Psychology

The capacity to think critically is becoming more crucial due to the evolution of hi-tech and the advancement of the work place. The purpose of this Instructional Module is to supply recommendations and guidance on how to increase aptitude in thinking quickly, clearly and critically, and to become familiar with related facets of situational awareness and decision making.  The development of critical thinking instruction has predominately centered on the principles of cognitive psychology (Halpern, 1999) and passive learning (Svinicki, 2004). It has also focused on aspects of behaviorism, with  reliance on textbooks rather than practice - positive in that large amounts of information can be disseminated quickly, but negative in that it spoon feeds that information rather than nurture autonomy.  Theoretically, the processes of thinking are either deliberate or incidental, (de Sanchez, 1995) so underlying principles of instruction must be based on practice of the processes that cultivate multifarious, logical thought.

Population
This Instructional Module is intended for middle managers working within an environment that requires making quick decisions within a variety of situations.  Instruction will be undertaken in the workplace in order to ensure that all processes and practice are relevant to the day by day requirements of each individual manager thus it is envisaged that instruction will generally be on a one-to-one basis unless more than one manager works within the same environment.

Elements
The following elements will be covered within the instructional module
situational awareness (understanding of environment  what occurred, is occurring and likely to occur)
decision making (assessing and selecting the best line of action)
critical thinking (awareness of self,  experience, conventions, self briefing and debriefing)
critical thinking (thinking about and putting decision making into practice in a variety of situations).