LibGuides: Feel Good Days: A Library Guide to Thriving in University: Critical Thinking

Books

How to improve your critical thinking & reflective skills / Kathleen McMillan and Jonathan Weyers

Where's your evidence? / Emma Coonan

Critical Thinking : an introduction to the basic skills / William Huges and Jonathan Lavery

Thrive: maximizing well-being in the age of AI / Ravi Bapna and Anindya Ghose

Getting critical / Kate Williams

Critical reading and writing for postgraduates cover

Critical reading and writing for postgraduates / Mike Wallace and Alison Wray

The work-based learning student handbook cover

The work-based learning student handbook / Ruth Helyer

The study success journal / Barbara Bassot

Study skills for international postgraduates cover

Study skills for international postgraduates / Martin Davies

50 ways to succeed as an international student cover

50 ways to succeed as an international student / Stella Cottrell

How to survive your doctorate: what others don't tell you / Jane Matthiesen and Mario Binder

The reflective journal / Barbara Bassot

Critical thinking skills : effective analysis, argument and reflection / Stella Cottrell

How to be a successful student 20 study habits based on the science of learning / Richard E. Mayer

eBooks

The reflective journal [eBook] / Barbara Bassot

Reading at university: how to improve your focus and be more critical [eBook] / Jamie Q. Roberts and Caitlin Hamilton

The miniature guide to critical thinking concepts and tools [eBook] / Richard Paul, andLinda Elder

Critical thinking skills: effective analysis, argument and reflection [eBook] / Stella Cottrell

Managing your own learning at university cover

Managing your own learning at university [eBook] / Aidan Moran

How to be a successful student : 20 study habits based on the science of learning [eBook] / Richard E. Mayer

