Enhancing critical thinking in operations management education: a framework with visual-based mapping for interdisciplinary and systems thinking

Abstract

An instructional intervention was introduced to enhance critical thinking skills, in the aspects of interdisciplinary and systems thinking, in an undergraduate Operations Management course at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The intervention included a newly developed visual-based mapping tool to induce deliberate divergent-convergent thinking (imagination and judgement). It was supported by a design-based problem as a formative assessment, with learning outcomes underlined by a set of assessment rubric. To evaluate its effect on the students' critical thinking abilities, a quasi-experimental study was conducted with data collected from survey instruments, semi-structured interviews, and academic scores. The survey results indicate improvements in students' abilities in consciously monitoring their cognitive activities, reflecting on their reasoning, and making self-assessment (self-regulation) as well as in assessing credibility, relevance, and logical strength of information (evaluative reasoning). Results from the interviews and academic scores complemented the survey findings. The largely positive results suggest the effectiveness of the intervention.