Abstract:

Critical thinking, which has been defined as questioning assumptions, evaluating evidence, and testing logic (Rousseau, 2012), has been referred to as a “fundamental aim and overriding ideal of education,” (Bailin & Siegel, 2003). We aim to contribute to the critical thinking and pedagogy literatures by presenting a typology of four levels of thinking that instructors may model and practice with students in the classroom: linear thinking, systems thinking, critical thinking and integrative thinking.

In this typology, linear thinking is a one-way process that involves learning basic terms, concepts, and causal relationships in a specific field, while systems thinking builds on a student’s basic knowledge through an interactive process that includes receiving feedback from an instructor to improve the student’s understanding of terms, concepts, and relationships. The next level of thinking, critical thinking, represents a student’s ability to provide feedback to him/herself through metacognition (i.e. thinking about thinking). Finally, integrative thinking combines all of these elements to help students take in new information, evaluate and integrate the information into existing frameworks, and make necessary adjustments to one’s thinking throughout the learning process.

After examining these four levels of thinking, we present various tools and teaching techniques that instructors may use in the classroom to more effectively engage students in each level of thinking and to assess the student’s thinking abilities. This paper intends to provide guidance for instructors of business courses on how to provide quality knowledge transfer through the use of critical thinking skills using all four levels of thinking.

Keywords:

Integrated Thinking, Critical Thinking, and Unlearning, Relearning, Adapting.