Importance of Critical Thinking and Interpersonal Skills for Employability: A Literature Review

This literature review discusses the relationship between critical thinking, interpersonal skills, and employability. It explores the viewpoints of various scholars and critics on the topic. The review also highlights the limitations and gaps in the existing research.

Running head: ACADEMIC COMMUNICATION - LITERATURE REVIE
ACADEMIC COMMUNICATION - LITERATURE REVIEW
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The critical thinking abilities of the students as well as the several members of the
organization tend to assist the performance of the concerned business organization. The
concerned students might need to implement the critical thought processes in order to deal
with the challenges that they might face in the future workplaces. The critical thinking
abilities as depicted by the concerned students are related to the conditions that might be
faced by the students in the future days as a professional in the concerned field. The
following literature review tends to discuss the viewpoints that are presented by the various
critics and the scholars who have been researching on the relationship between the critical
thinking and the employability of an individual.
Critical thinking abilities of the students
Critical thinking abilities
The critical thinking abilities that are developed by the students during their days at
the various universities and the other educational institutions tend to help the students to
discuss as well as develop the various skills that are required to deal with the critical thought
processes that are required for the proper management of the skills and the capabilities of the
concerned student. According to Haw (2011), the concerned students might need to
implement the critical thought processes in order to deal with the challenges that they might
face in the future workplaces. The article further aims to discuss the psychological aspects
that need to be demonstrated by the student while dealing with the matters that are majorly
related to the application of the skills that are needed in identification as well as defending the
major fallacies that are found to be existent within the given field of education. The critical
thinking abilities as depicted by the concerned students are related to the conditions that
might be faced by the students in the future days as a professional in the concerned field. The

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critical thinking abilities that are depicted by the student tends to help the student in the
matters related to the solution of the several problems that night be faced by the concerned
organization. This might also help the concerned student to implement the creativity in
putting forth a novel idea that might help the concerned business organization to gain a better
competitive advantage on the competitors who have been operating in the given market.
Learning attributes
Sin and McGuigan (2013), on the other hand argue the fact that the various
organizations that have been featuring within the given territorial boundaries tend to discuss
the major developments in the fields that are related to the challenges in the various matters
that are faced by the concerned business organization. These developments might be
dependent on the learning attributes that are depicted by the concerned students who have
been joining the workforce of the company. The authors tend to discuss the skills that pertain
to the assessment of the learning capabilities of the various students within the given
environment. These might help in the matter that pertain to the training of the students in the
matters that are related to the promotion and the assessment of the various academic fields
that help the students to develop the various skills that are necessary for the implementation
of the proper knowledge and the capabilities that are required for the smooth functioning of
the concerned organizations. Coetzee (2014) further proclaims that the concerned graduates
are influenced by the various factors that are related to the scholarships that might be
extended to the students who ae eligible for the receipt of the scholarship. This attitude helps
in the matters that are related to the improvement on the teaching as well as the learning
design of the various students who have been studying in the environment that depicts the
open-distance learning environment within the country. The open distance method of learning
tends to help the student in the development of the various matters that are related to the
academic self-directed nature of the concerned students. This also helps the concerned

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student to develop the learning attributes that might help the student to develop the factors
that are related to the development of the skills required for the roles that are entrusted to the
concerned students.
Interpersonal relationship between education and employability
Interpersonal skills
Renner et al., (2016) aims at the discussion on the interpersonal communication skills
that are needed to be developed by the student in relation to the generic skills that are
required for the smoothness in the matters related to the employability of the concerned
students in the future days. The other factors that might help in the development of the
critical skills as well as the other interpersonal skills of the concerned employee as opined by
Osmani, Weerakkody and Hindi (2017), are the factors that pertain to the employability of
the several students who have been studying at the numerous universities within the political
territories of the Middle Eastern countries. The graduates who have been studying at the
various universities are made to develop the various criteria and other factors that are related
to the employability of the concerned students in the future days to come.
Necessary skills
The authors further state that the students need to be skilled in the attributes that are
related to the proper display of the skills that are related to the communication among the
team, the team work within the given organization, the management of the time that is
available for the completion of a certain given project, the solving of the problems. These
skills might help in the matters that are related to the employability of the student within the
given organizations. The various educational institutions that are present within the territorial
boundaries of Australia, according to Campbell (2010), tend to train the students on the

