Problem-based leaming (PBL) is an increasingly popular curricular technique for developing academic and intellectual talent. Aligning PBL activities and subsequent student assessment often proves to be difficult for teachers, with many PBL activities followed by traditional, pencil-and-paper assessments. This misalignment confuses students by disrupting their understanding of teacher expectations. In this paper, we discuss the importance of instruction-assessment alignment during PBL and provide detailed examples of exemplary units.

Post-secondary students in the applied professions (e.g., business, education, psychology) often see the value of creativity to their future work, but have never had the opportunity to critically examine their assumptions about creativity. A more critically examined and substantiated understanding of creativity can go a long way in helping pre-professional students consider how creativity might be best applied and cultivated in their future professional work. The purpose of this article is to discuss how principles of critical thinking can be brought to bear on understanding creativity. First, a discussion of the importance of critically examining the basic assumptions surrounding creativity will be presented. Then, a pedagogical framework for incorporating critical thinking into the examination of creativity will follow. Finally, an example of how the model might: be used with post-secondary students will be presented, followed by a brief conclusion.

The definition, assessment, predictive validity, demographic correlates, and promotion of critical thinking at the college level are addressed in this article. Although the definitions of critical thinking vary substantially, a common theme is the linkage of conclusions to relevant evidence. Assessment measures range from quasi-standardized instruments to informal class assessment and include both generic and subject-specific formats. Although critical thinking potentially serves both as a predictor of college success and as a criterion of suceess, its greater utility may be as a predictor. nonetheless, the college experience in general and critical thinking courses in particular offer some promise for promoting critical thinking. However, efforts to infuse critical thinking activities into subject-specific courses have produced marginal improvement in critical thinking.

Some authors have argued that consideration of alternative claims, theories, or worldviews is necessary for a proper or sound critical assessment of a claim or set of claims. However, an understanding of interpretation and beliefs as inherently holistic suggests that interpretation already involves the recogllition of alternatives, and that therefore assessment also necessarily involves their comparison. Starting from this idea, it will be argued that presuppositions can be regarded as limits to the range of alternatives that are considered by the author of the claims, as seen by an interpreter making the assessment. However, a result of this consists in the fact that these assumptions can only be found in the conversational interaction between the author’s and the interpreter’s broader belief systems. Some implications for a conversational form of criticality will also be derived from here.

The close relationship that thinking bears to doing is perhaps the foundational idea in the plilosophy of education. This idea makes its first systematic appearance in the thought of Charles S. Peirce. In order to appreciate Peirce’s discovery, we cannot interpret hirn through the eyes of Richard Rorty, who obscures Peirce’s insight by making distinctions Peirce would have resisted. thought and action coincide most essentially in Peirce’s concept of the “scientific” method for fixing beliefs. This method is the most reliable guide for justifying thought because it requires humans to act upon the world. Only such action helps reveal a steadily friendlier and more dependable environment. Rorty misses this idea of Peirce’s in so far as he clings to a radically romantic conception of creativity.

This paper underlines the need for teaching morals and values through critical reflection and active genuine dialogue. It promotes the pedagogy of dialogue within educational institutions, the creation of multi-dimensional learning environments for the cultivation and dissemination of intersubjective understandings of diverse moral worldviews, the use of critical thinking skills and intellectual traits of mind forethical decision-making, and the communication of values and morals through dialogue. An argument is advanced to show how reflective dialogue lays the groundwork for the creation of initial objective relations in the classroom and forms the basis for the pragmatic implementation of an interpersonal connection characterized by feelings of tolerance, empathy, and respect for the dignity of human beings and their way of life.

This paper examines the content of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal exam (1980). Our report is not a statistical review. We find the content of this exam defective in a number of areas. The exam consists of five “tests” of 16 questions for a total of 80 questions. Of these, we cannot recommend test 1, test 2, test 4, and test 5; and, we cannot recommend questions 4, 5, 14, 16, 37, 45, 60, 63, 64, 65, 66, and 67. As shown in this report, the exam creates confusion and makes basic errors in critical thinking in a number of areas, and therefore, lacks content quality in these areas. Hence, no statistical results pertaining to the administration of these areas to students can be informative. We find the remaining areas acceptable as to content. But until the problems are corrected, we can only recommend that those who may use the exam remove the defective parts from test administration or from data collection and reporting. We recommend the former, because of the wasted time involved in the latter. This would amount to administering only 14 questions, i.e. test 3 with questions 37 and 45 eliminated.We also find the scope of the exam to be quite limited, but allow that this may be unavoidable for any instrument designed to be completed in about an hour. We further recommend the use of several tests, rather than one; and, that any such results be understood only as a measure of minimal competency (below which remediation likely is needed) for the skills tested, but not as an adequate measure of critical thinking.

This paper describes a holistic approach and an interdisciplinary curriculum in enhancing critical thinking and education for democracy at the junior-high schools and highschools levels. The curriculum includes academic subjects such as the humanities, sciences, social sciences and art. The aim of this curriculum is not to teach an additional lesson in history, political sciences, art, etc., but to fostercritical thinking and democratic behavior. The theoretical framework has two bases. The first derives from eighteenth century rationalism and scientific thinking, while the second is from the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century. Both produced social economies and a political structure of mass democracy. The focal point here is that critical thinking is a prerequisite for the existence of democratic values and principles in a post-modern society. The program integrates McPeck’s strategies on the conception of critical thinking and the dialectic technique of Richard Paul. The curriculum is designed forone or two semesters (14 to 28 meetings). It is built in a modular fashion, in which each subject stands on its own and is presented by various lecturers from different domains. The curriculum was implemented in junior high and high schools in Haifa and vicinity."It is this consensus around liberal democracy as the final form of government that I have called “the end of history.”(Fukuyama, F (1990) in Fortune, January 15, 1990, p. 75).

This article addresses the importance of client conceptualization skills in counseling as well as the limitations of child conceptualization skills in counseling. Furthermore, the article provides a rough overview of the applicable points in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and a discussion of how these points relate to conceptualization skills in counseling.

I describe some pedagogical challenges of teaching critical thinking, and propose one way of partly meeting them: the application of critical thinking skills to beliefs responsible for our emotions. I suggest ways of introducing the topic of emotions in our critical thinking courses, describe a project assigned to my students, and provide a model of the project.