How do we find what we

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How do we find what were looking for? Critical
thinking in the university curriculum
UCD Fellows in Teaching and Academic Development
Tom OConnor Aoife Ahern Gerry MacRuairc
Martin McNamara
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Fellowships in Teaching and Academic Development

• Initiative under Strategic Innovation Fund
• Purpose Conduct research which is of strategic
  importance to the development of teaching and
  learning in UCD
• 2009-2011 (7 fellows)
• http//www.ucd.ie/fellows/

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Teaching for transitions Graduate Attributes

• Need for universities to clarify the nature of
  the education they provide and clarifying the
  contributions of their graduates to society
• Impetus to describe graduate attributes
• Employers
• Policy makers
• Professional groups/organisations
• Local UCD education strategy
• What are they?
• Qualities, skills and understanding gained as a
  result of university education
• Generic and beyond purely disciplinary boundaries
• Prepares graduate not only for employment but as
  agents for social good
• Tensions skills versus attributes, Generic
  versus specific.
• (Bowden et al 2000 Barrie 2006, 2007, Jones 2009)

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Critical thinking

• Considered a (the) key graduate attribute
• Difficulty in definition
• Cognitive skill
• Linked variously to logic, problem solving,
  scepticism examining evidence, exploring
  contradictions/complexities, development of
  argument, open mindedness.
• 3 tiered model (Barnett 1997)
• Critical thinking (learning generally to problem
  solve)
• Critical thought (using this skill to interrogate
  a body of knowledge)
• Critique (meta-criticism, can go beyond the
  discipline)
• (Pithers Soden 2000, Davies 2006, Jones
  2007a,2007b, 2009)

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Critical thinking

• Discipline specific or a generic attribute?
• Linked to epistemic culture (Jones 2007)
• Generalists versus the specifists (Davies
  2006)
• Teaching and learning implications
• (How) Can it be taught or learned?
• Is it a subject in itself or incorporated within
  disciplinary knowledge
• Curriculum design and delivery strategies

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The Project

• Aim
• Explore the understandings and realisation of
  critical thinking in the university curriculum
• Objectives
• Elicit and explore academics understanding of
  critical thinking as a generic graduate
  attribute
• Elicit and explore academics understandings of
  critical thinking within the context of their
  discipline or subject area
• Examine how academics understandings of critical
  thinking are realised in curriculum design.

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The Project

• Multi-method qualitative study, approaching 10
  schools.
• Semi structured interviews with 10 subject
  experts to elicit their views on critical
  thinking
• Semi structured interviews with 20 module
  coordinators as to how critical thinking is
  incorporated into their module
• Documentary analysis of 20 module descriptors
  looking for presence of critical thinking
• Documentary analysis of 3 pieces of student work
  (from each module above, 60 in total)

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Projected outcomes

• Provide a general insight of critical thinking as
  a attribute of university education in UCD.
• Provide an insight into academics understanding
  of critical thinking as a generic graduate
  attribute and detailing the manner in which
  critical thinking is positioned and developed
  within a disciplinary context.
• Provide an insight into the realisation of
  critical thinking in the curriculum
• Recommendations with regard to
• (a) Module design and structure,
• (b) Teaching and learning strategies,
• (c) Assessment strategies.

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• Thank you

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References

• Barrie S. (2006) Understanding what we mane by
  the generic attributes if graduates. Higher
  Education 51 pp 215-241
• Barrie S. (2007) A conceptual framework for the
  teaching and learning of generic graduate
  attributes. Studies in Higher Education 32(4) pp
  439-458.
• Barnett R. (1997) Higher Education A critical
  business. Open University Press, Buckingham.
• Davies W. M. (2006) An infusion approach to
  critical thinking Moore on the critical thinking
  debate. Higher Education Research and Development
  25(2) pp 179-193.
• Jones A. ( 2007) Multiplicities or manna from
  heaven? Critical thinking and the disciplinary
  context, Australian Journal of Education Vol. 51,
  No. 1, 84103.
• Jones A. (2007) Looking over our shoulders
  Critical thinking and ontological insecurity in
  higher education, London Review of Education.
• Jones A. (2009) Generic attribute as espoused
  theory the importance of context. Higher
  Education 58 p175-191.
• Maton K. (2009) Cumulative and segmented
  learning exploring the role ofcurriculum
  structures in knowledge-building in British
  Journal of Sociology of Education 30(1) pp 4357
  
• Pithers R.T Soden R (2000) Critical thinking in
  education a review. Educational Research (42)3
• Pitman T. Broomhall S. (2000) Australian
  universities, generic skills and lifelong
  learning. International Journal of Lifelong
  Education 28(4) pp 439-458.