The purpose of this study was to compare participants' performance on an ill-structured scenario within three conditions (individual reflection, group reflection, and those who did not reflect/control) to understand if, and in which environment, the critical thinking prompts influenced the development of critical thinking skills. This was tested through a college Business course where participants in the treatment conditions were given reflection prompts (i.e., intervention) to respond to either individually (T1) or collectively (T2), prior to solving an ill-structured scenario. Participants in the control condition were not asked to engage in the reflection prompts prior to solving the scenario. In addition, at the end of each class session, the participants responded to a self-reported survey to measure their satisfaction with the activity. Results indicate that there was no difference in the performance scores when comparing those who did participate in reflection activities and those who did not; nor a difference in scores of participants in different environments. The findings do provide evidence that there were differences in critical thinking skills across time. The reflection environment does not impact the reported satisfaction. As a result of these findings, instructors should consider implementing reflection activities, not in isolated occurrences, but multiple times across an extended time period to improve critical thinking skills. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2014. / February 27, 2014. / Critical Thinking, Reflection / Includes bibliographical references. / Valerie Shute, Professor Directing Dissertation; Kathy Guthrie, University Representative; Vanessa Dennen, Committee Member; James Klein, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_185235 |
| Contributors | Dorn, Rebekah L. (authoraut), Shute, Valerie (professor directing dissertation), Guthrie, Kathy (university representative), Dennen, Vanessa (committee member), Klein, James (committee member), Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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