Critical Thinking and Student Satisfaction: An Empirical Study in Undergraduate Education

Teacher education programs should transcend the traditional emphasis on disciplinary knowledge to incorporate the development of transversal competencies, particularly critical thinking. This study explores the relationship between critical thinking and student satisfaction, while also exploring potential differences in perception based on student gender. A questionnaire was administered to 134 fourth-year preservice elementary education students across nine Chilean universities. Findings indicate that students’ self-perceived critical thinking abilities are slightly higher than their reported academic satisfaction, with no statistically significant differences between male and female participants. A moderate yet statistically significant positive correlation was identified between critical thinking and student satisfaction. Additionally, regression analysis revealed that critical thinking accounts for 17.18% of the variance in student satisfaction. Taken together, these results contribute empirical evidence to ongoing debates on how transversal competencies shape students’ academic experiences in teacher education. They also suggest that approaches aimed at strengthening critical thinking—commonly associated with active and student-centered pedagogies—may have broader relevance for enhancing students’ engagement with and evaluation of their training programs. In this sense, the study offers insights that may inform curricular design, pedagogical practices, and institutional strategies seeking to improve the quality and perceived value of teacher education, while pointing to the need for further research on the contextual and pedagogical conditions under which critical thinking most effectively supports students’ academic experiences and outcomes.