Critical thinking appears in almost all universities' mission statements. Critical thinking can also help address a current and rampant problem in online education: plagiarism. But do faculty intentionally set out to create a clear understanding of what critical thinking is? Or is the idea : "I'll know it when I see it"? If we are to live up to this commitment to our mission, as faculty, we must: 1) understand the philosophical underpinnings of critical thinking 2) reflect on cognitive processes within our own disciplines and 3) explicitly teach these cognitive processes to students.
Critical thinking appears in almost all universities' mission statements. Additionally, with the move towards competency based learning, critical thinking is a must on that list as well. However, some research (Aruym and Roska, 2011) has shown that college students currently gain little to no skills in this area (as measured by the Collegiate Learning Assessment). Part of the problem lies in the fact that few faculty actually have intentionally set out to create a clear understanding of what critical thinking is - the idea being : "I'll know it when I see it".
Hidayat et al, 2018, demonstrated that students think critically about the various things that become content primarily in social media but less critically about academic information subjects. In online education, some authors argue that “online discussion strategies are rarely designed to specifically enhance learners critical thinking” (DiPasquale et el, 2018).
Critical thinking can also help address a current and rampant problem in online education: plagiarism. Student must take a position and explain why they are taking this position. Adding a personal reflection piece ensures that students are mindful of their own learning.
Research has shown that certain approaches can help learners to develop critical thinking abilities, and to give appropriate credit for others’ contributions (Arwendria et al, 2018). Other research suggests that plagiarism can be mitigated through assignment design (Heckler et al, 2013) or authentic assessments (Nyamapfene, 2011).
If we are to live up to this commitment to our mission, as faculty, we must: 1) understand the philosophical underpinnings of critical thinking 2) reflect on cognitive processes within our own disciplines and 3) explicitly teach these cognitive processes to students.
This session proposes an exchange of ideas and conversation on how to ensure intentionality in the process of embedding critical thinking in our teaching and learning.