Critical thinking in the university curriculum

This paper describes a multi-qualitative study undertaken to examine the issue of critical thinking as a graduate attribute. Critical thinking is a graduate attribute that many courses claim to produce in students. However, it is important to understand how academics define and describe critical thinking and whether their understandings of critical thinking differ, depending on their discipline or subject area.

The paper describes a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with academics involved in teaching and learning in a number of disciplines, including engineering. The objective of these interviews is to look at how different disciplines define critical thinking and how they teach critical thinking in their courses. In addition the paper describes how a selection of modules particularly concerned with the acquisition and development of critical thinking will be chosen, and the interviews that will be carried out with module coordinators about the module design and assessment, recognition and measurement of critical thinking.