The department held its “fifth seminar of this academic year” on April 29, 2012. The talk was titled
“Teaching Critical Thinking as a Strategy for Higher Education Curriculum Improvement” presented
by Dr. Dhaifallah Almatrodi as a result of a research that he recently conducted in the United Kingdom.
The seminar was well attended by faculty members, and staff.
The main emphasis of the seminar was on the main findings from in-depth interviews that Dr. Almatrodi
conducted with number of prominent college professors in Britain. These professors were accomplished
instructors who got teaching awards in their respective institutions. Four main questions were posed
in the interviews. Those questions were pertaining to: How these professors implemented critical thinking
in their classroom? What was their overall strategy of imbedding critical thinking in their courses? What
kind of activities were found to be stimulating to students to engage in critical thinking? What are those
instructor’s own definitions of critical thinking?
Obviously, the presentation stressed the significance of critical thinking as a major skill for life-long
learning to be sharpened during college years. Dr. Almatrodi’s findings supported the fact that excellent
teaching (such as the kind practiced by the award-winning professors he interviewed) must have strong
critical thinking components. The answers of the interviewees to the main questions (involving strategy,
implementation, definition, and activities) pertaining to critical thinking all point to a very strong conviction
of its significance on the part of the instructors. Moreover, they point to the effort the interviewees put
into making their students “think about their thinking” while they are “thinking.” Reasoning, using evidence,
argument building, and articulating content in a way comprehensible to receivers deemed integral to
communicating critical thinking.
Engaging interjections were made during the presentation and a lively discussion followed. All comments
confirmed that sharpening critical thinking skills in our students should have a prominent role in any
curriculum. This systematic study of the United Kingdom higher education system focusing on how critical
thinking is incorporated into the curriculum there was very valuable.
Many professors, representing various disciplines within KFUPM, attended the seminar and participated
- actively and articulately - in the discussion and provided their perspectives on the same topic.
