Fostering Graduates’ Critical Thinking with University-Business Collaboration: The Think4Jobs Project

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-036-7_34How to use a DOI?

Keywords

critical thinking; Higher Education Institutions; University-Business Collaboration

Abstract

Literature highlights a lack of Higher Education curricula that promotes graduates’ soft skills. Critical Thinking (CT) is considered one of the soft skills associated with higher employment levels. The European-funded project “Critical Thinking for Successful Jobs” (Think4Jobs), currently in progress, aims at strengthening the collaboration between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Labor Market Organizations (LMOs) to design, develop, implement and evaluate CT blended apprenticeships curricula in five disciplines (i.e., Veterinary Medicine, Teacher Education, Business and Economics, Business Informatics, English as a Foreign Language). The curricula are implemented for apprenticeships. We aim to summarize the findings and milestones achieved so far in the project. First, a focus group approach, document analysis, and observation of CT instruction in HEI and LMOs were conducted to assess the state of the art of CT teaching in HEI and the needs of the stakeholders (i.e., HE and LMO) regarding the instruction of CT in HEI apprenticeships and LMO internships. Our results revealed that there is not necessarily a “gap” between HEIs and LMOs concerning CT instruction but rather a difference in understanding and a need to develop a common language between stakeholders. Therefore, as the next step, intensive training for HE instructors and LMO tutors was conducted to establish a common understanding of CT. The results showed no statistical differences in participants’ conceptual understanding of CT, but still drew attention to several misconceptions. Finally, the CT blended apprenticeships curricula were designed as a byproduct of the University-Business Collaboration. Currently, the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of the CT blended apprenticeships curricula are carried out.

Research Contribution: Our research within the project is deemed a relative interface that links HEIs and LMOs to establish a sustainable collaboration for developing graduates’ CT.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - D. E. Dumitru
AU  - D. Pnevmatikos
AU  - R. Payan-Carreira
AU  - R. Kriaučiūnienė
AU  - P. Christodoulou
AU  - M. Minciu
AU  - E. Mäkiö
AU  - J. Mäkiö
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/05/16
TI  - Fostering Graduates’ Critical Thinking with University-Business Collaboration: The Think4Jobs Project
BT  - Proceedings of the Erasmus Scientific Days 2022 (ESD 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 362
EP  - 371
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-036-7_34
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-036-7_34
ID  - Dumitru2023
ER  -