Journals & Articles

ARROW@TUDUBLIN Introducing Critical Thinking: How to Intercept a First-year Undergraduate’s Way of Thinking by Gavin Buggy, Diarmuid Rush and Roseanna Ryan ABSTRACT A key skill that is taught to some degree in Critical Skills is how to think critically about a problem or task in order to achieve a deep understanding of what’s involved. However, because this is a more difficult skill that must be developed alongside the practical element it often gets lost in the process and left behind, mainly because it cannot be thought by traditional methods (Adair & Jaeger, 2016). Some lecturers do not expect first year students to be able to think critically and do not push the student towards achieving deeper thinking in their module. With so much focus on retention (Larmar & Lodge, 2014) it is understandable that a lecturer will concentrate on ensuring that students focus on learning fundamentals. However, research does show that many lecturers consider critical thinking to be the number one goal of undergraduate education (Haynes, Lisic, Goltz, Stein, & Harris, 2016; Re, Amenduni, De Medio, & Valente, 2019), and that it is only the difficulty in assessing critical thinking (Adair & Jaeger 2016) and the availability of training for the teaching of critical thinking (Larmar & Lodge, 2014; Re, Amenduni, De Medio, & Valente, 2019) that is holding back its implementation across programmes. As assessment drives learning, critical thinking practices must be integrated into the assessment process.
Publication Date: 2020
ARROW@TUDUBLIN Engaging Students in the Classroom: How Can I Know What I Think Until I See What I Draw? by Paul Donnelly and John Hogan ABSTRACT Recognising that the world into which students emerge upon graduation is characterised by constant change, we embrace a critical pedagogy that can be implemented in the classroom through the use of freehand drawing. Freehand drawing is a technique that can stimulate a critical stance, as visual representations allow us to comprehend the world differently, while permitting us see how others understand the world. First year students, in their first lecture, were asked to draw their interpretations of Irish politics and to explain in writing what they had drawn. The students were then placed in groups and asked to note what they saw in each other’s drawings, allowing for the identification of general patterns and themes. In this context, freehand drawing facilitates our ability to: ‘see’ how we understand a topic and that there are multiple ways of understanding; test theories, orthodoxies and accepted truths; scrutinise tacit assumptions; and ponder other possibilities. In employing freehand drawing in this manner, our aim is to create a learning environment where students develop their capacity for critical self-reflection.
Publication Date: 2013
Students with Academic Difficulties: Benefits of a Study Skills Group Compared to an Emotional Skills Group by Chiara Meneghetti, Nicole Casali, Mara Fabris, Debora Palamà, Roberta Rizzato, Claudia Zamperlin, Michela Zavagnin and Rossana De Beni ABSTRACT Students can encounter difficulties in their academic careers, regarding their studying skills, for instance, or experiencing negative emotions. Both are amenable to training and related to one another. This study aimed to examine the efficacy of two interventions focusing on studying skills or emotional skills. Two groups of students with academic difficulties participated: 30 worked on study-related aspects (Study skills group); and the other 30 attended lessons on emotions in everyday life (Emotional skills group). They were tested before and after the training on measures of their motivation to learn, self–regulated learning strategies, and emotions (positive and negative emotions). The results showed that both groups benefited from the training. The Study skills group improved specifically in incremental theory of intelligence (d=0.94, p
Publication Date: 2021
Predictors of academic performance and school engagement — Integrating persistence, motivation and study skills perspectives using person-centered and variable-centered approaches by Paulo A.S. Moreira, Paulo Dias, Filipa Machado Vaz, Author João Machado Vaz ABSTRACT There is a growing need for the integration of various theoretical perspectives on academic performance, especially the theories on educational persistence, and motivational theories. Recent models of students' engagement with school incorporate different dimensions of students, family and school. However, some authors are arguing that academic related skills should also be included in integrative approaches to academic achievement. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the predictors of academic performance a) integrating educational persistence, motivational, and study skills indicators, b) combining approaches centered on the variables and approaches centered on the person. 384 Portuguese secondary school students participated in this study. Information was collected about the several indicators from theories of persistence and motivation. The reduction of the data on principal components resulted in 9 factors. In the multiple regression model 5 factors explained 24.6% of the variance: socio economic status (9.3% of the variance), parental involvement with the school (6.4%), academic goals (4.9%), student–teacher interaction (leadership, rigor and orientation towards mastery in triennial courses) (2.6%), and academic related skills (1.1%). The profile analyses revealed that the two profiles with the best academic results register higher levels than the two profiles with worst academic results both in the indicators of the educational persistence model and the indicators of the motivational models. Different organizations of indicators from the educational persistence theories, the motivational models and study skills are associated to different academic results. These results give support for the integration of academic related skills, indicators of educational persistence theories and indicators of motivational models in secondary school students. Besides, this study's results give further evidences for the inclusion of academic related skills in multidimensional models of students' engagement with school.
Publication Date: 2013
Beyond “study skills”: a curriculum-embedded framework for metacognitive development in a college chemistry course by Gamby, Sonja ; Bauer, Christopher F .
Publication Date: December 2022
Thinking through talk: Using dialogue to develop students’ critical thinking by Ruiguo Cui and Peter Teo ABSTRACT This study adopts a dialogic instructional approach to explore the relationship between teacher talk and students' critical thinking. Through a fine-grained analysis of a teacher's dialogic moves against evidence of students' critical thinking in a 15-week dialogic instructional programme in a Chinese university, we found that three directionally oriented discursive moves, ‘opening up’, ‘branching out’ and ‘tossing back’, are productive in drawing out students' critical thinking. Our findings can help educational practitioners and researchers deepen their understanding of the discursive mechanisms by which classroom dialogue facilitates the development of students' critical thinking skills.
Publication Date: 2023
Developing critical thinking skills: Simulations vs. cases by Steven A. Samaras, Cheryl L. Adkins and Charles D. White ABSTRACT This paper compares case studies and simulations, two popular experiential learning techniques used in capstone strategy courses, to provide insights into how each may contribute to the development and demonstration of students’ critical thinking skills. We compared critical thinking assessments of a simulation-based assignment with the same assessments of a case study assignment. Our findings suggest that simulations promote recursive learning and may result in higher critical thinking outcomes than the more passive learning typical of case studies. Recursive learning occurs through evaluation of successes and failures, and subsequent adjustments to strategy, characteristic of the competitive business simulation.
Publication Date: 2021
Structural relationship among academic motivation, academic self‐efficacy, problem solving skills, creative thinking skills, and critical thinking skills by Şenol Orakci ABSTRACT This study investigates the structural relationship among academic motivation, academic self-efficacy (ASE), problem solving skills (PSS), creative thinking skills (CRTS), and critical thinking skills (CTS). Structural Equation Model was utilized to compute the relationships between these variables. The sample of the study was comprised of 575 student teachers studying in Faculties of Education in Turkey in the academic year 2021–2022. The findings underline that academic motivation had a significant direct effect on CRTS and self-efficacy had a significant direct effect on CRTS. In addition, the present study revealed that PSS had a significant direct effect on both creative thinking and CTS as well as revealing that creative thinking had a significant direct effect on CTS. Finally, in the present study, creative thinking significantly partially mediated the relationships between academic motivation, ASE, PSS, and CTS. These findings suggest implications for teacher training within the context of raising qualified teachers because the quality in the learning-teaching process is positively expected to be influenced by the variables explored in the current study.
Publication Date: 2023

Online Resources

Academic Writing & Learning Centre @TU Dublin
The Academic Writing & Learning Centre (AWLC) at TU Dublin provides a free and friendly support to all our students (undergraduate and postgraduate). At the AWLC, they help you develop as an independent, confident writer in an academic setting. They offer a range of supports such as pre-booked one-to-one appointments, thematic workshops on aspects of academic writing, and a Postgraduate Students Writing Group.
Mathematics Learning Centre @TU Dublin
Struggling with maths? Getting along OK but know that you can do better? Come along to the Mathematics Learning Centre!
They have a team of dedicated tutors who provide free, impartial and non-judgemental support to students of all mathematical abilities. No appointment is necessary, just drop in to one of the centres with your notes, and one of their tutors will help you, on a one-to-one basis, in any area of maths you find difficult.
This is a free service available to all undergraduate students from any programme in TU Dublin. Students can attend as many times as they wish.