V11-38

A standard instrument for measuring students' perception of critical thinking instruction was administered to both instructors and students. This instrument contained twenty items addressing the purposes of and cognitive skills associated with critical thinking. The phrasing of each item was slightly altered for a corresponding survey of instructors, with "my instructor" changed to "I". Data were collected through a census survey of core courses in the business program. A total of 60 core course sections were surveyed, yielding 689 responses from an enrolled total of 797 students, which represents an 86.4% response rate. In addition, instructors were surveyed regarding the instructional methods and teaching strategies they incorporated into their respective courses. Faculty members were asked to indicate which methods they employed in class, the relative importance of each method or strategy to the course, and an approximate percentage of classroom time allotted to each method.

When examining course-level mean scores for students' perceptions of critical thinking instruction, we were able to reject the null hypothesis and found statistically significant differences between mean scores at different course levels. When examined on a course-level basis between sophomore and junior level courses, the difference was statistically significant. However, the difference in scores between junior and senior level courses was not statistically significant. Therefore, students in courses for sophomores view critical thinking instruction differently than those in junior and senior level courses. We did not find support for the alternative proposition that students' perceptions of critical thinking instruction are highly correlated with the instructors' perceptions of critical thinking instruction in the course pedagogy. There was statistically significant agreement on only four of the twenty items included in the survey of perceptions between instructors and students. This disconnect is most prevalent among sophomore level courses. We found limited support for another proposition that an instructor’s emphasis on a selected instructional method or teaching strategy is highly correlated with students' perceptions of critical thinking instruction. Out of twenty direct and indirect instructional methods included in the survey, only four methods exhibited correlations with student perceptions that were statistically significant.


Which of the following can be concluded from the facts given in the passage?

A. Some students were not interested to participate in the survey.
B. There were at most two students from each core course who did not participate in the survey.
C. Students may not have given their true opinions in the survey.
D. There is limited agreement between instructors and students on the perception of critical thinking instruction.
E. In four teaching methods out of twenty, teachers put in adequate emphasis.