Does university attendance affect students’ critical and creative thinking skills? A longitudinal research with pre-service teaching and psychology undergraduates

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21555985
AutoresHelena Santos Silva (0000-0003-2855-9634, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal), José Lopes (0000-0002-6845-8371, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal), Gonçalo Cruz (0000-0003-4738-3910, Department of Engineering, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal), Caroline Dominguez (0000-0002-8486-4142, Department of Engineering, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal), Eva Morais (0000-0002-3815-9821, Mathematics Department, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen42
Número2
Páginas442-452
Fecha de publicación2023-02-17
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHigher Education Research & Development (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0729-4360 • E-ISSN: 1469-8366
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07294360.2022.2057448
OpenAlexW4225575928
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas56

While there is a strong consensus on the importance of Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) skills for the rise of participatory citizens and work-ready professionals, the extent to which university attendance by itself supports their development and acquisition remains controversial. This research presents a cohort, longitudinal follow-up study aimed at investigating the impact of university attendance by itself on the CCT skills development of 41 higher education students from two, 3-year Bachelor’s programmes at a northeastern Portuguese university, namely Pre-Service Teaching and Psychology. Using Lopes et al.’s Critical and Creative Thinking Test, an open-access CCT assessment instrument validated for the Portuguese higher education population, data were collected at the beginning of the first and of the third academic years: 2016–2017 and 2018–2019, respectively. Non statistically significant differences were found for both cohorts, suggesting that the domain-specific training of these study programmes per se are not a sufficient condition to enhance students’ domain-general CCT skills. Therefore, further research is still needed to better identify the moderating variables influencing the development of students’ CCT skills during their attendance in undergraduate higher education

Attendance · Bachelor · Critical thinking · Higher education · Mathematics education · Medical education · Pedagogy · Political science · Population · Portuguese · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Educational Strategies and Epistemologies · Medicine · Online and Blended Learning · Psychology