Critical Analysis Report: Integrated Assessment and Critical Thinking

This report provides a critical analysis of the article "The impact of an integrated assessment on the critical thinking skills of first-year university students" by Melanie Cloete. The analysis highlights the importance of critical thinking skills for students' future development and the potential of integrated assessment methods to foster these skills. The report summarizes the article's research design, which employed a quasi-experimental approach to assess the impact of integrated assessment on students in the Extended Curriculum Programme at the University of Technology in Southern Africa. The analysis agrees with the article's core argument that traditional assessment methods often fail to cultivate critical thinking, thereby hindering students' preparation for the workplace. The report also discusses the strengths of the article, such as its focus on the significance of critical thinking and integrated assessments, while acknowledging limitations like the small sample size and the specific geographical context of the study. The analysis concludes that the article is valuable for its emphasis on the benefits of integrated assessment in developing essential critical thinking skills, which are crucial for success in both professional and personal contexts.

Running head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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“The impact of an integrated assessment on the critical thinking skills of first-year
university students” by Melanie Cloete is an important article which states the importance of
critical thinking skills and the impact of integrated assessment to foster critical thinking skills
among the students for their future growth and development.
According to the article, critical thinking is considered to be one of the most valuable
factors which people have and is necessary for them (Cloete, 2018). People or students are
not born with critical thinking skills and neither does it come with age and maturity rather
critical thinking skills need to be taught and then practiced. It can be seen that the background
of the research paper is on the importance of critical thinking skills and in this paper the
author provides a literature review on critical thinking skills and how other authors have
stated its importance or need.
It has been seen that majority of the graduation students lack critical thinking skills
which makes it difficult for them to survive and sustain in the jobs they get after college. The
assessment methods which teachers use in the classrooms are ineffective and thus grow the
need for integrated assessments and the impact of integrated assessment on critical thinking
which is considered to be the research question here. The article questions the methods of the
traditional assessment methods as they generally focus on factual knowledge without having
the need to apply the knowledge in problems or issues of real life scenarios which does not
help students gain knowledge in a concrete manner as this type of assessment highly
influences their learning style as well. This is highly important and it has been seen that
traditional education has dominated schools and colleges which restrict the students to
develop critical thinking skills which are actually very important in their professional
development in the near future.

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The main purpose of the article here is to see whether integrated assessment can help
in enhancing the critical learning skills of the first year students who have been taking the
Extended Curriculum Programme in the Department of Management Accounting at the
University of Technology in Southern Africa.
This research design that the article has used a quasi-experimental design, pre-test and
a post-test and a non-equivalent group design. The research has been conducted among two
groups; one named the experimental and the other control and targeted 40 students per
qualification. The Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (W-GCTA) UK edition was
used in order to acquire the quantitative data. The research paper is considered to perform a
census study and had emphasized on less number of students. This research article though
used a small number of students has been successfully able to prove the point they have been
trying to make which is the impact of integrated assessment which helps in the development
and enhancement of critical thinking skills which can be considered to be a significant and an
important study which can be used further in other research.
This research article that has proposed by scholar, Melanie Cloete according to me
states the right thing. The research article talks about the issue that how students are
underprepared when they join colleges and how the lack of critical thinking skills effect their
performance in the workplace which leads to them facing immense difficulty. Many scholars
have stated the importance of developing critical thinking skills stating that critical thinking
helps in thinking systematically and clearly which helps in improving the way one expresses
ideas and also helps in improving comprehension abilities (Toner & Moran, 2016). I believe
that critical thinking skills not only help people and students while they enter an organisation
but also help students in their personal ad daily lives. According to scholars, critical thinking
skills helps students to think in a creative manner and help in making them a self-directed
learner and more independent which is essential for their overall development and positive

