I love working to find ways to improve employees’ critical thinking and have had many discussions about what I perceive as the lack of thinking ability from many people coming out of college, but I find it funny that the arguments for critical thinking in the workplace and in schools seem to lack critical thinking.  Search Google for “critical thinking business case” or “critical thinking improves performance” and you will not find anything meaningful.  Many of the articles come down to the argument that we should improve critical thinking just because it is a good idea.  If someone presented that argument to me at work about some other topic, I would tell them to work on their argument some more.  I would love to find an article with data about the importance of critical thinking or even a meaningful case study. There have been a number of articles written recently about the need for critical thinkers, for instance from the Huffington Post,

“Substantial long-term research (e.g. Arum & Roksa) and comments from employers suggest that a large portion of college and university graduates lack critical thinking skills. They are often referred to as problem-solving skills by the business community. Students also tend to overstate or exaggerate these skills or abilities when self-reporting them. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal argued that higher education is “… not producing graduates who can solve problems and connect the dots on complex issues, but (their) bosses stumble when pressed to describe what skills make critical thinkers.”

I completely support the sentiment, but I think critical thinkers could do better in making the case.