CRITICAL THINKING ISSUES - A TOOL FOR LEARNING THE SUBJECT

The authors have been continuously fascinated by the role of Critical Thinking Issues in improving students' learning.Critical Thinking Issues have been well recognized as a valuable tool for the assessment of educational objectives.In the Fall06 semester, Critical Thinking Issues were used as a tool for learning the subject in an environmental science course, ENVT C010.This course is a required course in the ABET accredited Engineering Technology program at Temple University.There were 16 Critical Thinking Issues in the course.The final examination contained conceptual questions, including Critical Thinking Issues on the environment.The final exam was a closed book and closed notes exam.In a survey conducted by the authors, students reported that the Critical Thinking Issues gave them several chances to study the subject in addition to paying careful attention to the lecture.This method was compared with a control group class taught in Fall 05 semester, which did not have Critical Thinking Issues.Overall the control group had scored 64% on the average, whereas the Critical Thinking Issues group scored 75% in the course.The Critical Thinking Issues group showed 17.2% improvement over the control group.In a two-tailed t test the calculated t value was 6.5.The improvement of the Critical Thinking Issues group was statistically significant at an alpha value of 0.05.The result of t test confirmed that the Critical Thinking Issues are a powerful tool in learning the environmental science subject.The authors plan to extend the application of the Critical Thinking Issues concept to four other courses over the next four years.