Meeting the Demands of the 21st Century Workplace: Effects of Critical Thinking Instruction on the Application of Critical Thought

One of the primary goals of education is to foster critical thinking. Since approximately 1980, both educators and employers have questioned whether the educational system in the United States has adequately prepared students in the area of critical thinking sufficient to meet the demands of 21st century workforce. The problem addressed, therefore, is that students consistently continue to graduate from the U.S. educational system with inadequate critical thinking skills. This problem prompted the researcher to question the transformational effects, if any, of teaching critical thinking within higher education. The intent of explicit critical thinking instruction is not only to increase students' critical thinking skills, but equally important is to enhance their ability to consistently apply those skills in a myriad of situations. The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to examine the change, if any, in critical thinking skills and application of critical thinking among undergraduates based on whether they receive explicit critical thinking instruction throughout an introductory Physics course. The study explored the effects of deliberately teaching critical thinking skills and the application of those skills to real-world situations. Participants included 85 freshman and sophomore cadets enrolled in an introductory physics course at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado during the fall semester of 2015. Cadets were randomly sampled from a possible 218 cadets. Data were collected with two instruments: the Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment and a Real World Outcomes (RWO) inventory. Although the raw data revealed increases in participants' critical thinking skills and their ability to apply critical thinking, results of statistical analyses were not consistent with existing literature on critical thinking skills. Of the intended sample size n=85, only 36 participants completed all pre- and post- intervention assessments. With a low sample size all statistical tests indicated no significant relationship between the explicit critical thinking instruction and participants' critical thinking skills or their ability to apply critical thought to real-world situations. Replication of this study, with a larger sample size, is recommended to further examine whether teaching critical thinking would have a transformative effect on participants' critical thinking skills and, more importantly, on their ability to consistently apply those skills in real-world situations.