A thematic analysis on the critical thinking performance of the first-year Chinese undergraduates

This paper aims to distill the critical thinking (CT) frame internalized by Chinese college students based on a thematic analysis on their CT performance. Research data show a CT frame comprised of four key dimensions in content which include: 1) quality of argument, 2) textual organization, 3) emotional factors, and 4) dialectical thinking, and a thinking mechanism of association. What’s more, the underlying cultural factors are discussed further to account for the cognitive orientation, elucidating the intellectual coherence between the frame and traditional Chinese thought in wenxue and holistic thinking mode. The research adds up to the existing literature in highlighting the gap in Chinese college students between their questioning spirit and cognitive skills, confirming their lack of analytic thought and specifying their cognitive orientation with empirical evidence, which in turn calls for pedagogical considerations in mediating cognitive processes which may not be operative in their frame, and qualitative improvement on the critical knowledge of Chinese teachers as well.