Core courses, critical thinking, and the reflective student

Dr Stuart Hanscomb

Crichton Campus, University of Glasgow

Start date: May 2006

The project will attempt to assess both the contribution, and the potential contribution, of the integrated interdisciplinary curriculum at the Crichton Campus to the aims of personal development planning and reflective learning. Without including more artificial techniques (such as logs) into the curriculum, to what extent can critical self-awareness (e.g. of one’s learning style, of one’s projects, one’s reasons for attending university and choosing a particular course, for example, philosophy), be encouraged by ‘core’ courses that, among other things, promote a meta-understanding of specific disciplines and a ‘democratic intellect’? The study will be principally conceptual, but also involve a survey of student learning experiences at the Crichton.

Several papers have been written based on the results of this project. They include: