Community College Criminal Justice Faculty Definition, Teaching, and Assessment ofStudents’ Critical Thinking Skills

Abstract

The ability to think critically is important for all students in higher education. Students in criminal justice programs in community colleges need the ability to think critically to become effective as criminal justice professionals working in the community. The purpose of this qualitative study was designed to explore how faculty members teaching in a criminal justice program at a large Midwestern community college defined, taught, and assessed critical thinking. Six criminal justice faculty members were interviewed. The participants shared their methods of teaching and assessing their students’ critical thinking ability. Through qualitative interviews and document analysis, data were gathered and analyzed to determine themes.Three themes emerged from the data which revealed the participant’s pedagogy as it related to teaching and assessing critical thinking. The following themes were identified: (a) The manner in which criminal justice faculty members taught or assessed critical thinking was varied by two types of criminal justice courses being taught, (b) The manner in which critical thinking is addressed varied by instructor, and (c) The use of the instructor’s ‘real-world’ experience was an important component of addressing critical thinking in the classroom. The current study provides guidance for criminal justice programs in community colleges to create or enhance implementation of critical thinking into the curriculum.