Critical Thinking and Managerial Decision Making for Educational

Introduction

According to Kong (2014), critical thinking can be defined as a concept of objective analysis in order to frame judgement. Wallace and Jefferson (2015)are of the opinion that that critical thinking skills among the students help to increase their academic performance via providing intellectual stimuli and increasing the problem solving skills. The following essay aims to critically analyse the study conducted by Larsson (2017) on critical thinking. The essay will initiate with critical analysis followed by critical evaluation of the article and a concluding remarks.

Critical analysis

Background of the research

Developing student's critical thinking skills is regarded as an important educational goal. Thus the main background of the article published by Larsson (2017) is based on understanding the concept of critical thinking and practicing the skills important for critical thinking. The background of the problem is extremely relevant in the present day scenario because there is a strong co-relation between the critical thinking and its influence over the academic success (Fong et al., 2017). However, Heijltjeset al. (2014) highlighted that innovative skills and advance approach must be undertaken in order to improve the critical thinking skills and thereby improving the overall academic success of the students.

What is the research problem

The main res

Aim of the research and rationale

The aim of the research mainly resolves around understanding the basic concept underpinning the critical thinking skills. In order to achieve the aim, the researcher selected to study the essay solving capability of the secondary school students which is based on electing the critical thinking skill of Robert Nozzick's view of justice, a renowned philosopher. The researcher has mainly undertaken phenomenographic approach in order to understand the rule of critical thinking in educational settings. This aim of the research is based on the assumption that strength to act in a particular way in relation to a phenomenon is basically delimited via a specificmanner of understanding a definite phenomenon. This signifies that each of the diverse ways of understanding any specific critical thinking approach could then be use for describing the skills that can be used to generate that specific critical thinking approach (Larsson, 2017). Thus overall the aim of the research is summarised as

1. Description and simultaneous education of different hierarchical ways of understanding a particular tasks and different types of critical think associated with it.
2. To cite the findings from aim1 to discuss improvement of the critical thinking skills of the students via employing phenomenographic learning and theories of teaching (Larsson, 2017)

The importance of the research, is to provide a detailed elaboration of different patterns used for critical thinking. The aim of the research will also help to understand that how students can utilize these critical thinking skills in their career of academic success (Larsson, 2017). Thus, it can be said that the core research questions framed in this articles are important to address. According to Chan (2013) proper description and hierarchical classification of the concepts underlying the critical thinking helps in framing proper critical thinking approach that can be used by the diverse range of students in order to gain significant academic success and high-thought put problem solving skills. 

Methodology

The research was conducted based on the four basic pillars: (i) identification of the conclusions, the associated reasons and assumptions; (ii) judging the quality of the argument like acceptability of the reasons, evidence and assumption; (iii) developing and defending a position over a particular issue; (iv) drawing conclusion when warranted but with taking serious caution. The task began with the selected group of students goingthrough the text centring thoughts of Robert Nozick's thoughts on justice. Based on that text, the students were then asked to reveal their critical analysis of the Nozick's standpoint. The strength and weakness of their argument were used to explain the concept underlying their critical thinking skills. A total of 19 students between the age group of 15 to 16 years participated in the study from the Swedish compulsory school. Among these 19 students 11 were girls and 8 were boys (Larsson, 2017). According to Wolfet al. (2013) selection of the proper sample size and the gender variability in a qualitative research is crucial. However, the study design adopted by Larsson (2017) only recruited 19 students and this showed low sample size and thus decreasing the overall validity and authenticity of the research and this goes in accordance with the findings of Marshall et al. (2013).

Major findings

The main findings of the research indicated that taking an empirical study as an elaborative example, the research conducted by Larsson (2017) mainly highlighted how phenomenographic theory could be used for the overall understanding of the concrete expressions used for the critical thinking by the students. The results also showed that how the teaching approaches must be designed in order to increase the critical thinking skills of the students.Savery(2015) is of the opinion that proper theory, defining critical thinking helps to plan exercise to improve the critical thinking skills among the students.

Significance of the findings

The significance of the findings is, it provided the teachers a clear prospective of the teaching approach that must be undertaken in order to increase the critical thinking skills among the students. Such teaching perspective is extremely relevant in the present day academic field because the study conducted by Kwan and Wong (2014) highlighted that the majority of the secondary school students lack critical thinking skills and the main reason behind this lack of proper exercise that will encourage the them to work on their critical thinking skills. The study also provides a proper characterization of the concept of critical thinking and according to Perkins (2016), this will help teachers to frame more innovative approach of practicing critical thinking among the students.

Critical evaluation

Research limitations

The main limitation of the research is its poor sample size. According to Oppong (2013), poor sample size in both qualitative and quantitative research decreases the overall strength of the results, leading to the generation of biased response. Another research limitation of the study is, while constructing the review of the literature for the identification of the research gap, the researcher mainly cited old journal articles. According to the concepts highlighted by Hart (2018), while conducting a review of literature in order identify the research gap, most updated references must be used because on doing this, the current information underlying the topic can be highlighted. Another limitation of the study is the target population. The target population is secondary school children aged between 15 to 16 years and hence the obtained results over their critical thinking skills may not be applicable over the college students or other working professionals.

Author's assumption

The main assumption taken by the author is connected to the concept of the critical thinking with Robert Ennis’s generic definition. According to Battersby (2013) the concept of critical thinking as proper by Robert Ennis’s generic definition is mainly based on three different factors and all these factors cumulate into the concept of the practicing critical thinking among the students under the cross curriculum. Moreover, the author also took the assumption that since the entire study approach constitute excessive reading and writing ability, he excluded students with dyslexia and students who have recently immigrated to Sweden. This assumption was appropriate because according to students with dyslexia have learning disability creating a barrier towards rigorous reading and writing in comparison to the general student (Torgesen, 2018). Moreover, non-English speaking students who are recently getting exposure in English might face problems in fluent reading and writing English language (Geay, McNall & Telhaj, 2013).

Overall evaluation of the article

The overall evaluation of the article highlighted that apart from selection of the low sample size, the overall study design opted by Larsson (2017) is appropriate. Moreover, the research aims and objectives selected by the author align with the rationale and chosen background of the research and are succinctly aligned with the obtained results. The illustrations and categorization of the different critical thinking skills in accordance to the ways of learning will help the readers to get a detailed overview of the concept underlying critical thinking. According to Lewis (2015), pictorial representations of the data help in easy understanding of the results by the reader and thereby increasing the overall value of the obtained results.

Conclusion

Thus from the critical analysis of the study conducted by Larsson (2017) highlighted that elucidated that phenomenographic theoretical approach in the domain of critical thinking. The author of the selected study is of the opinion that phenomenographic theoretical approach can be used by the students to develop critical thinking skills. However, the article lags in its sample size and the focus group selection. Poor sample size might generate bias results and selection of secondary students as the main focus group further restricted the application of the obtained results over the broader community members like college students and working professionals. 

References

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