Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills among Authoritarian Students.

Abstract

This article focuses on assignments designed to enhance critical thinking skills for authoritarian personality types. This paper seeks to add to the literature by exploring instructional methods to overcome authoritarian traits that could inhibit the development of critical thinking skills. The article presents a strategy which can be employed to overcome authoritarian obstacles to critical thinking development through instructional design and the fostering of student engagement. The strategy elaborated herein resulted in increased application of critical thinking skills among authoritarian students. The article concludes with a call-to-action for greater exploration of the influence of nonrandom distribution of authoritarian personality characteristics on critical thinking across specific classes, disciplines, and institutions.