Does Higher Education Teach Students to Think Critically?
There is a discernible and growing gap between the qualifications that a university
degree certifies and the actual generic, 21st-century skills with which students graduate
from higher education. By generic skills, it is meant literacy and critical thinking
skills encompassing problem solving, analytic reasoning and communications competency.
As automation takes over non- and lower-cognitive tasks in today’s workplace, these
generic skills are especially valued but a tertiary degree is a poor indicator of
skills level. In the United States, the Council for Aid for Education developed an
assessment of generic skills called the CLA+ and carried out testing in six countries
between 2016 and 2021. This book provides the data and analysis of this “CLA+ International
Initiative”.
Published on August 30, 2022