Today, experts agree that the level of cognitive development of modern young people affects the long-term life goals and outcomes that they set for themselves. During the course of numerous studies experts have identified such key competencies as problem solving, information literacy, and critical thinking. However, there are still many unanswered…

The purpose of the present research is to define the critical thinking levels and reading habits of students studying at the department of physical education and sports teaching and analysing the relationship between these. The participants of the present research are 136 pre-service physical education teachers studying at Mugla Sitki Kocman…

The Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded in 2002 for work on judgment and decision-making tasks that are the operational measures of rational thought in cognitive science. Because assessments of intelligence (and similar tests of cognitive ability) are taken to be the quintessence of good thinking, it might be thought that such measures would…

In this essay, I explore an exam format that pairs multiple-choice questions with required rationales. In a space adjacent to each multiple-choice question, students explain why or how they arrived at the answer they selected. This exercise builds the critical thinking skill known as metacognition, thinking about thinking, into an exam that also…

Background/Context: Empirical evidence suggests women faculty spend more time in campus service than men, which perpetuates inequality between men and women because research is valued more than service in academic reward systems, especially at research universities. Purpose/Focus of Study: In this study I apply insights from research on gender…

This article uses a well-received recent text--Hess and McAvoy's "The Political Classroom"--to suggest that democratic citizenship education today has a social accountability problem. I locate this discussion in the context of a longstanding conflict between the critical thinking approach to democratic citizenship education, the approach…

The educational literature, the popular press, and educated laypeople have all echoed a conclusion from the book "Academically Adrift" by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa (which has now become received wisdom), namely, that 45% of college students showed no significant gains in critical thinking skills. Similar results were reported by…

Mathematics educators and writers of mathematics education policy documents continue to emphasize the importance of teachers focusing on and using student thinking to inform their instructional decisions and interactions with students. In this paper, we characterize the interactions between a teacher and student(s) that exhibit this focus.…

Teachers are constantly being evaluated based upon their ability to provide the best education for their students. These evaluations are done at a macro level, where teachers must meet state and national mandates that deem them highly qualified, and at a micro level, where teachers must display proficiency as effective teachers through teacher…

Intelligent behavior in everyday contexts may depend on both ability and an individual's disposition toward using that ability. Research into patterns of thinking has identified three logically distinct components necessary for dispositional behavior: ability, inclination, and sensitivity. Surprisingly, sensitivity appears to be the most common…

Critical thinking ability is one among the life skills enlisted by the World Health Organisation. Citizens who can think critically are the need of the nation. The new era warrants persons who can think and evaluate the information correctly. It is the duty of education to inculcate the skill of critical thinking in the students, the future…

Universities claim that improved critical thinking ability is an educational outcome for their graduates, but they seldom create a path for students to achieve that outcome. In this practitioner action research study, the author created a job aid, entitled "Critical Thinking as a Differentiator for Distinguished Performance," to help…

Medical students master an enormous body of knowledge, but lack systematic problem solving ability and effective clinical decision making. High profile reports have called for reforms in medical education to create a better generation of doctors who can cope with the system based problems they would encounter in an interdisciplinary and…

Studies of professional learning in collaborative settings emphasize the importance of facilitators. However, there is sparse literature analyzing this role and its functions for learning in communal contexts particularly among teacher-educators. This study examines characteristics of the facilitator-teacher educator interaction and its functions…

Competences developed by multi-national higher education students during their intercultural experience remain poorly defined. For instance, proponents of intercultural competence disagree as to its specific components, and its critics advocate for either a more inclusive or non-western pedagogy. Yet, growing numbers of mobile students study…