Investigation of the Use of Critical-Thinking Skills in Students’ Written Production

Abstract

It has been noticed that students’ performance in critical writing lacks illustrations of critical thinking skills (CTS) at various levels. Therefore, a study has been considered whose aim is to inspect the implementation of critical thinking skills in students’ written production. In other words, it investigates the availability of critical thinking skills in students’ written performance. The study rests on the hypothesis that if students are taught critical thinking skills, the latter will be manifest in written performance; supported by two research questions concerned with the students’ use of critical thinking skills across the curriculum, and how this might be improved by the adoption of explicit teaching of critical thinking skills. In order to test our hypothesis, a descriptive study by means of a questionnaire and a content analysis of students’ exam papers of psychology has been conducted. The questionnaire, consisting of 11 related questions, has been administered to 11 permanent teachers at the department of English, seeking to collect data about teachers’ perceptions and opinions about students’ use of critical thinking skills, and their role in improving their critical writing. A content analysis of 56 third year students’ exam papers of psychology, asking to discuss divergent perspectives in contemporary psychology, has been carried out through assigning the exam papers to four levels of critical thinking skills (Unilateral Description, Simplistic Alternatives or Arguments, Basic Analysis, and Inference). The findings show that the majority of teachers do not teach explicitly critical thinking skills, and that the overall degree of critical thinking skills is very restricted at all four levels, giving significance to the pre-established hypothesis namely: if students are taught critical thinking skills, the latter will be manifest in written performance. It is concluded that building critical thinking skills remains to be fully integrated within the currently adopted curriculum.