The Impact of Critical Thinking Instruction on Downstream Courses

This article reports on a longitudinal study over three years of 2329 students taking an Introduction to Computer Information Systems course. The study investigated the effects of upstream courses containing domain specific and generic Critical Thinking training. The authors hypothesized that domain specific training would be more effective than generic training, that length of time from training would not reduce the effect of the training, and that the level of learning achieved in the training would have a positive effect on the course grade downstream from the courses in which the training occurred. The results of a regression analysis show that the course with domain specific training has a positive effect while the generic course did not have a significant impact on downstream courses. A second finding was that the level of learning in the critical thinking training course positively impacts the downstream course grade.