The Role of Critical Thinking in IS Development
Krishna S. Dhir
Systems analysts are continually challenged with problems that require critical thinking. It is important to identify students' critical thinking ability during their education to insure success afier graduation. However, many students, unsure oftheir careerpath, chooseIS as their majorfor reasons unrelatedto their interests andabilities. Subsequently these students do poorly in the core IS classes andare not able to find relevantjobs. This is a waste ofmany thousands ofdollars and an unfortunate misapplication ofthe innate skills andtalents the studentpossesses. This paper describes a research study designed to explore the research question: Can critical thinking skills (as measuredby a widely used cognitive ability testing instrument) be used as a valid predictor ofsuccess in IS classes? We discuss our findings and offer suggestions concerning the use ofthis instrument to help students avoid selecting the wrong major.
John H. Bradley is an associate professor of management information systems in the Department of Decision Sciences at East Carolina University. His research interests as knowledge-based systems, case-based reasoning, te performance, and IS implementation, and organizational impact. Dr. Bradley has published injournals such as Expert Systems with Applications, Heuristics, Small Group Research, and others. He may be reached by email a bradleyj@rnail.ecu.edu.
Ravi Paul is assistant professorof management information systems at East Carolina University. He has been in the computer industry for 12 years, holding technical an managerial positions in systems analysis, design, development, and administration. Dr. Paul is currently conduction research in several areas of software engineering (requirements engineering.relationship analysis), information systems (IS service quality and culture), and cognition (cognitive, critical thinking, learning). He holds degrees in mechanical engineering and in industrial management with an MIS emphasis. Dr. Paul is a member ofAIS, DSI, and Informs. He may be reached by email at paulr@rnail.ecu.edu.
Elaine Seeman is an assistant professor in the Decisions Sciences Department of the College of Business at East Carolina University. Her research interests include technology acceptance for physicians, electronic intensive care, critical thinking in IS development, and regulatory issues related to telecommunications and Emergency 911 location.
Return to the Table of Contents