The impact of an integrated assessment on the critical thinking skills of first-year university students

ABSTRACT

Empirical evidence highlighted the problem of underprepared graduates who lack the critical thinking skills required in the work environment. Institutions of higher learning have been mandated to provide graduates with these critical thinking skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the integrated assessment conducted with first-year university students has enhanced the critical thinking skills of these students. This study employed a quantitative strategy and it was longitudinal in nature. The target population consisted of two groups: an experimental group and a control group. All five categories of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal UK edition were administered to both groups in a pre-test and post-test measure. The findings revealed a statistical significance in the overall post-test scores in favour of the experimental group. It is recommended that integrated assessments, based on real world problems, should be conducted in both first year as well as subsequent years of study.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical thinking
• integrated assessments
• workplace requirements
• employability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.