Journal•ISSN: 0021-3667
The Journal of General Education
Penn State University Press
About: The Journal of General Education is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Higher education & Curriculum. It has an ISSN identifier of 0021-3667. Over the lifetime, 782 publications have been published receiving 9808 citations.
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1,227 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) as discussed by the authors was used to sample college students at two comprehensive universities and found that entering college freshman students showed strengths in openmindedness and inquisitiveness, weaknesses in systematicity and opposition to truth-seeking.
Abstract: There is a set of characterological attributes thought to be associated with developing success at critical thinking (CT). This paper explores the disposition toward CT theoretically , and then as it appears to be manifest in college students. Factor analytic research grounded in a consensus-base d conceptual analysis of CT described seven aspects of the overall disposition toward CT: truth-seeking, open-mindedness, analyticity, systematicity, CTconfidence, inquisitiveness, and cognitive maturity. The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI), developed in 1992, was used to sample college students at two comprehensive universities. Entering college freshman students showed strengths in openmindedness and inquisitiveness, weaknesses in systematicity and opposition to truth-seeking. Additional research indicates the disposition toward CT is highly correlated with the psychological constructs of absorption and openness to experience, and strongly predictive of ego-resiliency. A preliminary study explores the interesting and potentially complex interrelationship between the disposition toward CT and CT abilities. In addition to the significance of this work for psychological studies of human development, empirical research on the disposition toward CT promises important implications for all levels of education.
555 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the critical thinking dispositions, as measured by the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory, of students at a four-year, private, liberal arts, comprehensive university and found a relationship between the disposition toward critical thinking and students' major, gender, class level, and grade point average.
Abstract: This article examines the critical thinking (CT) dispositions, as measured by the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory, of students at a four-year, private, liberal arts, comprehensive university. This paper follows up results first published in 1995. The present findings represent another snapshot of CT dispositions among students who participated in 1996 and during the original investigation in 1992. Longitudinal results about students tested as freshman in 1992 and again as seniors in 1996 are presented. Cross sectional results are reported as well. Questions explored include the relationship between the disposition toward critical thinking, as measured by the CCTDI, and students’ major, gender, class level, and grade point average.
294 citations
TL;DR: There has been a growing trend among colleges in the United States and Canada to require all students to fulfill a requirement in "critical thinking" as part of their general education program as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: There has been a growing trend among colleges in the United States and Canada to require all students to fulfill a requirement in "critical thinking" as part of their general education program. Critical thinking is a widely used term that includes skills in applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information and the disposition to apply these skills (National Center for Excellence in Critical Thinking Instruction 1991). The ability to think critically is almost always listed as one of the desirable outcomes of undergraduate education (Halpern 1988). Al though there is considerable disagreement over who should teach such courses, whether they should be "stand-alone" ge neric courses or incorporated into specific content areas, and what sorts of thinking skills students should be learning in these courses, there is virtually no disagreement over the need to help college students improve how they think (e.g., Perkins and Solo mon 1989). The debate over thinking-skills instruction at the postsecondary level is particularly timely because the goal of increasing the number of college students who can think effec tively and solve problems is one component of the National Educational Goals advanced by the National Governors' Asso ciation and President Bush. Students from North America routinely rank below those from other parts of the world in academic areas such as scien
278 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that students who were about to complete their undergraduate diversity requirement, compared to those who were just beginning it, exhibited significantly less prejudice and made more favorable judgments about Blacks These opinions were shown to be significantly related to the chances that students would become acquainted or have serious discussions with students of another race or ethnic background.
Abstract: The findings from this study show that students who were about to complete their undergraduate diversity requirement, compared to those who were just beginning it, exhibited significantly less prejudice and made more favorable judgments about Blacks These opinions were shown to be significantly related to the chances that students would become acquainted or have serious discussions with students of another race or ethnic background The educational value of diversity-related curricular initiatives are discussed
226 citations