Abstract:
This paper reports on the design and evaluation of a project aimed at fostering the critical
thinking abilities and dispositions of first year students at an Australian university. Novel paper
and pencil problems were designed to foster the range of critical thinking abilities identified by
Ennis (1991). Most of these critical thinking tasks relate to applications of chemistry and physics in
everyday life. Some of the tasks were developed from information and/or ideas obtained from critical
incident interviews with scientists in private and government organisations. The first year university
students were required to attempt the tasks in co-operative groups and to interact in these groups in
ways aimed at fostering the dispositions of Ennis’ ideal critical thinker (Ennis 1996). The project
was evaluated from discussions with groups of students, from comments of tutors who observed the
students working in groups and from a questionnaire. Evidence obtained from these data indicated
that many students considered their thinking skills were enhanced by their experience of attempting
the tasks in small co-operative groups.
