Teaching critical thinking and problem defining sk

TeachingcriticalthinkingandproblemdefiningskillsJensJ.KaasbøllDepartmentofInformatics,UniversityofOsloP.O.Box1080Blindern,N-0316Oslo,NorwayE-mail:[e-mail]:~jensj/Tel:[phone]Fax:[phone]April,1998PublishedinEducationandInformationTechnologiesVol.3,No.2,1998,pp.1–17AbstractCriticalthinkingandskillsindefiningproblemshavebeenamongstthegoalsofacomputersandsocietycoursethathaditscreditsreducedandstudentnumberincreased.Inanattempttopreventworseningthestudents’learning,fourmeasuresweretaken.Theresultsactuallyimprovedfromafailurerateof21.5%to0.7%.Thisismainlyduetoatighterprojectstructureandadditionalstudentwork.Reducedcoursematerialandimprovedteacherpreparationdidnotseemtohaveanyeffects,whilemorefocusedprojectteachingmayhavecontributed.Furtherimprovementsmaybegainedthroughtimeestimationintheproblemdefinitionprocess.KeywordsHigherEducation,creativity,interdisciplinary,problemsolving,socialissues,teachingmethods1.INTRODUCTIONEmployersandmanagerscomplainthatcomputersciencegraduateslackpracticalcompetence,eg,forwritingandteamwork(Hartmanisetal.,1992).Denning(1992)arguesthattheengineersofthefutureneedmorecommunicativeskills,andthatthestudentsshouldbegivenmoreresponsibilityfortheirownlearning.Scraggetal(1994)arguethatstudentsalsohavetolearncreativity,andthatthiscomesfrominsightintothefacts,methods,andparadigmsofathefield.WehaveobservedsimilarlacksofskillsamongstudentswhoembarkontheirMaster’sthesis.Thentheyhavetodefinetheirownresearchproblemincooperationwiththeirsupervisor,findtheirmethods,andquestiontheliteratureandtheirownempiricaldata.Thisrequiresbothskillsincriticalthinkingandthecreativityneededtodefinetheirownproblem.Wewillcallthelatter“problemdefiningskills.”2Inmostoftheundergraduatecourses,theteacherhasdefinedthestudentassignments,whichcanbesolvedwithinthetimegiven,atthedepartment’scomputer,andbymeansofthemethodlecturedthesameweek.Thiskindofteachingdoesnotspecificallysupportcriticalthinkingandproblemdefiningskills.IntheDepartmentofInformatics,UniversityofOslo,wehaveformorethantwentyyearsalsotaughtanundergraduatecourseincomputersandsocietywherecriticalthinkinghasbeenencouraged.Studentshavehadtogetexposedtotheworldofpracticaltasksoutsidetheuniversity,definetheirownproblemsbasedontheill-structuredsituationstheyencountered,workwiththeproblemwithoutknowinghowtheconclusionwilllooklike,andwriteacomprehensivereportoftheirwork(Kaasbøll,1981;Nygaard,1982;Øgrim,1991).However,onlyaminorityoftheundergraduatesusedtoattendthiscourse.Consequently,manystudentsstartedworkingontheirMaster’sthesiswithoutthistraining.Therefore,theDepartmentdecidedtomakethiscoursecompulsoryforallstudentswantingatleastoneyearofinformaticsstudies.Concurrently,thecreditsforthecoursewerereducedfrom0.5workloadofa13weeks’semesterto0.3,puttingmuchmorestressontheefficiencyofthecourse.Thenumberofstudentsincreasedfromapproximately60to143,givingthelecturerslesstimeforinteractionwitheachstudent.Wemadeseveraleffortstotacklethisproblem,themajoronesbeingpreparingtheteachers,tighteningthecoursestructure,andprovidingmoreprojectdirectedteaching.Theresearchproblemaddressedinthispaperishowtheseeffortswereeffectiveinimprovingcomputersciencestudents’skillsincriticalthinkingandproblemdefinition.Sinceweactuallychangedthecourseintheprocessoffindinganswerstotheresearchquestion,wecarriedoutactionresearch.Asoftenhappensinactionresearch,actiontakesprecedenceoverresearch,makingitdifficulttointerprettheeffectsoftheactions.Recentevaluatorsofadulteducationsuggestinformationtobecollectedfrommanysources(Athanasou,1995),somethingwetriedtoachieve.Oursourcesconsistedofwrittenstudentassignments,gradesgiventothestudentsbyexternalexaminers,examiners’statements,informalreportsfromthetutorsandthestudentsduringthecourse,andanswerstoquestionnaires.Unfortunately,theresponseratestothequestionnaireswere40%and34%,disablingmostgeneralisationsfromtheresponses.Therefore,theresponseshavebeenusedonlywhennobetterinformationhasbeenavailable.Previousresearchinteachingcriticalthinkingandproblemdefinitionskillsisdescribedinthenextsection.Section3describestheactionstakentochangethecourse,andsection4reportsthatthenumberofstudentswhopassedthecourseincreasedsignificantlycomparedtopreviousyears.Afteradiscussionofwhetherthismeasurereflectsimprovementsinstudents’abilitiesof3criticalthinkinganddefiningproblems,theeffectsofthedifferentchangesarediscussedinsections5-9.2.PREVIOUSRESEARCHTrainingstudentsintheskillsneededtosetupandcarryouttheirownresearchprojectcanofcoursebedonethroughacoursehavingthisasitsmainactivity.Infact,werunthecoursethisway.Inadditiontothissimilaritybetweenmeansandends,educationalscienceprovidesanotherreasonforchoosingthisteachingstrategy.2.1PrinciplesofinstructionCriticalthinkingandtheabilitytodefineproblemsbothbelongtothecategoryofgeneralcognitiveskills.PascarellaandTerenzini(1991)havecarriedoutasurveyofresearchonwhatstudentslearnatcollege.Theyrefertoresearchwhichsuggeststhatinstitutionswithabroadercurriculuminfluencepositivelythedevelopmentofgeneralc