Improving Undergraduate Success through Effective Critical Thinking

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This project aims to serve the national interest by providing engineering students with important training in critical thinking. Such training is expected to enhance their problem-solving skills, academic performance, and retention. Information that students previously had to memorize is now just a mouse click away. However, this availability makes it much more important that students learn how to think critically about that information. Critical thinking includes thinking objectively, seeking unbiased data, and considering a broad range of perspectives. This project aims to systematically study how critical thinking affects both short- and long-term student success over the four years of undergraduate Chemical and Electrical Engineering education. The study will include first year students whose progress will be monitored through graduation. The research team also plans to investigate gendered effects of critical thinking since women are greatly underrepresented in STEM fields. Finally, the team will work with middle and high school teachers to explore ways to integrate critical thinking activities at the secondary-school level, helping to better prepare students for college. The project's findings have the potential to help educators to design more effective critical thinking programs, including efforts that focus on the success of women in STEM. The project goal is to explore whether deliberate training in critical thinking in early years of the engineering curriculum improves students’ learning. To this end, the multidisciplinary project team of engineers, psychologists, and education researchers will use the NSF-funded Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT), which was designed by a member of the investigative team in 2004. The CAT instrument is one of the few critical thinking assessment tools that uses short answer essay responses to assess critical thinking. The research will use a two-level, two-factor, factorial design using direct statistical analysis, with the CAT exam administered as pre- and post-intervention treatments. In this design some students will be provided with interventions meant to improve critical thinking and some students will have multiple interventions. The performance of these students will be compared to that of control students who did not receive the intervention(s). The nation’s socioeconomic success will be strengthened by individuals who look objectively at information before acting and who make informed decisions rather than relying on instinct and preconceptions. Thus, critical thinking, together with effective problem solving and the ability to draw connections between seemingly unrelated pieces of information, are of tremendous societal benefit. This project is funded through the NSF IUSE:EHR program, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.