Enhancing Critical Thinking in Economics Using Team-Based Learning

While critical thinking may be difficult to define, development of critical thinking skills is a principle goal of education, particularly higher education. It is vital that college graduates can question assumptions, synthesize information, evaluate evidence, draw inferences, and make reasoned arguments. Critical thinking skills do not improve without practice; effective teaching methods engage students with course material and each other, challenging them to think through issues and problems relevant to the real world. Engagement or problem solving alone, however, does not guarantee improved critical thinking. This study evaluates the impact of one alternative teaching method, team-based learning, on students’ perceptions of the development of critical thinking skills.