Prior knowledge as a limiting factor in critical thinking skills development

Abstract

Recently, advances in generative AI have highlighted the importance of skills that (currently) are exclusively human characteristics, of which insightful critical thinking is one. Critical thinking is vital for many professional careers where technological advances, outsourcing, globalisation, and more recent global pandemic impacts on the business world have made higher-level cognitive skills essential at the entry level in disciplines such as accounting. Yet despite critical thinking being a common university graduate attribute, accounting graduates are not meeting employers’ expectations in relation to thinking skills. This study investigates whether a pedagogical intervention that emphasises knowledge construction could stimulate student critical thinking skills.