Critical Thinking of Students – Indicator of Quality in Higher Education

Abstract

The text discusses the impression that the Bologna reform puts studies in a paradoxical situation emphasizing the need for critical thinking, as the most significant teaching aim, while, on the other hand, it actually leaves little space to reach it. The descriptors of European qualification framework provide legitimacy for critical thinking-oriented models to be developed within higher education teaching, but the step from rhetoric to reality seems to be too big. Basic findings of an explorative research (purposive sample, N=204): students estimate their critical thinking development level as high, but it is found that it had not been manifested in the situations demanding the application of the very same aspects, which can be considered a significant indicator of higher education quality indicator.