Analytical Exploration of Intellectual Style and Critical Thinking

Abstract

This chapter describes, analyses, and critically explores intellectual styles of individuals living in different parts of the world. It is organized into two main sections. The first is devoted to exploring the nature of intellectual styles, as defined in the theory of reality construction (Sofo 2005); the second examines the development of critical thinking skills in a sample of university students. In both sections, the focus is on university students who represent the next generation of professionals, in all probability, the ones who will be making important decisions in the next 20 years. We think it is important to recognize differences and similarities among students to better understand their preferred ways of processing information and dealing with complex tasks. In the first section, we try to deepen our understanding how students make decisions analyzing their preferred ways of thinking about solving problems and behaving. With this aim, the first part of this section reports on explorative surveys conducted in three European regions: Northern Italy, Southern Italy, and Western Finland. The results characterize intellectual styles and verify how differences in socio-economic and cultural factors status are decisive in the conditioning intellectual style. Classical research in this area is based on the understanding of the individual intellectual style; we try to take a step forward investigating how differences in intellectual styles can influence collaboration among individuals in structured creative environments. We introduce an innovative research methodology where a sample of university students was surveyed while subjected to an intensive project-based learning (PBL) experience. Next, we conclude by reporting on a qualitative contrastive analysis among the decision makers of tomorrow (samples of university students from three European regions) and today’s leaders (samples of Chinese and Australian managers) discovering some unexpected results. Overall, the perspective of the first section is to better understand ways of thinking of our current students and the importance of raising awareness of how to maximize the effectiveness of their preferred ways of thinking to thrive in the ever complex and dynamic environments of the future. The key concepts covered in the first section include intellectual/thinking style, management, organizational learning, collaborative networks, and collaborative work. In the second section, we define, explore, and analyze the role of critical thinking, its relevance in different contexts, and its characteristics to be a fundamental part of creativity and leadership. Critical thinking is here viewed—among other things—as an individual’s ability to maximize their capacity to create improvements. The section introduces the Critical Thinking Capability Inventory (CTCI) and a study of its reliability, by means of a Cronbach alpha analysis to test internal consistency. Furthermore, a study finalized to test differences in critical thinking skills, between Australian and Italian students, is reported. The study survey sample of students was from four Italian universities and a sample from the University of Canberra (Australia). Overall, this section endeavors to deepen our understanding of the key constructs of critical thinking, creativity, leadership, innovation, and university students.