Thinking Skills for the Workforce Project
The Berger Institute created interactive web-based critical thinking materials to enhance critical thinking skills for low-income adolescents. This web-based program was intended as an intervention to help prepare adolescents for the technological and advanced educational demands of the 21st century work force by developing their critical thinking skills. Encouraging workplace skills among high school students was identified by Corporate Voices as a top priority among employers.
Good critical thinking skills can lead to success in the job market. The development of critical thinking skills is an important factor in adolescents' preparation for entry into the workforce, both because these skills are sought-after by employers and because teens who have these skills tend to have more realistic expectations about the value of education in achieving success at work.
The Berger Institute studied low-income adolescents using web-based interactive materials, eleventh-grade low-income adolescents from low-income neighborhoods participated in a project to develop critical thinking skills in a classroom setting Southern California. The interventional program, focused on learning principles such as decision making and analyzing arguments, was facilitated by Berger staff and students and will continue to be available online for future students.
This research was funding by the Jacobs Foundation.
Critical Thinking in the Workforce: International Collaboration
Our Thinking Skills for the Workforce project provided the necessary foundation for the large scale launching of critical thinking skills training and assessment for high school in places as far away as Hong Kong. In the new Hong Kong senior secondary school curriculum to be launched in 2009, the teaching of critical thinking will be an essential feature of the subject “Liberal Studies,” which is compulsory for all students. The HCTA and training material will be translated and adapted for use with Hong Kong senior secondary school students. It will be offered to literally millions of students when it is completed. In the development of the materials for Chinese students, we are also developing a web-based component appropriate for Hong Kong high school students to supplement the other paper-pencil instruction materials. Thus, these studies also served as preparation for a much larger study in Hong Kong.
The Berger Institute, along with colleagues from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, received two grants from the Chinese Research Council. Dr. Halpern will spend a portion of her sabbatical during the 2007-2008 academic year to travel to Hong Kong and work with colleagues in collaboration on this project.
