Developing critical thinking skills is a common goal of an undergraduate physics curriculum. How do students make sense of evidence and what do they do with it? In this study, we evaluated students' critical thinking behaviors through their written notebooks in an introductory physics laboratory course. We compared student behaviors in the…

Major educational initiatives in the world place great emphasis on fostering rich computer-based environments of assessment that make student thinking and reasoning visible. Using thinking tools engages students in a variety of critical and complex thinking, such as evaluating, analyzing, and decision making. The aim of this study was to explore…

Comparison of two classroom techniques in a dental research methodology course found students writing note summaries (n=21) later performed better on recall, and students keeping learning logs (n=24) were better at critical analysis. Note-summarizers complied better with instructions and their attitudes about future use of the technique were more…