Presentation made by Professor Daniela Dumitru from the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE Bucuresti), at the EdProf conference (http://dppd.ase.ro/), 18th of May 2017. Present research report is a part of the project “Critical Thinking Across the Higher Education Curricula – CRITHINKEDU” funded by European Commission under an Erasmus+ grant.
2. What employers think about critical thinking?
Preliminary research report
Daniela Dumitru, PhD (associate professor)
Bucharest University of Economic Studies
Present research report is a part of the project “Critical thinking across
higher education curricula – CRITHINKEDU” funded by European
Commission under an Erasmus+ grant.
3. Critical thinking definition
• For this research the definition I use is from Delphi Report “Critical
Thinking: A Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of
Educational Assessment and Instruction” (Facione, 1990):
• Critical thinking skills
• Critical thinking dispositions
2016
4. • Critical thinking is purposeful, self-regulatory judgment,
which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and
inference, as well as explanation of the evidential,
conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual
considerations upon which that judgment is based. Critical
thinking is an essential tool of inquiry (which also has the
meaning of research, interrogation or question).
• It becomes more and more interesting, because it unfolds
the implications in the personal and social context of the
critical thinking, stating that: critical thinking is a liberating
force in education and a powerful resource in one’s personal
and civic life.
2016
6. Dispositions to think critically
• Critical thinking is not only cognition or argumentation, but a complex
psychological reality that can be described in terms of a personality
dimension.
• Truth-seeking
• Open-mindedness
• Analyticity
• Systematicity
• Self-confidence
• Inquisitiveness
• Cognitive maturity
2016
7. • The phrase “disposition toward critical thinking” refers to a person’s
inner motivation toward critical thinking when confronted with
solving problems, evaluating ideas and making decisions (Facione et
al., 1997, apud. Giancarlo, 2004).
2016
8. Focus groups with employers
• In total 4 focus groups were carried out, all in Bucharest (both face-
to-face and online), with 27 participants representing 3 different
sectors (NGO, public sector and private sector) and 5 different fields:
• Education
• Health
• Administration
• Real estate
• Information and communication technology
2017
14. Discussions & Conclusions
• There are differences among fields in terms of which dimensions are
emphasized :
• Education: Analysis (S); Cognitive maturity & Communication (D)
• Administration: Interpretation, Analysis, Inference, Evaluation, Explanation
(S); Social skills/ pro-social behavior (D)
• Real estate: Analysis, Inference, Self-regulation (S); Inquisitiveness (D)
• Health: Analysis, Inference (S); Inquisitiveness (D)
• ICT: Evaluation & Self-regulation (S); Open-mindedness (D).
• These findings can be considered as tendencies (no statistical
significance.
2016
15. Discussions & Conclusions
• Over all, there are fewer mentions of CT skills in comparison to
dispositions.
• It means that, for non-specialists, CT resembles a personality trait, a
part of common sense psychology, and not so much as an ability/skill.
• So it cannot be developed in a few classes, but something that
emerges from years of learning and effort.
• “It is important the development of the ability to look for personal
solutions, unique, original. The employee is responsible for
developing this ability, and then the institution” (employer from
administration).
2016