Reflexive Account of an Indonesian International Student’s Challenges and Opportunities in a U.K. University’s Doctoral Education Program

This study is an autoethnography focused on providing an in-depth understanding of my personal experiences as an international doctoral student from Indonesia in a university in the United Kingdom. In this article, I share and discuss some challenging situations during my doctoral study particularly in writing a 5,000-word-essay for nine modules, which required me to explicitly perform critical thinking in my writing. I found that expressing my critical voice in writing was not easy, especially at the outset of my doctoral study period. I believe my previous education experiences neglected critical thinking pedagogy in the classroom, which is one of the most important factors causing this kind of difficulty of demonstrating critical thinking especially in writing.

Design of assignments using the 21st century bloom’s revised taxonomy model for development of critical thinking skills

Studies on the development of critical thinking skills with specific curriculum materials and instructional methods are few and have been highly theoretical and far removed from practical concerns and applications. This paper contributes to the existing literature on critical thinking pedagogy by providing examples of written assignments that are designed using the 21st century Bloom’s taxonomy model to contribute to critical thinking development. The step-wise development of critical thinking skills approach is provided. The paper argues that both focus on real problems and issues and provision of clear unambiguous instructions are critical fundamentals of critical thinking skills development. The paper also illustrates how to develop critical thinking assignments by providing five examples of course assignments within business education.

Teaching critical thinking as a vehicle for personal and social transformation

During the second half of the 20th century, a new pedagogical movement emerged, which centered around the concept of critical thinking. While the movement soon became a significant player in the pedagogical field, its proponents continued to develop the theoretical and practical aspects of critical thinking, aiming to transform it into a full-fledged pedagogical ideal. However, at least two major issues have remained unresolved in critical thinking pedagogy. The first is the desired nature of the relation between the cognitive, moral, and social dimensions of critical thinking. The second involves the grave difficulties, many times accompanied by lack of success, encountered by teachers and educators who wish to promote critical thinking education. Therefore, in this paper, I examine the evolution of the ideal of critical thinking, arguing that from the outset it has contained—even if only in latent form—ethical, moral, and social elements, and thus these elements need to be explicitly integrated into the ideal. I then demonstrate the implementation of this broadened ideal of critical thinking in teacher education and offer a further expansion of the ideal, which strengthens its relationship to the notion of social justice, while, at the same time, suggests a way of improving the implementation of critical thinking education in the overall educational system.

Teaching Critical Thinking and the Role of Team Teaching

Critical thinking pedagogy is usually conceived as a solo teacher working with multiple students. Yet, if we take seriously the finding that students benefit enormously from seeing their instructors model critical thinking in front of them, and telling them that this is what they are doing, then team teaching represents a missed opportunity in this pedagogy. Instructors teaching as part of a team can show students how to ask questions of each other, how to disagree without condemning a peer, how to open each other up to multiple perspectives, and how to point out assumptions that each other holds. When all members of a teaching participate in all planning, instruction and evaluation, then students can see a critical dialogue unfolding before them. After laying out research on how students learn to think critically this chapter outlines the benefits of team teaching for both students and faculty members.