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How do we find what we re looking for? Critical thinking in the university curriculum UCD Fellows in Teaching and Academic Development Tom O Connor – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: How do we find what we


1
How do we find what were looking for? Critical
thinking in the university curriculum
UCD Fellows in Teaching and Academic Development
Tom OConnor Aoife Ahern Gerry MacRuairc
Martin McNamara
2
Fellowships in Teaching and Academic Development
  • Initiative under Strategic Innovation Fund
  • Purpose Conduct research which is of strategic
    importance to the development of teaching and
    learning in UCD
  • 2009-2011 (7 fellows)
  • http//www.ucd.ie/fellows/

3
Teaching for transitions Graduate Attributes
  • Need for universities to clarify the nature of
    the education they provide and clarifying the
    contributions of their graduates to society
  • Impetus to describe graduate attributes
  • Employers
  • Policy makers
  • Professional groups/organisations
  • Local UCD education strategy
  • What are they?
  • Qualities, skills and understanding gained as a
    result of university education
  • Generic and beyond purely disciplinary boundaries
  • Prepares graduate not only for employment but as
    agents for social good
  • Tensions skills versus attributes, Generic
    versus specific.
  • (Bowden et al 2000 Barrie 2006, 2007, Jones 2009)

4
Critical thinking
  • Considered a (the) key graduate attribute
  • Difficulty in definition
  • Cognitive skill
  • Linked variously to logic, problem solving,
    scepticism examining evidence, exploring
    contradictions/complexities, development of
    argument, open mindedness.
  • 3 tiered model (Barnett 1997)
  • Critical thinking (learning generally to problem
    solve)
  • Critical thought (using this skill to interrogate
    a body of knowledge)
  • Critique (meta-criticism, can go beyond the
    discipline)
  • (Pithers Soden 2000, Davies 2006, Jones
    2007a,2007b, 2009)

5
Critical thinking
  • Discipline specific or a generic attribute?
  • Linked to epistemic culture (Jones 2007)
  • Generalists versus the specifists (Davies
    2006)
  • Teaching and learning implications
  • (How) Can it be taught or learned?
  • Is it a subject in itself or incorporated within
    disciplinary knowledge
  • Curriculum design and delivery strategies

6
The Project
  • Aim
  • Explore the understandings and realisation of
    critical thinking in the university curriculum
  • Objectives
  • Elicit and explore academics understanding of
    critical thinking as a generic graduate
    attribute
  • Elicit and explore academics understandings of
    critical thinking within the context of their
    discipline or subject area
  • Examine how academics understandings of critical
    thinking are realised in curriculum design.

7
The Project
  • Multi-method qualitative study, approaching 10
    schools.
  • Semi structured interviews with 10 subject
    experts to elicit their views on critical
    thinking
  • Semi structured interviews with 20 module
    coordinators as to how critical thinking is
    incorporated into their module
  • Documentary analysis of 20 module descriptors
    looking for presence of critical thinking
  • Documentary analysis of 3 pieces of student work
    (from each module above, 60 in total)

8
Projected outcomes
  • Provide a general insight of critical thinking as
    a attribute of university education in UCD.
  • Provide an insight into academics understanding
    of critical thinking as a generic graduate
    attribute and detailing the manner in which
    critical thinking is positioned and developed
    within a disciplinary context.
  • Provide an insight into the realisation of
    critical thinking in the curriculum
  • Recommendations with regard to
  • (a) Module design and structure,
  • (b) Teaching and learning strategies,
  • (c) Assessment strategies.

9
  • Thank you

10
References
  • Barrie S. (2006) Understanding what we mane by
    the generic attributes if graduates. Higher
    Education 51 pp 215-241
  • Barrie S. (2007) A conceptual framework for the
    teaching and learning of generic graduate
    attributes. Studies in Higher Education 32(4) pp
    439-458.
  • Barnett R. (1997) Higher Education A critical
    business. Open University Press, Buckingham.
  • Davies W. M. (2006) An infusion approach to
    critical thinking Moore on the critical thinking
    debate. Higher Education Research and Development
    25(2) pp 179-193.
  • Jones A. ( 2007) Multiplicities or manna from
    heaven? Critical thinking and the disciplinary
    context, Australian Journal of Education Vol. 51,
    No. 1, 84103.
  • Jones A. (2007) Looking over our shoulders
    Critical thinking and ontological insecurity in
    higher education, London Review of Education.
  • Jones A. (2009) Generic attribute as espoused
    theory the importance of context. Higher
    Education 58 p175-191.
  • Maton K. (2009) Cumulative and segmented
    learning exploring the role ofcurriculum
    structures in knowledge-building in British
    Journal of Sociology of Education 30(1) pp 4357
  • Pithers R.T Soden R (2000) Critical thinking in
    education a review. Educational Research (42)3
  • Pitman T. Broomhall S. (2000) Australian
    universities, generic skills and lifelong
    learning. International Journal of Lifelong
    Education 28(4) pp 439-458.
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