Critical Thinking Assignment: Impact Of Integrated Assessment

Question

Task: The purpose of this task is for you to demonstrate your ability to critically analyse, synthesize and evaluate information and present that information in a written format. A list of articles will be available on the unit’s Moodle site for you to choose from. You will then write a critical article review based around your responses to the following questions.

Critical Analysis
• What is the background of the research? (Background)
• What is the research objective?
• What are the core research questions the article addresses? Why are they important to address? (Research questions)
• How was the research conducted? (Methodology)
• What where the major findings? (Findings)
• What are the significance of the findings for future research or management practice?
(Significance/implications)

Critical Evaluation
• Critically state what you agree and do not agree about the article and explain why? (with specific examples from the article)
• What are its strengths and weaknesses?
• In your view, what is the overall value (e.g. contributions, advances, impacts, etc) of the
article?

Please do not simply list the questions and your response to them. The questions are to be used simply as a means for you to critically think about your chosen article. Your review needs to contain answers to these questions, but they need to be in essay format, that is, containing introduction section, body paragraphs and a conclusion section.

Answer

This critical thinking assignment focused on the question that if this integrated assessment conducted by the first-year university students, is encouraging the skillset of their critical thinking ability or not. The study developed in the critical thinking assignment is concerned with the methods that are suitable for establishing the "critical thinkers" based on their competencies. It does not deal with the question of whether the students are being preached to think a situation or analyze critically. In the empirical form of studies, from the early 1900s, critical thinking is being considered as the significant factor. It can be defined as a robust enabling criterion furnishing individuals for enhancing their ability to deal with a "change" in any structural analysis. Moreover, the skills of critical thinking provide the ability to the students to adapt to their work sphere. Cargas, Williams, & Rosenberg, (2017) said that the skills to think critically could not be developed by maturity, but it must be practiced and preached by reinforcing appropriate assignments.

Thinking critically is an active process, including skillful reasoning senses and metacognition. It is an attitude of inquiry involving the recognition of problems as well as accepting the requirements for evidence in terms of supporting what has been asserted to a person (Cargas, Williams, & Rosenberg, 2017). It is the understanding of nature based on effective inferences, generalizations, as well as abstractions. This helps in determination of the accuracy or weight of several shreds of evidence are determined logically.

The research on critical thinking assignment emphasized upon the measurement of the attitudes as well as the cognitive ability of the students based on disposition. It is because of the fact that to gauge the skills of critical thinking of the students, it is imperative to use a multiple-choice instrument. It does not gauge adequate attitudes of disposition. The student's reasoning must be made evident when critical thinking assessments are designed (Morrissey & Heilbrun, 2017). The integrated assessments needed the students to provide recommendations and to draw conclusions, making the reasoning of the students more evident. Watson and Glaser have developed a measure of critical thinking named W-GCTA. This technique is used for gauging the critical thinking skillset of respective first-year students enrolled for the Extended Curriculum Program.

The Research Objective of this critical thinking assignment is to find the effect of an integrated assessment on the critical thinking ability of first-year university students. In accordance with the research objectives the core Research Questions is what is the impact of an integrated assessment on the critical thinking skills of first-year university students (Cloete, 2018).

The least length of this Extended Curriculum course should include at least half of a year in academia, while its highest length must not exceed a full year of academia. The students who are underprepared for higher education are placed on the program for their educational backgrounds. The main aim of the program or other foundation programs is providing "academic foundations" to the students who are very much necessary to complete their studies successfully (Mutakinati, Anwari, & Kumano, 2018). The critical thinking assignment emphasized the programs existing within the Accounting department which have a common first 2 years along with the specialized scholars who have auditing, taxation, and management or financial accounting in the last year.

Quasi-experimental, non-equivalent, post-test, and pretest designs of group are the key focus of this study. The research design has evaluated the interventional outcome on the critical thinking ability of the students. According to (Whiley, Witt, Colvin, Sapiains Arrue, & Kotir, 2017), as the respondents were chosen purposefully, this is rather a quasi-experimental design and not a pure experimental design.

This research on critical thinking assignment conducted following a series of steps. In the first step, the target group is divided into an experimental as well as a control group. Experimental group consists of the students who have the first-time enrollment for the National Diploma of Cost and Management Accounting. On the other hand, the control group are those who have enrolled for the "National Diploma of Accounting.

In the next step of critical thinking assignment, data collection in a quantitative format is done with the help of the W-GCTA UK. It is a "multiple-choice instrument," including “recognition” of assumptions, evaluation, interpretation, deduction, and inferences of arguments. It is also important to consider ethical considerations for carrying out the research.

The reliability of the multiple-choice instrument was assumed as it was formerly running in the context of South Africa (Paul., 2018). The reliability, on the other hand, was encouraged by the close connection between the experimental group as well as the control group.

Inferential statistics is used to analyses subtest results. The major objectives outlined in the critical thinking assignment were divided into three categories (Huber & Kuncel, 2016). It is to see if there is a difference that is statistically substantial in the critical thinking ability in pre-test scores. It also ascertained the critical thinking in pre-test of the experimental groups and the critical thinking in post-test of the control groups. It determined if there is a difference that is statistically important in the critical thinking abilities in post-test scores.

