CQUniversity: Critical Thinking and Managerial Decision Making Review

This report presents a critical analysis of an article by Larsson (2017) on critical thinking and managerial decision-making. The review delves into the background of the research, highlighting the importance of critical thinking skills in education and academic success. It examines the research problem, which centers on the lack of clarity surrounding the definition, theory, and measurement of critical thinking. The study's aim is to understand the basic concepts underpinning critical thinking skills, using a phenomenographic approach to analyze the essay-solving capabilities of secondary school students. The methodology involves students analyzing texts and revealing their critical analysis. The findings reveal the application of phenomenographic theory in understanding critical thinking expressions and how teaching approaches can enhance these skills. The report evaluates the research, noting limitations such as a small sample size and the use of older references, while also acknowledging the study's appropriate design. Overall, the review provides a comprehensive overview of the study's strengths and weaknesses, concluding with a discussion of its implications for educators and students.

Running head: CRITICAL THINKING AND MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING
Critical Thinking and Managerial Decision Making
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Selected paper for review
Larsson, K. (2017). Understanding and teaching critical thinking—A new
approach. International Journal of Educational Research, 84, 32-42.
Introduction
According to Kong (2014), critical thinking can be defined as a concept of objective
analysis in order to frame judgement. Wallace and Jefferson (2015)are of the opinion that that
critical thinking skills among the students help to increase their academic performance via
providing intellectual stimuli and increasing the problem solving skills. The following essay
aims to critically analyse the study conducted by Larsson (2017) on critical thinking. The
essay will initiate with critical analysis followed by critical evaluation of the article and a
concluding remarks.
Critical analysis
Background of the research
Developing student's critical thinking skills is regarded as an important educational
goal. Thus the main background of the article published by Larsson (2017) is based on
understanding the concept of critical thinking and practicing the skills important for critical
thinking. The background of the problem is extremely relevant in the present day scenario
because there is a strong co-relation between the critical thinking and its influence over the
academic success (Fong et al., 2017). However, Heijltjeset al. (2014) highlighted that
innovative skills and advance approach must be undertaken in order to improve the critical
thinking skills and thereby improving the overall academic success of the students.
What is the research problem
The main research problem highlighted by Larsson (2017) is the concept of critical
thinking is not clear starting from definition issue, the theory issue and the measuring issue.
According to Johnson and Hambu (2015) the prevailing issue in the concept of critical
thinking is how to define the entire process. Other issues underlying the concept of critical
thinking are its dispositional aspects. Another area of debate is whether critical thinking is
directed to a particular subject or it can be treated as general term (Moore, 2013). Another
problem is,there are no particular theories that can be used succinctly in defining the overall

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learning experience associated with the critical thinking of the subsequent development of
critical thinking(Dwyer, Hogan & Stewart, 2014).
Aim of the research and rationale
The aim of the research mainly resolves around understanding the basic concept
underpinning the critical thinking skills. In order to achieve the aim, the researcher selected to
study the essay solving capability of the secondary school students which is based on electing
the critical thinking skill of Robert Nozzick's view of justice, a renowned philosopher. The
researcher has mainly undertaken phenomenographic approach in order to understand the rule
of critical thinking in educational settings. This aim of the research is based on the
assumption that strength to act in a particular way in relation to a phenomenon is basically
delimited via a specificmanner of understanding a definite phenomenon. This signifies that
each of the diverse ways of understanding any specific critical thinking approach could then
be use for describing the skills that can be used to generate that specific critical thinking
approach (Larsson, 2017). Thus overall the aim of the research is summarised as
1. Description and simultaneous education of different hierarchical ways of understanding a
particular tasks and different types of critical think associated with it.
2. To cite the findings from aim1 to discuss improvement of the critical thinking skills of the
students via employing phenomenographic learning and theories of teaching (Larsson, 2017)
The importance of the research, is to provide a detailed elaboration of different
patterns used for critical thinking. The aim of the research will also help to understand that
how students can utilize these critical thinking skills in their career of academic success
(Larsson, 2017). Thus, it can be said that the core research questions framed in this articles
are important to address. According to Chan (2013) proper description and hierarchical
classification of the concepts underlying the critical thinking helps in framing proper critical
thinking approach that can be used by the diverse range of students in order to gain
significant academic success and high-thought put problem solving skills.
Methodology
The research was conducted based on the four basic pillars: (i) identification of the
conclusions, the associated reasons and assumptions; (ii) judging the quality of the argument
like acceptability of the reasons, evidence and assumption; (iii) developing and defending a
position over a particular issue; (iv) drawing conclusion when warranted but with taking

