Postgraduate Students and Critical Thinking: Some Validation

Sustainability in higher education is an interesting idea because the nature of the concept changes depending on the viewpoint of the stakeholder. For an academic, a key aspect of sustainability is about facilitating life-long learning. One way to do that is to provide students with opportunities to think for themselves and to nurture that ability. This paper describes the second stage of a research programme whose focus was critical thinking (CT) and explores how information technology (IT) Masters-level students model problems. Results from a prior study suggested that IT students appear to improve their problem-solving ability by undertaking structured CT exercises. This study provides some validation of the first study and suggests future directions for the research programme. Critical thinking, as taught in a university setting, is often structured as a formal logic subject. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with teaching students logic, that does not necessarily equate to critical thinking, and also raises the question of the place of lateral thinking. The assessment of critical thinking skills is also somewhat problematic. There are several generic assessment tools available but if critical thinking is discipline-specific, then such tools may not be particularly useful. The solution used in this research is to apply a formal critical thinking assessment instrument in a pre/post treatment experiment, the treatment being the CT exercises. This study evaluated the CT skills of Masters-level students. The participants were a class of coursework Masters students at an Australian university. Two tests were administered that targeted CT skills regarded as essential elements in a university education. The research design was a classic pre/post treatment experiment, with the treatment being the CT exercises. The results indicate that the students‘ problem-solving ability improved over time which suggests that the exercises were effective, thus validating (in part) the initial study. INTRODUCTION Sustainability in education is a challenging idea because the concept changes depending on the Weltanschauung of the stakeholder. Wals and Jickling (2002, p221) assert that the ―education community is divided on how to respond to the emergence of education for sustainability‖ and further suggest that ―it is not uncommon to find that scientific, political and symbolic meanings of sustainability are used interchangeably by one and the same person or group‖. This clearly makes debate about sustainability lively, if confusing. Wagner and Dobrowolski (cited in Wals and Jickling, 2002, p228) make a connection between sustainability and critical thinking and indicate that ―sustainability requires a focus on competencies and higher thinking skills.appreciation of holistic principles. [and] requires critical reflection on one‘s own teaching‖. Clegg (2008) suggests that universities themselves need to use creativity and critical thinking in response to changing markets and world conditions. Natale (2006) also affirms the importance of critical thinking, especially in smallgroup situations, and suggests that critical thinking will improve organisational performance.