The “overall significance” is very much evident among the outcomes is that the “control group” was much more reliable than “the experimental group” before the “integrated assignment”. To represent statistically, it was around three out of five areas of the concept of thinking critically, such as the interpretations, evaluations, and deductions of arguments (Sharples, et al., 2017).. The "post integrated assessments" achieved the same scores in the control group in inferences and examinations, although it produced a hike in scores in the evaluation of arguments

In this critical thinking assignment, I agree with the implementation of critical thinking for the following reasons. Firstly, the importance of critical thinking enhances the understanding of links between ideas. Secondly, it helps to determine the relevance and importance of ideas and arguments. Thirdly, it helps to appraise, build, and recognize cases (Dumitru, et al., 2018). Fourthly, it identifies errors and inconsistencies in reasoning. Fifthly, it approaches the problem more systematically and consistently (Paul & Elder, 2019). Sixthly, it reflects on the values, beliefs, and assumptions and gives justification to them. The development of critical thinking is necessary and can be done by developing several "routine activities" and their application to a situation or a problem. Improving critical thinking takes practice and persistence.

The strengths and weaknesses of critical thinking are to be discussed in the critical thinking assignment as follows. The benefits are considered to be the following. Firstly, foresight or assumption or a hypothetical assessment of any situation is a significant factor earned from critical thinking. It helps in the process of decision-making. Secondly, critical thinking is a valuable factor for students to master in their field as it can be applied to all situations involving planning and analysis (Rutherford, 2019). Thirdly, it is stated herein critical thinking assignment that it enhances the problem-solving ability for a student, and it will be beneficial for them to adjust to their workplaces. Fourthly, critical thinking enables better and developed learning and empathy towards other's perspectives. It allows positive communication and solves the problem by committing to put an offset at negative socio-centrism and egocentrism. Fifthly, it is a domain for general thinking skills enhancing rationality. Logical thinking emerges from critical assessments. Sixthly, it is essential in the economy of "new knowledge" (Hitchcock, 2018). The “global knowledge economy” is accelerated by technology and information. A person has to be flexible enough to deal with the changes. This flexibility is encouraged by the critical thinking as intellectual skills are analyzed and integrated on the basis of diversified knowledge.

On the contrary, there are numerous disadvantages of thinking critically, though. They are to be discussed as the following. Firstly, to make a critical analysis of a situation or a problem, a lot of time is consumed for gathering, collecting, and interpreting facts and information (Ghanizadeh, 2017). Secondly, the whole process of sorting fiction from facts and considering each source of knowledge or information is very tiring and lengthy. Thirdly, it is not always possible to think critically before performing an action. Some actions are delivered out of impulsiveness as human beings cannot still be controlled by a systematic approach in case of decision-making. Thirdly, one may find himself questioning the religion, value, and ethics, and so on to always have a critical attitude towards any problem or any situation (O'Halloran, Tan, & Marissa, 2017). There is an emergence of a certain existential discomfort in this regard. A person can get confused between the original tenets and the perceived and analyzed critical principles, and it can have an effect in decision making, resulting in indecisiveness.

The empirical findings of the critical thinking assignment are evidence of “the integrated assessment" conducted by the learners enhancing their “critical thinking skills”. As it is not possible for all learning institutions to propose "in-service training" or "cooperative education" to all the students, the gap is bridged by "integrated assessments," which are contextualized. This helps them understand the requirements in the workplace (Ahrari, Samah, Hassan, Wahat, & Zaremohzzabieh, 2016). The "integrated assessments" conducted serially within the “first-year” students, “university students” eventually enhances the “critical thinking skills” in them, which favors them in their work situations.

Among the various benefits of the integrated assignments mentioned in the critical thinking assignment, a major one is that it relieves the burden a student can face. So, the students get more time to understand the link of the subject matter. The factor enhances the skills of critical thinking. However, "traditional assessments" tend to dominate the structure of “higher education” as the shift in the “method of assessment” can be generated through a difference in the perceptions of the staff.

The primary role of academia is to teach the students to think critically by developing their skills, but not only to cover content. Further scope of research on this particular topic examined in the segments of critical thinking assignment can be carried out by analyzing the data of the findings.

Bibliography
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Cargas, S., Williams, S., & Rosenberg, M. (2017). An approach to teaching critical thinking across disciplines using performance tasks with a common rubric. Critical thinking assignment Thinking Skills and Creativity, 26, 24-37.

Cloete, M. (2018). The impact of an integrated assessment on the critical thinking skills of first-year university students. Accounting Education, 27(5), 479-494.

Dumitru, D., Bigu, D., Elen, J., Ahern, A., McNally, C., & O'Sullivan, J. (2018). A European review on critical thinking educational practices in higher education institutions. UTAD.

Ghanizadeh, A. (2017). The interplay between reflective thinking, critical thinking, self-monitoring, and academic achievement in higher education. Higher Education,, 74(1), 101-114.

Hitchcock, D. (2018). Critical thinking. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/critical-thinking/

Huber, C. R., & Kuncel, N. R. (2016). Does college teach critical thinking? A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research,, 86(2), 431-468.

Morrissey, B., & Heilbrun, M. (2017). Teaching critical thinking in graduate medical education: lessons learned in diagnostic radiology. Journal of medical education and curricular development, 4, 2382120517696498.

Mutakinati, L., Anwari, I., & Kumano, Y. (2018). Analysis of students' critical thinking skill of middle school through stem education project-based learning. Critical thinking assignment Jurnal Pendidikan IPA Indonesia,, 7(1), 54-65.

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Paul., R. (2018). Critical thinking and the critical person. Thinking: The Second International Conference (pp. 373-403). New York: Routledge.

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Sharples, J., Oxman, A., Mahtani, K., Chalmers, I., Oliver, S., Collins, K., . . . Hoffmann, T. (2017). Critical thinking in healthcare and education. Bmj, 357, j2234.

Whiley, D., Witt, B., Colvin, R., Sapiains Arrue, R., & Kotir, J. (2017). Enhancing critical thinking skills in first year environmental management students: a tale of curriculum design, application and reflection. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 41(2), 166-181.