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future (Elliott et al, 2016). I believe that students need to develop critical thinking skills in
order to become independent and also to be able to sustain in the workplace which help them
in their career development. Aligning with what the article suggests, scholars have also
identified the importance of critical thinking skills in graduates which paves way for them to
get good jobs big companies (Brenner, Uebernickel & Abrell, 2016).
The article in a small section highlights the issues with the traditional assessment
methods and how it does not encourage or help students develop any critical thinking skills
which is essential in order to reflect and solve the real world issues and which also restricts
the knowledge of the student. I agree with this fact which has been presented in the paper as I
see majority of the assessment methods that are practiced are traditional methods which does
not encourage students to put the knowledge to use in the real world which makes them
underprepared when they join jobs. Thus, integrated assessments are highly important as they
help in developing critical thinking skills which are essential for students in order to cope up
in the workplace. Leirhaug & MacPhail, (2015) states there are many teachers who have been
focusing on helping their students develop critical thinking skills and have been incorporating
integrated assessment methods to help them in developing the skills for their positive future.
This article according to me has much strength in comparison to the weakness. The
first and foremost strength of the paper is that it reflects on the importance of critical thinking
skills among students which majority of the schools and colleges do not focus on as it has
been seen that many graduates face difficulty in the workplace due to the lack of critical
thinking skills. Desai, Berger & Higgs, (2016) states that critical thinking skills are what
recruiters these das put emphasis on before hiring graduates or new employees for their
organisation. The other strength of the article is the objective of the article which is the
importance of integrated assessments which will help in developing critical thinking skills
among students. According to scholars, integrated assessment methods highly help students

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in connecting and applying their knowledge to the real world which is important in the long
run (Lim, 2015).
However, the paper has some limitation according to me which is the sample size
which is small and also the experiment conducted in one university. I believe that because of
the experiment done on very few amounts of students, it automatically raises the question of
authenticity. Research that is conducted with limited subjects often is considered to be non-
reliable. The other weakness of the paper which I found was that it was conducted in the
University of Technology in Southern Africa which hinders the generalization of the paper as
it based in a certain part of the country. However, I believe that he pre-test and the post-test
method that has been used here is highly affective as it gives a clear picture of how the
students have developed critical thinking skills after the incorporation of integrated
assessments in the class which is essential and provides authentic information.
This research article I believe is very important as it focuses on the impact of
integrated assessment in developing critical thinking skills in the students which is highly
important in recent times because of the age of globalization where new issues are cropping
up in businesses and it is important to have critical thinking skills in order to curb the issues
and overcome the issues when in a workplace. This article proves the impact of integrated
assessments and I believe that acknowledging and using this article can make a positive
change in the education system,. Incorporating integrated assessment methods will help in
changing the assessment methods used by teachers and help students to gain knowledge
properly from the classes and textbooks and have the capability to apply in the real world
which is essential in the professional development as well as personal development.

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Reference
Brenner, W., Uebernickel, F., & Abrell, T. (2016). Design thinking as mindset, process, and
toolbox. In Design thinking for innovation (pp. 3-21). Springer, Cham.
Cloete, M. (2018). The impact of an integrated assessment on the critical thinking skills of
first-year university students. Accounting Education, 27(5), 479-494.
Desai, M. S., Berger, B. D., & Higgs, R. (2016). Critical thinking skills for business school
graduates as demanded by employers: a strategic perspective and
recommendations. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 20(1), 10-31.
Elliott, S., McCrea, N., Newsome, L., & Gaul, J. (2016). Sustainability as a different way of
thinking everyday. Examining environmental education in NSW early childhood
education services: A literature review with findings from the field.
Leirhaug, P. E., & MacPhail, A. (2015). ‘It's the other assessment that is the key’: three
Norwegian physical education teachers' engagement (or not) with assessment for
learning. Sport, education and society, 20(5), 624-640.
Lim, N. C. (2015). Towards an integrated academic assessment: closing employers’
expectations?. Education+ Training.
Toner, J., & Moran, A. (2016). On the importance of critical thinking: A response to Wulf's
(2015) commentary. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 22, 339-340.

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