Researchers followed 2,322 undergrads from 24 universities in the U.S. throughout their 4 years in college and found that many did not improve their critical thinking ability. What are we teaching these kids?
In fact, in the first 2 years, 45% of students showed no improvement in critical thinking skills, and after 4 years 36% still showed no improvement.
Let’s put this in academic terms. In the first 2 years, professors should receive an F for their ability to teach higher order thinking, and upon graduation their grade only improves to a D+. Unacceptable.
What are we doing wrong? Are we pushing students hard enough? The study also found that students only spend an average of 20% of their time in college on academic pursuits.
Truthfully, these results aren’t too surprising given the fact that many professors cannot define critical thinking itself, though they claim to teach it.
We know that managers have said critical thinking is the #1 skill of increasing importance, and we also know that Gen Y rates below average on critical thinking. That is a recipe for economic disaster. As those students leave college and enter the workforce they are utterly unprepared to meet the challenges of a complex working environment. If students are leaving college without critical thinking skills, aren’t we de-valuing the degree itself? There was a time when having a college degree meant something. Has that time passed?
As I look through job openings posted online, I constantly see “college degree required” and I think it’s time for HR to dig deeper. What do you actually want out of your employees- someone who is able to apply logic and reasoning to complex situations, make decisions, and solve problems, or someone who spent 20% of their time learning during a 4 year time span?
What do you think? Are you disturbed by this study? Who’s to blame and what do we do about it?
Editor’s Note: Breanne Harris is the Solutions Architect for Pearson TalentLens. She works with customers to design selection and development plans that incorporate critical thinking assessments and training. She has a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology and has experience in recruiting, training, and HR consulting. She is the chief blogger for Critical Thinkers and occasionally posts at ThinkWatson. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter for more of her thoughts.
Did you know critical thinking was rated the NEW #1 workplace skill? Download our paper: 
I think we’re teaching kids to pass classes and skim the surface. Real thinking can get messy and take you down a different path, which is hard to grade (especially in a big class). I think we need more open-ended classes where the end goal is flexible and based in part on the students’ goals.
I agree with Chad~ teaching for exams is the norm.
One evening, I was talking to a postgrad who was teaching at a uni and I commented that many students that I wok with online don’t know how to argue in their papers~ he asked me, Does it have to be an argument? As in~ conflict! How does one teaching critical argument not know the definition of what that is…?
Students need to be encouraged to question those who are delivering the information~ like many young people do when those they perceive to be in authority (e.g., parents) are “telling” them something. Encouragement means not getting on the defensive, not making personal comments about the questioner, modeling critical thought in discussions about current events, TV shows, songs, student arguments on a topic, literature arguments etc, and inclusiveness~get the students involved in curriculum and rubric design.
Enlighten them as to how their daily gossip, bitch fests, frustrations, joys, celebrations and satisfactions are examples of critical thinking.
Great example Char. If we brought the critical thinking to the students through their interests, they might be more interested. It isn’t a course…it’s a life process.
Hi Breanne,
Yes, I’m disturbed by this information. I completely agree that this is a recipe for disaster. When businesses can’t think critically, then we’re just churning out self-centered products & services that are far more about the business than about what the consumers want. These businesses are working hard, but not for the right reason. And when they go on to fail, it’s quite likely they’ll never really understand why. Repeat cycle.
Teaching critical thinking takes time, patience, persistence, and a healthy dose of self confidence to be able to challenge others. If a person doesn’t really care about the outcome (students learning critical thinking) or doesn’t have the self-confidence themselves to pursue it, then the easy way is to just let it go. It’s challenging to have a room full of people who will question you & your thinking. That must be tremendously difficult to encourage.
I see this as something that starts long before college, and it should begin at home and in school. But again, it’s difficult. I’m not saying difficult is an excuse to not do it; I’m saying that difficult is likely the reason that people don’t do it. If you don’t believe your kids should question you or authority, then you’ll certainly not jump on board with this idea!
[...] narrow, decontextualized set of “skills” in math and language arts that creativity and critical reasoning atrophy, if they’ve even developed at all. It’s hard not to close the loop and see lawmakers [...]