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matters that are related to the skills and the abilities that are required to develop the various
skill sets and implementations which are needed to help the concerned organization to gain a
better competitive advantage over the other organizations that have been featuring within the
given territories of the country. The development of the generic skills of the concerned
students tend to implement the factors that are related to the generic skills that are
incorporated within the psyche of the concerned individual in order to deal with the several
situations that might be related to the requirements of the concerned employers. The skills of
the critical thinking that are imbibed within the student tends to help the concerned student to
find a solution for the situations that are related to the various novel ideas and situations that
might exist within the given organization.
Limitations and Gaps
The articles that have been studied for the literature review tend to agree to the fact
that the educational factors are related to the implementation of the various creative factors
within the concerned business organization. The limitations of the articles state that the open
distance learning among the various members of the organizational workforce tend to related
to the high-levels of the self-directed nature of the learning among the concerned workforce
of the organization. The other limitation the might exist within the organization might relate
to the factors that demonstrate the various matters within the real-life situations and the
situations that have been taught within the academic environments.

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References
Campbell, A. (2010). Developing generic skills and attributes of international students: The
(ir) relevance of the Australian university experience. Journal of Higher Education
Policy and Management, 32(5), 487-497.
Coetzee, M. (2014). Exploring the mediating role of graduate attributes in relation to
academic self-directedness in open distance learning. Higher Education Research &
Development, 33(6), 1085-1098.
Haw, J. (2011). Improving psychological critical thinking in Australian university
students. Australian Journal of Psychology, 63(3), 150-153.
Osmani, M., Weerakkody, V., & Hindi, N. (2017). Graduate attributes in higher education:
Examining academics' perception in the Middle East. Journal of Education for
Business, 92(2), 53-64.
Renner, P., O'Dea, B., Sheehan, J., Tebbutt, J., & Davis, K. (2016). The importance of
cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal attributes to student success: An
exploration of university students’ and staff views. JANZSSA-Journal of the
Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association, 24(2), 1088.
Sin, S., & McGuigan, N. (2013). Fit for purpose: A framework for developing and accessing
complex graduate attributes in a changing higher education environment. Accounting
Education, 22(6), 522-543.

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Appendix
Summary Table 01
Notes Comments (Using the notes on the left and your voice, construct
two/ three sentences)
Author and date
Mohamad Osmani, Vishanth Weerakkody,
Nitham Hindi. (02/17/2017)
Journal for education of business is a publication by a combination
of three authors, the research was conducted in the University of
Qatar with a group of academics. Since this research is conducted
recently, this research is to recognise the key characteristics in
graduates in relation to employers in Qatar and the challenges faced
by middle east context in developing them.
Aim or Scope The aim of this research is to recognise the key
characteristics in graduates in relation to
employers in Qatar and the challenges faced by
middle east context in developing them.
This is a useful research to emphasise the prevailing graduate system
in middle east countries. Their main aim is to convey the message
about the development of the world and how it can affect the
graduates when seeking for jobs. With the competition in the job
market graduates should develop certain skills to satisfy the

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employers.
Participants,
when and where
The research was carried out in University of
Qatar, with the participation of 14 academics
from different disciplines.
This can be a good strategy since the academics have developed
different skills to remain in the competition with the developments in
world. Choosing academics from different disciplines can broaden
the topic.
Contextand
framework
• Qualitative research frame work
• Face to face interviews
These interviews provide vital information for the research, since
this is a qualitative research the academics are interviewed face to
face in a certain time, it can be allowed the authors to identify,
organize, analyse and report themes within the set of data.
Main resultsor
findings
• Communication skill
• Team work skills
These are some of the skills that are learnt throughout the graduate
programmes and these skills are developed from time to time. These
skills can be useful for most industries throughout the world.

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• Problem solving and critical thinking
• Creativity skills
• Time management skills
Limitations and
Additional
information
• Use of one University
• Provides signification information for the
study in university.
Using academics of one university can narrow the data set of the
research.

