Are We Really Having an Impact? A Comprehensive Approach to Assessing Improvements in Critical Thinking in an MBA Program

Introduction While executives and faculty recognize the importance of critical thinking skills for business graduates, according to Datar, Garvin, and Cullen (2010) it is often debated whether students come into the MBA program with these skills, and if not, whether they can be effectively taught. While several schools around the globe try to develop critical thinking skills through the use of student-centered teaching/learning methodologies, measuring the effects is often neglected due to the complexity and difficulty of the task. This article describes our experience in assessing the advancement of critical thinking skills at a well-known Central American business school and presents our findings on the impact of the case method in improving these skills. But what do we mean by critical thinking? Definitions of critical thinking range from the general to the particular. Schoenberg (2007) defines critical thinking as a set of higher order thinking skills that include metacognition (thinking about thinking), frames of reference, and seeking evidence. Arons (1985) defines critical thinking as an approach that focuses on the thinking and reasoning processes that underlie analysis and inquiry. Facione (1990) looks at it as purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based. Similarly, Paul (1990) begins from a general statement (thinking that displays mastery of intellectual skills and abilities) but moves to the particular in stating that it exemplifies the perfections of thinking appropriate to a particular mode or domain of thinking. Fisher and Scriven (1997) expand the definition to include communications, information, and argumentation. Nickerson, Perkins, and Smith (1985) develop the concept further by saying that critical thinking is the ability to judge the plausibility of specific assertions, to weigh evidence, to assess the logical soundness of inferences, to construct counter-arguments and alternative hypotheses. In order to do so, Paul and Elder (2005) identify eight essential elements underpinning critical thinking: purpose, questions, points of view, information, assumptions, concepts, conclusions, and consequences. Finally, Ennis (2002) focuses critical thinking on decision making by relating it to action: it is reasonable, reflective thinking that is intended on deciding what to do or believe. Due to the practical nature of business skills, we follow Ennis when we state that one of the academic objectives of our masters' programs is for the graduates to possess an attitude toward action, characterized by the ability to recognize problems and conflicts that occur in organizations, a sense of critical judgment, capability to make firm decisions, and talent to convert their decisions into action programs consistent with the particular situation of their organization. Hence, when we try to foster critical thinking skills, we focus on critical thinking for action. From an informing systems perspective, this means that the case is used as an instrument not only to open flows of information to sharpen students' skills in decision analysis but also to understand and improve their decision making process. While the complexity of management decisions makes them difficult to replicate, learning from one's own experience is a very important skill for managers in current (volatile) times, since managerial decisions usually need to be made without the scientific luxury of previously testing one's hypotheses, and executives can only hope to refine their abilities so they can perform better next time. Several studies have attempted to measure the development of critical thinking skills in business students. Garvey and Buckley (2011) look at the use of technology on the teaching of risk management to improve critical thinking on this subject. …