Courses and instruction affecting critical thinking

This study investigated how different types of courses and instructional techniques affect students' self-reported growth in critical thinking. Data are drawn from the Cooperative institutional Research Program's 1989 Follow-Up Survey of 24,837 students who had first entered college as freshmen in 1985. Results revealed that taking writing courses, interdisciplinary courses, history courses, science courses, women's studies courses, math courses, foreign language courses, ethnic studies courses, and enrolling in an honors program are each positively associated with self-reported growth in critical thinking. Moreover, self-reported growth in critical thinking is positively related to having a paper critiqued by an instructor, conducting an independent research project, working on a group project, giving a class presentation, and taking essay exams, but negatively related to taking multiple-choice exams. Overall findings, however, suggest that the impact of classroom experiences on students' abilities to think critically is far weaker than one might expect or hope.