scholarly journals Online Learning in Higher Education to Encourage Critical Thinking Skills in the 21st Century

Author(s):  
Dewi Kusuma Wardani ◽  
Trisno Martono ◽  
Laurensia Claudia Pratomo ◽  
Duta Sabiila Rusydi ◽  
Dwi Hendra Kusuma
Author(s):  
Victoria Tuzlukova ◽  
Saleh Al Busaidi ◽  
Samantha Burns ◽  
Galina Bugon

This paper addresses the need to ensure that higher education is suitably adapted to equip students with effective skills, which are regarded key requirements for a successful professional career in the 21st century, and draws attention to the importance of these skills. In more detail, it reports on the result of a study conducted across higher education providers in the Sultanate of Oman that focused on teachers’ critical thinking skills’ conceptual knowledge and understanding; their views and perception of critical thinking in relation to the English language classroom; and the teaching and professional development of critical thinking. Findings reveal that teachers perceive the importance of employing critical thinking skills in their teaching, yet they lack support in their implementation. Both at an institutional level and in terms of professional development, there is scope for improving how critical thinking is incorporated in English language classrooms, instructional approaches and teaching materials.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Wender ◽  
Valerie J. D’Erman

ABSTRACT Teaching and learning in higher education is occurring, unavoidably, within the broader civic context of today’s extraordinarily polarizing political times. We seek to help students situate themselves with respect to and, above all, thoughtfully assess others’ as well as their own perspectives on issues of profound contention, without contributing to exacerbated polarization ourselves. Specifically, we offer students in our first-year exploratory political science course a vital tool—critical rigor—for navigating but not being inundated by the storm. This article discusses our experiences in teaching the course titled, “The Worlds of Politics,” as we attempt to help students deeply engage in cognitive processes of critical thinking and analysis, without undue infringement from their own—and least of all our own—personal political biases. Our focal learning objective is the cultivation of critical-thinking skills that promote students’ drawing of distinctions between advocacy and analysis, as well as their discerning civic engagement.


Author(s):  
Svetlana Antonova ◽  
Tatyana Pletyago ◽  
Anna Ostapenko

There is a demand for transformation in higher education. Undergraduates need to be taught critical thinking, an essential skill that should be central to the mission of all educational institutions. Critical thinking is a key focus of academic interest among researchers in the field of pedagogy and methodology. Despite this, there is still a lack of sufficient information on approaches, methods, techniques, and means of incorporating critical thinking skills in the classroom environment at the tertiary education level. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the hands-on experiences of some European and Asian universities in promoting critical thinking education using a range of academic models. The review shows that critical thinking has already been integrated into many major tertiary education programmes in both European and Asian universities. Further, majority of the academic models implemented are transferable and flexible. The results confirm that in terms of content, methods, and technologies, university education is focusing on cultivating the higher order skills necessary for innovative professional activities in modern world.


2021 ◽  
pp. 793-804
Author(s):  
Argi Virgona Bangun ◽  
Andria Pragholapati

Nursing higher education will challenge the dynamics of the work environment in the Industrial Revolution Era 4.0 and they will compete with digital technology. Critical thinking skills as one of the basic competencies must support higher education in preparation for the industrial revolution 4.0. Exploring thinking skills makes nursing students will be trained in their punishment and analysis skills according to their knowledge. Critical thinking skills not only guide students to develop continuing skills, but also help nursing students to be motivated to create innovation in college. The aims of this review is to learn the critical skills needed in higher education to prepare for the industrial revolution 4.0 based on literature understanding. There are 6 (six) important things about Critical Thinking in nursing education in the Industrial Revolution Era 4.0, namely Definition of Critical Thinking, Why do we need to focus on critical thinking in higher education, Why is critical thinking needed in industry 4.0 preparation, Industry Innovation 4.0 and human potential to overcome environmental problems, Critical Thinking in Nursing Education, and Educational Strategies for Developing Critical Thinking in Nursing. These critical thinking skills are suitable for equipping students in higher education before they enter different workplaces. Educational strategies in developing critical thinking skills by supporting the use of questions, small group activities, role plays, debates, use of case studies, journals, simulations, puzzles, problem solving and writing assignments. Nursing students who think critically in line with creative thinking and innovation will be useful to survive in the dynamics of the industrial revolution 4.0 and beyond in the world of the future.     Keywords: Critical Thinking, Nursing Higher Education, Industrial Revolution 4.0


Author(s):  
Joseph Albert Cernik

This chapter focuses on the shortcomings of learning about complex policy issues from television news. The chapter uses the Vanderbilt University Television News Archive website to examine issues raised and not raised by television news, as well as the duration of time spent on issues by news shows. Examining the limitations of television news' ability to present and address complex public policy issues serves as a means to focus on critical thinking in the higher education setting. Two public policy issues are explored in this chapter, Constitutional interpretation and the Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as ObamaCare, as the means to show how limited television news is regarding presenting the often frustrating aspects of complex policy issues. Several methods used by the author to help students apply critical thinking skills are discussed. The results of these methods are also addressed.


Author(s):  
Mohan Rathakrishnan ◽  
Arumugam Raman

Trello online discussion has become one of the important strategies for the University Utara Malaysia Management Foundation Programme student to teach other students to think critically in conveying their ideas and become more proactive and creative in critical thinking subject. In a heutagogical approach, learners become highly autonomous and self-determined while learning online. They use Trello online discussion tool as self-determination learning. Trello enable the learners to use their capacity and capability with the goal of producing learners. Trello online learning was conducted to examine its effectiveness in enhancing macro critical thinking among active-reflective learning style. The students discuss and write their ideas in Trello. Ideas that are posted in Trello will be displayed in front of the class so that the entire learners in the class could see the given ideas. Paul's model was used to analyze learners' critical thinking in Trello online discussion.


