Critical Thinking towards Enhanced Employability - Literature review Example

Critical thinking towards enhanced employability; argumentative analysis Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission Abstract The concept of critical thinking has for a long time elicited antagonistic discourses among scholars in the field of academia. This has culminate to volumes of scholarly work being published arguing for or against the imperative role played by critical thinking in the contemporary world, both among students and in the organizational set-up. In most cases, critical thinking is often coupled with creativity to form a concrete discipline of critical and creative thinking (CCT). This has in a diverse way created a maze in regard to its applicability in life, most notably by students when they are seeking employment in different organizations. Nonetheless, it is fundamental to be cognizant of the fact that despite this diversity among scholars on whether CCT is imperative in enhancing the employability of students, it is apparent that when an individual or a collective is confronted by a particular issues or problem, taking the right decision is a paramount task. Against this background, it is an evident fact that critical thinking is integral in assisting people to have a comprehensive understanding of the merits and demerits of every probable outcome and to value these outcomes according to the different objectives that they seek to achieve. This has seen the introduction of courses like Edith Cowan University preparation courses aimed at developing the critical thinking and academic writing skills among students. This paper is thus a profound effort to explore whether the instigation of critical thinking modules in higher institutions of learning enhance the employability of students. Keywords: Critical thinking, academic writing, employability Critical thinking towards enhanced employability; argumentative analysis According to Wilson, Solomon, Tyler and Taylor (2011), critical thinking can be perceived as the ability to effectively analyze and put information into utility. In addition, critical thinking is the skill of applying acceptable standards and procedures in an effective and innovative manner (sometimes referred to as ‘thinking outside the box’). In this regard, critical thinking can be viewed as a process in which an individual or a collective considers information in a methodical and disciplined manner. Critical thinking is also often referred to as analytical thinking or logical thinking. Critical thinking involves systematic thinking and necessitates conceptualization which can be comprehended as the ability to analyze information logically from diverse perspectives. This is succeeded by the ability to synthesize a viable inference from one’s analysis and for this whole process of critical thinking to be feasible, one ought to be endowed with the capacity to apply this inference in day to day activities (Wilson et. al, 2011). In order to ascertain the viability of this process in an organizational set-up which would prompt an institution to hire an individual (in this case a graduate) who possesses these skills, it is prudent to explore some of the chief tenets that are embedded in critical thinking that would assist a fresh employee in his/her professional life. Decision making Endsley, Hoffman, Kaber and Roth (2007) depicted that studies focusing on skillful decision makers and their decision strategies, for instance, in crisis management, controls and military command have revealed that these individual are not endowed with only a wide scope of knowledge but also they apply problem solving mechanisms which are deliberate and this have significant variance with those engaged by beginners. Against this background, it is evident that the imperative role played by critical thinking in decision making cannot be disputed. This fact is based on the background that the decision making process, whether at an individual or organizational level necessitate profound thinking and thus critical thinkers. Klein, Moon and Hoofman (2006) supported the above inference by determining that when experienced decision makers are confronted by non-routine and complex problems, they engage collection and critical evaluation of the available evidence, seek the consistency, and test the assumptions underlying their assessment of the problem. The relevance of critical thinking is expanse in many traditional and contemporary professions. For instance, the practice of law since its instigation in ancient societies necessitated a high level of creative thinking aimed at empowering a jury to deliver viable judgment that would balance the rights of both the plaintiff and the defendant based on the available evidence. In more contemporary professions like project management, critical thinking is pivotal in making estimations on costs and time required to finalize the project. Insufficient critical thinking in this case can result in a phenomenon called optimism bias which causes planner to be overoptimistic about their plans. Lau (2011) noted that optimism bias is often evident when in a large project, cost and completion time exceeds the original estimates. In other modern professions like intelligence and forensic analysis, critical thinking has been perceived to play an integral role in analyzing the available evidence which can be influenced by factors like genetic drift and population sub-structure which can affect the weight of the DNA evidence. In this regard, the DNA analyst ought to engage a high level of critical thinking in approximating the probability of these phenomena in his/ her analysis in order to avoid as much as possible implicating the wrong person. From the above examples, it is apparent that critical thinking plays a major role the decision making process in many profession and based on the virtue that a certain graduate has been impacted with critical thinking skills, this can go a long way in elevating his/her employability in most of the above stated fields among others, when juxtaposed with an equally graduated student who is not endowed with these skills. Correlation between critical thinking, innovation and creativity. It is worth noting that the advent of globalization has instigated heightened dynamics in the global market. The level of competition between diverse firms has elevated to unanticipated levels prompting the efforts among corporations not only to expand their market share but also to maintain their competitive advantage in the market. In addition, the increased dynamisms in consumer demands as a result of consumer polarization and diversification have necessitated most firms to seek alternative products or modify their current products in order to effectively to satisfy the consumers’ needs. Interplay between both of the above factors has obliged majority of the firm to engage heightened innovation and creativity