In the “Learning Compass 2030” proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), critical thinking is identified as a crucial skill for future development. Learning critical thinking involves developing a set of dispositions that are related to learning motivation. Moreover, individuals who possess growth mindsets in critical thinking believe that critical thinking can be improved through self-learning or in the support of an enriched environment; such mindsets can be influential to learning outcomes. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate whether college students' growth mindsets would interact with interventions designed to facilitate critical-thinking dispositions (CTD) and then influence improvements in CTD. This study employed an experimental design of the pretest-posttest control group, with 45 college students in the experimental group and 45 college students in the control group. The experimental group received a 7-week intervention that incorporated visible thinking strategies to encourage the development of CTD, while the control group did not receive such intervention. The Inventory of Critical-thinking Dispositions (ICD) and the Inventory of Critical-thinking Mindsets were employed to measure the participants’ critical-thinking abilities and growth mindsets. Results of the mixed-design Analysis of Variance revealed that participants with higher levels of growth mindsets in the experimental group demonstrated significant improvements in critical-thinking dispositions, whereas those with lower levels of growth mindsets in the experimental group did not have such improvements. These findings suggest that growth mindsets play a moderating role during the learning of CTD.

Authors:
Chien-Lin Wu, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Yu-Chu Yeh, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Yu-Shan Ting, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Chih Min Wang, National Chengchi University, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Yu-chu Yeh is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at National Chengchi University in Taiwan

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