The degree of faculty members’ contribution in Saudi universities to the development of critical thinking skills among graduate students

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the extent to which faculty members at Saudi universities contribute to developing critical thinking skills among graduate students from the students' perspective. It also examined a set of independent variables that may affect faculty members' evaluation of their students, namely: university, gender, academic rank, specialization, and the university from which the faculty member graduated. The study population comprised graduate students in the College of Education at the following Saudi universities: King Saud University, representing the Central Region; Umm Al-Qura University, representing the Western Region; King Khalid University, representing the Southern Region; Qassim University, representing the Central Region; and King Faisal University, representing the Eastern Region. The study sample included (5357) students from the colleges of education at the participating universities. The findings indicated that the degree of faculty contribution to developing graduate students’ critical thinking skills, as perceived by students, was “high”, with a mean score of (3.60), and a standard deviation of (0.61). Evaluative critical thinking skills ranked first with a high mean of 3.64, followed by inductive critical thinking skills in second rank, with a high mean of (3.62). Deductive thinking skills ranked third and last, also at a high level, with a mean of (3.55). In addition statistically significant differences were found at the (α ≤ 0.05) level among the mean responses of the study sample regarding faculty members’ enhancement of critical thinking skills from the students' perspective, attributable to the university. These differences favored students at Qassim University compared to King Khalid University, King Saud University, and King Faisal University. Based on these findings, the study presented a set of recommendations.