Abstract
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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Notes
- 1.
The publisher has made the software available at http://www.wwnorton.com/college/phil/lemur/; accessed 2016 08 03.
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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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