Learning Style Changes and Their Relationship to Critical Thinking Skills


Book Description

This study reports on the results of a research on learning styles and critical thinking skills of sixty eight postgraduate students of Master's Level Business Education Programs. These students have participated in both phases of our research. In the first phase, carried out in spring 2005, Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI v.3) was the basis of the administered questionnaire and in the second phase, carried our in winter 2005 - 06, the LSI v.3 and the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) were the basis of the administered questionnaire. Results show that the prevailing learning style types are the 'assimilating' and the 'converging' ones. Between the first and the second phase students have become more balanced learners. This balanced learning development relates to both 'Concrete - Abstract' and 'Active - Reflective' dimensions of the learning process and this latter dimension correlates significantly with students' critical thinking skills on all scales of the used instrument.




Thinking Styles


Book Description

Sternberg presents a theory of thinking styles that aims to explain why aptitude tests, school grades, and classroom performance often fail to identify real ability.










Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum


Book Description

Consider that many of the people who are alive today will be working at jobs that do not currently exist and that the explosion of information means that today's knowledge will quickly become outdated. As a result, two goals for education clearly emerge -- learning how to learn and how to think critically about information that changes at a rapid rate. We face a multitude of new challenges to our natural environment, difficult dilemmas concerning the use of weapons of mass destruction, political agendas for the distribution of scarce commodities and wealth, psychological problems of loneliness and depression, escalating violence, and an expanding elderly population. International in scope and in magnitude, these new problems strain resources and threaten the continuance of life on earth. To creatively and effectively attack these imminent problems, a well educated, thinking populace is essential. An abridged edition of Halpern's best-selling text, Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum is designed to help students enhance their thinking skills in every class. The skills discussed are needed in every academic area and setting -- both in and out of class. They are: determining cause; assessing likelihood and uncertainty; comprehending complex text; solving novel problems; making good decisions; evaluating claims and evidence; and thinking creatively. In this adaptation of her best-selling text, Diane Halpern applies the theories and research of cognitive psychology to the development of critical thinking and learning skills needed in the increasingly complex world in which we work and live. The book is distinguished by its clear writing style, humorous tone, many practical examples and anecdotes, and rigorous academic grounding. Everyday examples and exercises promote the transfer of critical thinking skills and dispositions to real-world settings and problems. The goal is to help readers recognize when and how to apply the thinking skills needed to analyze arguments, reason clearly, identify and solve problems, and make sound decisions. Also of importance, a general thinking skills framework ties the chapters together, but each is written so that it can "stand alone." This organization allows for maximum flexibility in the selection of topics and the order in which they are covered. This book is intended for use in any course emphasizing critical thinking as an approach to excellence in thinking and learning.




The University and its Disciplines


Book Description

University teaching and learning take place within ever more specialized disciplinary settings, each characterized by its unique traditions, concepts, practices and procedures. It is now widely recognized that support for teaching and learning needs to take this discipline-specificity into account. However, in a world characterized by rapid change, complexity and uncertainty, problems do not present themselves as distinct subjects but increasingly within trans-disciplinary contexts calling for graduate outcomes that go beyond specialized knowledge and skills. This ground-breaking book highlights the important interplay between context-specific and context-transcendent aspects of teaching, learning and assessment. It explores critical questions, such as: What are the ‘ways of thinking and practicing’ characteristic of particular disciplines? How can students be supported in becoming participants of particular disciplinary discourse communities? Can the diversity in teaching, learning and assessment practices that we observe across departments be attributed exclusively to disciplinary structure? To what extent do the disciplines prepare students for the complexities and uncertainties that characterize their later professional, civic and personal lives? Written for university teachers, educational developers as well as new and experienced researchers of Higher Education, this highly-anticipated first edition offers innovative perspectives from leading Canadian, US and UK scholars on how academic learning within particular disciplines can help students acquire the skills, abilities and dispositions they need to succeed academically and also post graduation. Carolin Kreber is Professor of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and the Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Assessment at the University of Edinburgh







College Success


Book Description




Thinking Skills Instruction


Book Description

This book is a collection of essays on thinking skills instruction and includes the following chapters and their authors: "Encounter with Thinking" (H. Anderson); "Thinking Skills: Neither an Add-on nor a Quick Fix" (A. Costa); "Teaching for Thinking, of Thinking, and about Thinking" (J. McTighe); "Thinking and Curriculum: Critical Crossroads for Educational Change" (B. Presseisen); "Critical Thinking and the Curriculum" (R. Ennis); "Conversation with David N. Perkins"; "Critical Thinking Attitudes and the Transfer Question" (A. Swartz); "Thinking across the Disciplines: Methods and Strategies to Promote Higher-Order Thinking in Every Classroom" (D. Halpern); "Practice Is Not Enough" (B. Beyer); "Learning to Learn: Improving Thinking Skills across the Curriculum" (M. Heiman); "A Strategy for Developing Dialectical Thinking Skills" (J. Rudinow and R. Paul); "Strategies for Active Involvement in Problem Solving" (J. Karmos and A. Karmos); "Restructuring What We Teach to Teach for Critical Thinking" (R. Swartz); "Developing Metacognition in Composition with Peer Response Groups" (L. Meeks); "Basics in Bloom" (N. Hoelzel); "Teaching Thinking to Teach Literature while Teaching Literature to Teach Thinking" (N. Yeager); "Using Thinking Skills in Modified ESL" (P. Jaynes); "The Direct Teaching of Analysis" (R. Charlton); "Conversation with Arthur Whimbey"; "Teaching Precise Processing through Writing Instruction" (K. Didsbury); "Thinking about Learning: An Anarchistic Approach to Teaching Problem Solving" (J. Lochhead); "Holistic Thinking Skills Instruction: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Improving Intellectual Performance" (W. Sadler, Jr.); "Cognitive Modifiability in Adolescence: Cognitive Structure and Effects of Intervention" (R. Feuerstein and others); "Using Vocabulary Study to Generate Thinking" (E. Roberts); "Teaching Critical Thinking: Are We Making Critical Mistakes? Possible Solutions" (R. Sternberg); "The Direct Teaching of Thinking as a Skill" (E. de Bono); "Developing Students' Thinking Skills through Multiple Perspectives" (R. Rubin); "Developing Thinking Skills in Music Rehearsal Class" (D. Reahm); "Developing Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Home Economics: A Lesson Plan" (N. Watts); "Using Literature to Develop Critical Thinking Skills" (M. Tymoczko); "Questioning in a Writing Program to Develop Thinking" (P. Flemming);"Simulation and Thinking" (R. Levitsky); "The Pre-Contact Time American Indian: A Study in the Meaning and Development of Culture--A Teaching Unit" (J. Feeser); "Think Metric" (D. Gallo); and "The Art of Socratic Reasoning" (E. Skorpen). (MS)