Evaluating the outcomes of intensive critical thinking instruction for social work students

Social workers require critical thinking skills to analyse situations which present themselves in the course of professional work and in making decisions about the most appropriate forms of social work intervention. The 4-year Bachelor of Social Work degree at the University of Newcastle, Australia, introduced an intensive instructional unit on critical thinking at the beginning of the final year of the course. The Cornell Critical Thinking Test, the Ennis-Weir Essay Test and a qualitative student self-appraisal were administered to students in the fourth year of the degree prior to the intensive instructional unit on critical thinking and again after the unit had been completed. From the results it was concluded that explicit and concentrated instruction on critical thinking assisted social work students to improve their critical thinking abilities and to identify principles of critical thinking.