The Effects of Teaching Critical Thinking Persist Over Time

Abstract

[EN]The aim of the work is to determine whether the skills of critical thinking persist over time; i.e., whether they endure after training. To accomplish this, we carried out a follow-up study of a sample instructed in critical thinking four years previously. We applied an instruction program, ARDESOS, to this sample and assessed the improvement in the basic skills of critical thinking. After checking the improvement in competencies we re-appraised it four years later. The results show that once the students’ university studies had been completed these competencies persisted and even improved with respect to those acquired after instruction in all the dimensions of critical thinking except one. Here we detail the whole process of evaluation and the results obtained.