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serious caution. The task began with the selected group of students goingthrough the text
centring thoughts of Robert Nozick's thoughts on justice. Based on that text, the students
were then asked to reveal their critical analysis of the Nozick's standpoint. The strength and
weakness of their argument were used to explain the concept underlying their critical
thinking skills. A total of 19 students between the age group of 15 to 16 years participated in
the study from the Swedish compulsory school. Among these 19 students 11 were girls and 8
were boys (Larsson, 2017). According to Wolfet al. (2013) selection of the proper sample
size and the gender variability in a qualitative research is crucial. However, the study design
adopted by Larsson (2017) only recruited 19 students and this showed low sample size and
thus decreasing the overall validity and authenticity of the research and this goes in
accordance with the findings of Marshall et al. (2013).
Major findings
The main findings of the research indicated that taking an empirical study as an
elaborative example, the research conducted by Larsson (2017) mainly highlighted how
phenomenographic theory could be used for the overall understanding of the concrete
expressions used for the critical thinking by the students. The results also showed that how
the teaching approaches must be designed in order to increase the critical thinking skills of
the students.Savery(2015) is of the opinion that proper theory, defining critical thinking helps
to plan exercise to improve the critical thinking skills among the students.
Significance of the findings
The significance of the findings is, it provided the teachers a clear prospective of the
teaching approach that must be undertaken in order to increase the critical thinking skills
among the students. Such teaching perspective is extremely relevant in the present day
academic field because the study conducted by Kwan and Wong (2014) highlighted that the
majority of the secondary school students lack critical thinking skills and the main reason
behind this lack of proper exercise that will encourage the them to work on their critical
thinking skills. The study also provides a proper characterization of the concept of critical
thinking and according to Perkins (2016), this will help teachers to frame more innovative
approach of practicing critical thinking among the students.

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Critical evaluation
Research limitations
The main limitation of the research is its poor sample size. According to Oppong
(2013), poor sample size in both qualitative and quantitative research decreases the overall
strength of the results, leading to the generation of biased response. Another research
limitation of the study is, while constructing the review of the literature for the identification
of the research gap, the researcher mainly cited old journal articles. According to the concepts
highlighted by Hart (2018), while conducting a review of literature in order identify the
research gap, most updated references must be used because on doing this, the current
information underlying the topic can be highlighted. Another limitation of the study is the
target population. The target population is secondary school children aged between 15 to 16
years and hence the obtained results over their critical thinking skills may not be applicable
over the college students or other working professionals.
Author's assumption
The main assumption taken by the author is connected to the concept of the critical
thinking with Robert Ennis’s generic definition. According to Battersby (2013) the concept of
critical thinking as proper by Robert Ennis’s generic definition is mainly based on three
different factors and all these factors cumulate into the concept of the practicing critical
thinking among the students under the cross curriculum. Moreover, the author also took the
assumption that since the entire study approach constitute excessive reading and writing
ability, he excluded students with dyslexia and students who have recently immigrated to
Sweden. This assumption was appropriate because according to students with dyslexia have
learning disability creating a barrier towards rigorous reading and writing in comparison to
the general student (Torgesen, 2018). Moreover, non-English speaking students who are
recently getting exposure in English might face problems in fluent reading and writing
English language (Geay, McNall & Telhaj, 2013).
Overall evaluation of the article
The overall evaluation of the article highlighted that apart from selection of the low
sample size, the overall study design opted by Larsson (2017) is appropriate. Moreover, the
research aims and objectives selected by the author align with the rationale and chosen
background of the research and are succinctly aligned with the obtained results. The
illustrations and categorization of the different critical thinking skills in accordance to the

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ways of learning will help the readers to get a detailed overview of the concept underlying
critical thinking. According to Lewis (2015), pictorial representations of the data help in easy
understanding of the results by the reader and thereby increasing the overall value of the
obtained results.
Conclusion
Thus from the critical analysis of the study conducted by Larsson (2017) highlighted
that elucidated that phenomenographic theoretical approach in the domain of critical thinking.
The author of the selected study is of the opinion that phenomenographic theoretical
approach can be used by the students to develop critical thinking skills. However, the article
lags in its sample size and the focus group selection. Poor sample size might generate bias
results and selection of secondary students as the main focus group further restricted the
application of the obtained results over the broader community members like college students
and working professionals.

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References
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curriculum (CTAC)".
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