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This study investigated the effects of lecturing, cooperative learning and concept maps on the development of critical and creative thinking skills. A quasi-experimental non-randomized study involved a class of students from the 3rd year of Psychology and two classes from the 3rd year of Pre-service Elementary Teachers. The study ran for 15 weeks, one semester. In one of the Primary School Teaching classes, cooperative learning and concept maps were used and in the other only cooperative learning. The Critical and Creative Thinking test was applied to assess pre and post critical and creative thinking skills. The results show that students from the two classes that used cooperative learning and cooperative learning + concept maps improved further critical and creative thinking skills in relation to the lecturing class, with no significant differences between the first two. Pedagogical recommendations are made according to these results.

The effects of cooperative learning on the promotion of critical thinking skills in college students are well documented, but not in conjunction with critical thinking dispositions. Since there are no studies on this topic in the Portuguese context, our aim is to verify whether cooperative learning using the Jigsaw and Group Investigation methods promote critical and creative thinking skills and dispositions in higher education. It was employed a quasi-experimental design with a pretest and posttest using the Critical and Creative Thinking Test (CCT) and the Critical Thinking Dispositions Scale (CTDS) with equivalent groups and a control group. The participants were 106 undergraduate students attending three different classes of the 3rd year of a university in northern Portugal. One class was Pre-service teaching and the others were Psychology undergraduates. The results demonstrate that only the intervention groups had significantly higher scores in the CCT posttest than in the pretest. Regarding dispositions, only the students having experienced the Jigsaw method improved. Implications and pedagogical suggestions are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the effects of lecturing, cooperative learning and concept maps on the development of critical and creative thinking skills. A quasiexperimental non-randomized study involved a class of students from the 3rd year of Psychology and two classes from the 3rd year of Pre-service Elementary Teachers. The study ran for 15 weeks, one semester. In one of the Primary School Teaching classes, cooperative learning and concept maps were used and in the other only cooperative learning. The Critical and Creative Thinking test was applied to assess pre and post critical and creative thinking skills. The results show that students from the two classes that used cooperative learning and cooperative learning + concept maps improved further critical and creative thinking skills in relation to the lecturing class, with no significant differences between the first two. Pedagogical recommendations are made according to these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]