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- The Journal of General Education
Assessing the Effectiveness of Critical Thinking Instruction
- Diane F. Halpern
- Penn State University Press
- Volume 50, Number 4, 2001
- pp. 270-286
- 10.1353/jge.2001.0024
- View Citation
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The Effectiveness of Instruction in Critical Thinking
- First Online: 08 April 2017
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- David Hitchcock 3
Part of the book series: Argumentation Library ((ARGA,volume 30))
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Studies have found only a small improvement in critical thinking skills in traditional stand-alone undergraduate critical thinking courses, moderate improvement when such courses involve computer-assisted tutoring or are combined with writing instruction and practice, and the largest improvements mainly in courses that focus on computer-assisted argument mapping. In addition, two recent meta-analyses suggest that the most effective method of improving critical thinking skills may be a unit of critical thinking instruction by a purpose-trained instructor in the context of subject-matter instruction with student discussion, engagement with a problem, and coaching.
Bibliographical note : This chapter was previously published with the same title in The Palgrave handbook of critical thinking in higher education , ed. Martin Davies and Ronald Barnett (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 283–294. © Martin Davies and Ronald Barnett. Reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan. The chapter adapts material from Hitchcock ( 2004 ).
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Hitchcock, D. (2017). The Effectiveness of Instruction in Critical Thinking. In: On Reasoning and Argument. Argumentation Library, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53562-3_31
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Published : 08 April 2017
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COMMENTS
The goal of critical-thinking instruction is to produce students who have become better thinkers in the real-world contexts that extend beyond the usual in-class exam.
Literature suggests that critical thinking can effectively combat misinformation (Machete & Turpin, 2020; Roozenbeek & van der Linden, 2019), but much of the existing research on teaching it...
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Assessing the Effectiveness of Critical Thinking Instruction. Halpern, Diane F. Journal of General Education, v50 n4 p270-287 2001. This article addresses the question "Where is the evidence that colleges can teach students to improve how they think?"