Quitadamo Ian J, Kurtz Martha J
Department of Biological Sciences, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA 98926-7537, USA.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2007 Summer;6(2):140-54. doi: 10.1187/cbe.06-11-0203.
Increasingly, national stakeholders express concern that U.S. college graduates cannot adequately solve problems and think critically. As a set of cognitive abilities, critical thinking skills provide students with tangible academic, personal, and professional benefits that may ultimately address these concerns. As an instructional method, writing has long been perceived as a way to improve critical thinking. In the current study, the researchers compared critical thinking performance of students who experienced a laboratory writing treatment with those who experienced traditional quiz-based laboratory in a general education biology course. The effects of writing were determined within the context of multiple covariables. Results indicated that the writing group significantly improved critical thinking skills whereas the non-writing group did not. Specifically, analysis and inference skills increased significantly in the writing group but not the non-writing group. Writing students also showed greater gains in evaluation skills; however, these were not significant. In addition to writing, prior critical thinking skill and instructor significantly affected critical thinking performance, whereas other covariables such as gender, ethnicity, and age were not significant. With improved critical thinking skill, general education biology students will be better prepared to solve problems as engaged and productive citizens.
越来越多的国内利益相关者对美国大学毕业生无法充分解决问题和进行批判性思考表示担忧。作为一系列认知能力,批判性思维技能为学生带来切实的学术、个人和职业益处,这些益处最终可能解决这些担忧。作为一种教学方法,写作长期以来一直被视为提高批判性思维的一种方式。在当前的研究中,研究人员比较了在普通教育生物学课程中接受实验室写作训练的学生与接受传统基于测验的实验室教学的学生的批判性思维表现。写作的效果是在多个协变量的背景下确定的。结果表明,写作组的批判性思维技能有显著提高,而非写作组则没有。具体而言,写作组的分析和推理技能显著提高,而非写作组则没有。写作的学生在评估技能方面也有更大的提升;然而,这些提升并不显著。除了写作之外,先前的批判性思维技能和教师对批判性思维表现有显著影响,而其他协变量,如性别、种族和年龄则没有显著影响。随着批判性思维技能的提高,普通教育生物学专业的学生将更有能力作为积极参与且富有成效的公民解决问题。