Critical thinking skills for computing professionals: Closing the education – industry gap

Abstract

Critical thinking has been identified as a key ability in most professions, yet employers find college graduates deficient in critical thinking skills. Research on the effect of college on students’ critical thinking ability has been contradictory. This study empirically examines the impact of the immersion approach to teach critical thinking used in an undergraduate curriculum designed to improve students’ general and discipline-specific critical thinking skills necessary for entry-level positions in information systems and technology. The results show this approach improved both students’ generalizable and information systems-specific critical thinking. The benefits of the immersion approach to close the education-industry skills gap are discussed.