Author(s):  
Maureen N. Short ◽  
Yolanda Keller-Bell

This chapter contends that increasing technological innovation has disrupted and continues to disrupt the labor markets making some jobs obsolete and workers redundant. The key to success in the twenty-first century and future labor markets is to combine hard and soft skills into a comprehensive package tailored to specific needs including the ability to think clearly about complex problems, apply creative and innovation solutions to solve problems, and apply new knowledge and skills in new settings. This chapter will provide a discussion of some of the reasons underlying the demand for higher workforce skills and a descriptive overview of curricula and pedagogy that promote students' acquisition and application of critical thinking skills as well as other skills considered essential for 21st century workforce.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Day ◽  
Cindy Guo ◽  
Nicole Ferrari ◽  
Heather Edgecumbe ◽  
Christine Broadbridge

ABSTRACTThis multi-phased study investigates the learning outcomes of courses taught in the K-14 classroom. Specifically, the methods and practices teachers use to develop and encourage 21st Century Skills including critical thinking skills and technological fluency in all subject areas, STEM and non-STEM related, are of great interest. Currently, these skills are in high demand in fields which develop advanced materials and are the backbone of the National Academiesdeveloped Frameworks for K-12 Science Education. Phase I participants in this study included high school and college educators while Phase II of the study will involve K-14 students. In this study, educators were asked to rate their teaching self-efficacy in two primary areas: critical thinking skills and technological fluency. This included questions related to components in their current curriculum as well as methods of assessment [e.g., rubrics]. The instrument created to measure self-efficacy was based on a modified ‘Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument' (STEBI). All participants were from Connecticut. Results indicate that both STEM and non-STEM related subject areas offer an equally rich array of opportunities to effectively teach critical thinking and technological fluency at a variety of educational levels. The impact of Professional Development on teacher self-efficacy was of particular importance, especially in K-12 education.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Wan Tur Tasnim Wan Husssin ◽  
Jamalludin Harun ◽  
Nurbiha A Shukor

Interaction is one of the crucial processes in online learning, which is a process derived from a common encouragement among people action that they able to utilize, store, share and construct knowledge. It is believed that the interaction among students is able to train the students to involve in active learning and enhance critical thinking skill. Recently, critical thinking is recognized as one of the 21st-century skills that students must have to do well in the community. The engagement of the students in a learning environment that supports higher-order thinking activity is the most effective approach to guide the students in developing critical thinking skills. Nevertheless, without the assistance of technology, it may be nearly impossible to ensure that all students have access to learning environments that support and develop these skills. The way students study, interact and think has been shifted due to the increasing use of technologies in learning institutions, particularly during online learning. The online platform is better when there are students interact with each other in form of social learning. Nonetheless, limited research is available on how online interaction in the social learning environment can promote students’ critical thinking skill. This study utilized a theory-building method to design the framework. The purpose of the framework of this study is to assist other practitioners and researchers in applying the elements of online interaction in a social learning environment to foster students’ critical thinking skill.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vivian Miu-Chi Lun

<p>In the midst of an increasingly changing world, the ability to think critically has become a crucial attribute expected of university graduates. However, the endorsement of critical thinking in higher education has been challenged by the growing cultural diversity in university classrooms. Concerns about Asian students' lack of critical thinking and the appropriateness of critical thinking instruction in international education have been raised by teaching professionals. The present dissertation sought to understand the influence of culture on the teaching and learning of critical thinking in higher education. Chapter 2 presented a study examining the instructional contexts of Hong Kong and New Zealand. It was found that similar assessment methods were employed in the university courses in both cultures, but university courses in Hong Kong placed more emphasis on knowledge development whereas those in New Zealand explicitly described critical thinking in the course objectives. Chinese international and New Zealand European postgraduate students were individually interviewed to investigate the exact influence of cultural-educational contexts in Asia and New Zealand on university students' conception and practice of critical thinking (Chapter 3). Both samples of students held similar conceptions of critical thinking, but reported differences in their socialization experiences regarding the practice of critical thinking in their respective cultures. Specifically, stronger inhibition on students' practice of critical thinking was noted in Asia than in New Zealand. In Chapter 4, two studies that investigated the differences in critical thinking skills between Asian and New Zealand European students are presented. In both studies, New Zealand European students were found to perform better than their Asian counterparts on an objective measure of critical thinking skills. The difference was explained by students English language ability but not cultural factors such as cultural differences in cognitive styles or behavioral adoption of New Zealand culture. It was suggested that observed cross-cultural difference in critical thinking skills is related more to language ability rather than cultural variables. A significantly positive relationship between critical thinking skills and academic performance was found, and the relationship was not significantly different between Asian and New Zealand European student samples (Chapter 5). The relationship was also not different as a function of students' adoption of New Zealand culture, indicating that pedagogy with an emphasis on critical thinking is similarly applicable to both Asian and New Zealand European students. Overall, the present findings indicated that culture has an important influence on students' practice of critical thinking. Although there is cross-cultural difference in critical thinking skills between Asian and Western student samples, the difference appears to be related more to language ability rather than cultural factors. The present thesis provided empirical evidence to show that culture influences the educational practice of critical thinking, but the influence of culture does not necessarily impede the application of critical thinking instruction in international classrooms. With appropriate adaptation, critical thinking instruction can be beneficial to the intellectual development of students regardless of their cultural backgrounds.</p>


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