A European collection of the Critical Thinking skills and dispositions needed in different professional fields for the 21st century

Abstract

Within the scope of the project CRITHINKEDU, this report provides an overall analysis of the understanding of Critical Thinking (CT) by employers and establishes similarities and differences in its expression, need and practical application at the workplace. Adopting a qualitative research methodology, 32 focus groups were conducted enrolling 189 professionals from 9 European countries. The focus groups comprised graduates from 4 different professional fields, namely Biomedical Sciences, STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), Social Sciences and the Humanities. Based on the Facione’ theoretical framework (Facione, 1990), key findings are in line with previous studies (Jones, 2009; Jones, 2010; Grace & Orrock, 2015; Sin, Jones & Wang, 2015), suggesting that CT is widely understood and interpreted as a set of interdependent skills and dispositions that are unquestionably needed in recent graduates. This is due to today’s labour market and societal demands, although with slight differences in their practical application that tend to vary across professional fields.