Engaging Critical Thinking: Lessons from the RDA Tutorials and Projects

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly important that university students, especially those intending to study at postgraduate level, develop the ability to engage critically with the material presented to them and to translate that material into real-world contexts (Candy, 2000; Spronken-Smith, 2005). It has been argued that providing the elements for facilitating deep learning through collaborative and problem-based techniques, as well as aligning course outcomes, teaching processes, and assessment, ensures a synthesis between the course design and lecturers' expectations of students (Barraket, 2004; Biggs, 1996). This short report will briefly examine our attempt to enact deep learning, problem-based learning, and constructive alignment principles in the project and tutorial tasks of an advanced psychology research design undergraduate module (RDA IIB). Both the practical steps taken to implement these principles and their evaluation will be discussed, as well as implications for future practice.