Stimulating critical thinking in higher education

Critical thinking as an ideal of higher education is particularly important in the education of prospective teachers, who are expected to be critical thinkers capable of teaching others to think critically. Critical thinking is a complex and multidimensional concept encompassing a broad range of abi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Partalo Dragan, Skopljak Margareta, Mihajlović Tatjana
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Pedagoško društvo Srbije i Institut za pedagogiju i andragogiju Filozofskog fakulteta Univerziteta u Beogradu 2019-01-01
Series:Nastava i Vaspitanje
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0547-3330/2019/0547-33301902231P.pdf
_version_ 1818143505988452352
author Partalo Dragan
Skopljak Margareta
Mihajlović Tatjana
author_facet Partalo Dragan
Skopljak Margareta
Mihajlović Tatjana
author_sort Partalo Dragan
collection DOAJ
description Critical thinking as an ideal of higher education is particularly important in the education of prospective teachers, who are expected to be critical thinkers capable of teaching others to think critically. Critical thinking is a complex and multidimensional concept encompassing a broad range of abilities and dispositions. Different approaches to critical thinking instruction are rooted in different understandings of the concept. Authors tend to debate the relative merits of three approaches: a separate module aimed at developing general critical thinking abilities, critical thinking instruction integrated into existing courses, or a combination of the two. A Likert-type scale was used to elicit the attitudes to the promotion of critical thinking in education of a sample of 539 pedagogy and education students of the University of Banja Luka. Factor analysis identified four ways of stimulating critical thinking in higher education: meaningful learning, thought-provoking questions, exploratory teaching and learning strategies, and stimulating practice. The results indicate that most students believe critical thinking is best promoted through meaningful learning in the classroom, while exploratory teaching and learning strategies are least cited. Differences were identified between students of different study programs and different years of study. The research findings indicate that there is a need for designing new models of critical thinking stimulation while taking into account different study programs, years of study and students' needs in terms of their future careers in education.
first_indexed 2024-12-11T11:32:45Z
format Article
id doaj.art-279bcff64bb3427da3b0019a3bf6af57
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 0547-3330
2560-3051
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-11T11:32:45Z
publishDate 2019-01-01
publisher Pedagoško društvo Srbije i Institut za pedagogiju i andragogiju Filozofskog fakulteta Univerziteta u Beogradu
record_format Article
series Nastava i Vaspitanje
spelling doaj.art-279bcff64bb3427da3b0019a3bf6af572022-12-22T01:08:49ZengPedagoško društvo Srbije i Institut za pedagogiju i andragogiju Filozofskog fakulteta Univerziteta u BeograduNastava i Vaspitanje0547-33302560-30512019-01-016822312500547-33301902231PStimulating critical thinking in higher educationPartalo Dragan0Skopljak Margareta1Mihajlović Tatjana2Univerzitet u Banjoj Luci, Filozofski fakultet, Bosna i HercegovinaUniverzitet u Banjoj Luci, Filozofski fakultet, Bosna i HercegovinaUniverzitet u Banjoj Luci, Filozofski fakultet, Bosna i HercegovinaCritical thinking as an ideal of higher education is particularly important in the education of prospective teachers, who are expected to be critical thinkers capable of teaching others to think critically. Critical thinking is a complex and multidimensional concept encompassing a broad range of abilities and dispositions. Different approaches to critical thinking instruction are rooted in different understandings of the concept. Authors tend to debate the relative merits of three approaches: a separate module aimed at developing general critical thinking abilities, critical thinking instruction integrated into existing courses, or a combination of the two. A Likert-type scale was used to elicit the attitudes to the promotion of critical thinking in education of a sample of 539 pedagogy and education students of the University of Banja Luka. Factor analysis identified four ways of stimulating critical thinking in higher education: meaningful learning, thought-provoking questions, exploratory teaching and learning strategies, and stimulating practice. The results indicate that most students believe critical thinking is best promoted through meaningful learning in the classroom, while exploratory teaching and learning strategies are least cited. Differences were identified between students of different study programs and different years of study. The research findings indicate that there is a need for designing new models of critical thinking stimulation while taking into account different study programs, years of study and students' needs in terms of their future careers in education.https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0547-3330/2019/0547-33301902231P.pdfcritical thinkinghigher educationuniversity students
spellingShingle Partalo Dragan
Skopljak Margareta
Mihajlović Tatjana
Stimulating critical thinking in higher education
Nastava i Vaspitanje
critical thinking
higher education
university students
title Stimulating critical thinking in higher education
title_full Stimulating critical thinking in higher education
title_fullStr Stimulating critical thinking in higher education
title_full_unstemmed Stimulating critical thinking in higher education
title_short Stimulating critical thinking in higher education
title_sort stimulating critical thinking in higher education
topic critical thinking
higher education
university students
url https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0547-3330/2019/0547-33301902231P.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT partalodragan stimulatingcriticalthinkinginhighereducation
AT skopljakmargareta stimulatingcriticalthinkinginhighereducation
AT mihajlovictatjana stimulatingcriticalthinkinginhighereducation