Student Perceptions of a Marketing Course Taught with the Critical Thinking Approach

Abstract

The critical thinking approach to teaching marketing classes emphasizes teaching students how to think about marketing content. It is based on teaching students to apply the elements of reasoning and universal intellectual standards to their thought and writing about marketing topics. The current paper describes initial student reactions to such a teaching approach when used in a consumer behavior class. Reactions to the syllabus, comments and complaints of students at various intervals in the course, and comparisons of the course to courses taught with more traditional methods are all methods used to understand how well the critical thinking approach performs. The results are discussed and imply that a professor who is dedicated to teaching with the critical thinking approach can achieve results superior to more traditional methods.