in geared towards maintaining their favorable niche in the market. It is prudent to note that critical thinking has been identified as a vital cog in elevating the level of innovation and creativity in these firms and its instigation in modern institutions of learning curriculums provides a fundamental channel of impacting the students who are the future employees with these integral skills. According to Lai (2011), the partnership for 21st Century skills has identified critical thinking as one of the several learning and innovation skills which are extremely imperative in preparing students for post-secondary education and the workforce. Moreover, the newly formed Common Core State Standards infer to critical thinking as a cross-disciplinary skill which is vital both in college and in employment. This is founded on the background that the constant exposure of students to creative thinking modules elevates their creative and innovation capacity which are in great demand in most firms as previously mentioned. Apart from innovation in the corporate world, various initiatives have also been instigated aimed at elevating the levels of innovation and critical thinking in other areas. This is best epitomized by an initiative entitled ‘Education for Citizenship’ established at Carnegie and is geared towards teaching the Arab citizenry not only about the governmental structures and civil education but also about innovation and critical thinking-about being good citizens (Carnegie Endowment, 2012). Therefore, students who are endowed with extensive critical thinking skills in the course of their academic undertaking will be endowed with higher employment chances in these firms seeking highly creative and innovative individuals when juxtaposed with other fresh graduates who lack these skills. In this regard, the instigation of creative thinking in the curriculums of different schools is integral in heightening the employability of their student in modern job market. Critical thinking and writing It is worth noting that critical thinking is founded of reflective thinking which is primarily focused on interpreting, analyzing, critiquing, synthesizing and evaluation of information, arguments and experiences. This is enabled through a set of reflective skills, attitudes and abilities to guide thoughts, beliefs and actions. All these tenets are at the center of quality writing practice whereby a student is able to critique, synthesize and evaluate a given set of information rather than accepting it at the face value. In this regard, critical thinking is instrumental in determining the level of understanding by a student of particular information that had been previously written, evaluating the information, critiquing it and writing novel ideas based on the acquired knowledge. This is key in developing new theories and literature in various disciplines of academic investigation. The relevance of quality writing skills spills over even to the professional realms. For instance, in a research firm, the excellent writing skills that a student acquired in the course of academic writing will find immense relevance in the development of research proposals and writing reports on feasibility studies. These skills are also applicable in other corporations, for instance, writing the annual reports and media briefings. There are other fields of employment where synergy between quality writing and critical thinking is a prerequisite for hiring. This is mostly in publishing firms like newspaper centers. In these specific companies, a prospective employee ought to be endowed with exemplary writing skills coupled with critical thinking skills which will assist him/her in evaluating and critiquing the gathered information before committing it to understandable, coherent and objective piece of writing. In this regard, outstanding creative thinking and academic writing skills that a student acquired in the institution of learning will influence his/her level of employability in the above firms. Thus, the introduction of these modules in the school curriculum is of great importance in elevating the level of employability of the students when they get into the job market. Conclusion and recommendations From the above discourse, it is apparent that critical thinking as well as academic writing skills plays an integral in elevating the level of employability of the graduates when they graduate from the learning institutions and enter the job market. This is because critical thinking is paramount in influencing the level of decision making and problem solving skills by a prospective employee, the capacity to be creative and innovative which is vital in modern firms as well as excellent writing skills which find immense applicability in particular firms. These inferences are parallel with the conclusion by Helsdingen, Bosch, Gog and Merriënboer (2010) who concluded that critical thinking instruction enhances decision strategy and improves understanding of the general principles in the domain. The increased instigation of these courses in diverse institutions of learning has thus been a profound effort to heighten the employability capacity of their students in the highly competitive job market. In this regard, the argument by some people that developing these skills does not improve the employability of students and thus of little value is intrinsically malformed and false. Against this background, students ought to be encouraged to undertake this course in their academic processes which will be of great benefit when they eventually move out to seek employment in diverse firms. Secondly, institutions which have not yet instigated this course in their curriculum ought to be prompted to do in order to not only expand their curriculum but also to assist their students in their future endeavors. References Carnegie Endowment (2012). Awakening Arab Innovation. Retrieved May 05, 2012 from http://carnegieendowment.org/2012/01/25/awakening-arab-innovation Endsley, M. R., Hoffman, R., Kaber, D. B., & Roth, E. (2007). Cognitive engineering and decision making: An overview and future course. Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making, 1, 1-21. Helsdingen, A., Bosch, K., Gog, T. &Merriënboer, J. (2010). The Effects of Critical Thinking Instruction on Training Complex Decision Making. Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 52(3), 1-24. Klein, G. A., Moon, B. A., & Hoffman, R. R. (2006). Making sense of Sensemaking 1: Alternative perspectives. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 21, 70-73. Lai, E.R. (2011). Critical Thinking: A Literature Review. New Jersey: Pearson Lau, J.I. (2011). An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity: Think More, Think Better. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Wilson, A., Solomon, G., Tyler L.& Taylor, T. (2011). 100% Student Success. 2nd ed. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Read More