Study title

The ‘Building capacity for critical thinking enhancement in African Higher Education’ project focused on impact enhancement and capacity building, on the basis of the findings from the initial research grant ‘Pedagogies for critical thinking: innovation and outcomes in African higher education’. It was therefore not primarily focused on generating new evidence. Nevertheless, a small amount of data was collected through the process of monitoring impact, in the form of a survey of participating academic staff which comprised both quantitative and qualitative data collection exercises at small scale. This data collection followed capacity building workshops in three universities in Ghana for developing strategies for incorporating critical thinking into their educational programmes. All three universities held staff development workshops and established ongoing support for lecturers.Critical thinking is widely acknowledged as being key to individual capabilities and the development of societies. Ghana and other African countries are in great need of graduates with highly developed critical thinking skills, so as to address the challenges of poverty reduction, democratic governance and environmental sustainability. While universities have great potential for developing critical thinking, to do so effectively they need a conducive learning environment. Evidence from our earlier study 'Pedagogies for critical thinking: innovation and outcomes in African higher education' showed that there was unevenness between institutions, but that some were facilitating rapid improvements. The most significant factors were seen to be lecturers' orientation towards a 'facilitation' rather than 'transmission' approach, a shared collaborative culture in departments, and flexible assessment regulations. Building on these findings, this project aims to enhance impact on universities in Ghana and beyond. Through reflexive workshops with academic staff on a cascade model, it enhances the...