Ask a clearer question, get a better answer. [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]

Henri, Dominic; Morrell, Lesley; Scott, Graham

Abstract

Many undergraduate students struggle to engage with higher order skills such as evaluation and synthesis in written assignments, either because they do not understand that these are the aim of written assessment or because these critical thinking skills require more effort than writing a descriptive essay. Here, we report that students who attended a freely available workshop, in which they were coached to pose a question in the title of their assignment and then use their essay to answer that question, obtained higher marks for their essay than those who did not attend. We demonstrate that this is not a result of latent academic ability amongst students who chose to attend our workshops and suggest this increase in marks was a result of greater engagement with ‘critical thinking’ skills, which are essential for upper 2:1 and 1st class grades. The tutoring method we used holds two particular advantages: First, we allow students to pick their own topics of interest, which increases ownership of learning, which is associated with motivation and engagement in ‘difficult’ tasks. Second, this method integrates the development of ‘inquisitiveness’ and critical thinking into subject specific learning, which is thought to be more productive than trying to develop these skills in isolation.

Citation

Henri, D., Morrell, L., & Scott, G. (in press). Ask a clearer question, get a better answer. [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]. F1000Research, 4, Article 901. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.7066.1

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 25, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Sep 25, 2015
• Deposit Date: Feb 1, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 23, 2017
• Journal: F1000Research
• Electronic ISSN: 2046-1402
• Publisher: F1000Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Article Number: 901
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.7066.1
• Keywords: Study skills, Critical thinking
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/384652
• Publisher URL: http://f1000research.com/articles/4-901/
• Contract Date: Nov 23, 2017