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Summary Table 02
Notes Comments (Using the notes on the left and your voice, construct
two/ three sentences)
Author and date
Anne Campbell (2010) The research was carried out in 2010 and this might have changed
the curriculum of the Australian universities throughout the time to
the present.
Aim or Scope
reviews how the development of specific
generic skills and attributes that are contributed
through the Australian university experience
among International students affect the
employer requirements and whether they
should be thought independently or as a part of
the curriculum.
With a recognised number of International students in Australian
Universities, the experience could have been developed over the
time. Since universities have an interconnection, they try to build
specific generic skills and attributes using different approaches that
can help students with different cultural backgrounds.

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Participants,when
and where
11 participants (6 female and 5 male students /
5 undergraduates and 6 post graduates), living
with the participants.
Participants are from a range of cultural, political and social context.
Rather than using only graduates, it is useful to collect vital data
from undergraduates too.
Context and
framework
• interpretive research framework
• balanced undergraduate and postgraduate
participants
Spending time with the participants up to one week of time and
gathering information is a good strategy. They can even collect data
by observing the behaviours of participants.
Main resultsor
findings
• valuing and respecting different views
• Being confident
• Commitment
• Being independent
• Confidence to challenge existing ideas.
These skills are useful for international students like us studying in a
tertiary context. The research provides evidence that the generic
skills are not solely provided by the university education and
acquiring them is a complicated process lasting life time.
Limitations and
Additional
• small sample size procedure Though the sample size of this research is small it can provide a

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information good foundation for further studies and development.

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Summary Table 03
Notes Comments (Using the notes on the left and your own voice,
construct 2/ 3 sentences)
Author and date
• Philomena Renner, Bridianne O'Dea, Joanne
Sheehan, Jennifer Tebbutt, Karen JANZSSA
Davis
• October 2016
• The article was written by five authors Philomena Renner,
Bridianne O'Dea, Joanne Sheehan, Jennifer Tebbutt, Karen
JANZSSA Davis and this was published on October 2016.
• this is a peer revived article
Aim or Scope
• This main aim of the article was to explore
the importance of intrapersonal attributes to
student success.
• also explore how to develop these skills on
the view of students and staff.
• The article is about survey conducted online by the university staff
and students on exploring attributes to student success, on the view
of university students and staff.

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Participants,when
and where
• 3065 students and staff
• online survey
• Since this is an online survey, 3065 students and staff participated,
and this includes statistics and student characteristics of the
university.
Context
andframework
• Quantitative method
• Online Survey
• Indirect
• participation of 3065 students and staff demonstrates that
quantitative methodology is being used, and since it is an online
survey indirect response are obtained.
Main resultsor
findings
• students and staff viewed almost all the
attributes as important to student success in
university.
• Results showed that both students and staff viewed almost all the
attributes as important to student success in university, and only
three attributes derived a meaningful range of views.
Limitations and
Additional
information
• study was limited by the low response rate
and lack of male participation
• all factors are not examined in the success of
student attributes.
• Due to indirect responses it is hard to conclude that all most all
participants actively took part in this survey, and also only 30
attributes were examined, which means that there can be other
internal and external factors for student attributes.

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Summary Table 04
Notes Comments (Using the notes on the left and your own voice,
construct 2/ 3 sentences)
Author and date
• John Haw
• September 2011
• The article was written by John Haw and this was published on
September 2016.
• this is a peer revived article
Aim or Scope
• The scope of this study is to test students
undertaking a course on critical thinking
attributes.
• And to improve critical thinking skills by an
instructional design-based teaching practice.
• The article to test students undertaking a course on critical thinking
attributes and to improve this by and instructional design-based
teaching practice.
Participants,when
and where
• 84 students (second year) and 60 students
(fourth year)
• this study was conducted by the participation of 84 students of
second year and 60 students of fourth year enrolled at the University

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• students enrolled at the University of Western
Sydney, Australia.
of Western Sydney, Australia.
Context and
framework
• Quantitative method
• Psychological Critical Thinking Exam
(PCTE)
• participation of 114 students in a Psychological Critical Thinking
Exam (PCTE).
• The content of this test includes statistical and methodological
components.
Main resultsor
findings
• fourth year students scored significantly
higher points on critical thinking.
• support the value of critical thinking and
relevant exercises to improve.
• Results showed fourth year students scored significantly higher
points on critical thinking in the university and support the value of
critical thinking and relevant exercises to improve.
Limitations and
Additional
information
• Students did not attend this lecture in the
allocated time
• Only students of second year and fourth year
was taken into consideration.
• Students did not attend this lecture in the allocated time