their ability to focus on critical thinking skills in their classes. Finally, it should be noted that with regard to all the aforementioned issues, discipline-specific categories, as well as the categories across all four disciplines, emerged.

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