FIRST-YEAR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS' EXPERIENCE WITH CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

Abstract

Developing critical thinking skills is essential in many higher education courses, and it is increasingly evident in syllabi and assessment criteria. Despite this, students frequently fail to comprehend and demonstrate it in their work. This study examines how students perceive the term' critical thinking' and identifies relevant factors that influence this perception. It aims to examine first-year undergraduate students' critical thinking abilities and their repercussions. This study used a qualitative design and a purposive sampling strategy to select 300 first-year undergraduate students. Results reveal that students demonstrated low critical thinking skills and limited interpretation, analysis, and problem-solving skills. Additionally, both internal and external factors, such as relative inexperience with the problem description, misinterpretation of the problem and its solution strategy, a lack of creativity and experience, reading and comprehension problems, and a lack of interest in solving mathematical problems because of the length and complexity of the problems, have an impact on their current critical thinking abilities.