The Role of Critical Thinking in Mediating the Association between Instructional Practices and Academic Achievement

Critical thinking is recognized as a blend of basic life skills and dispositions which are closely related to other academic and professional attributes like collaboration, metacognition, motivation, creativity, and academic achievement. Previous research revealed that particular instructional practices have been more effective in development of critical thinking skills among students. A survey of 173 undergraduate university students was conducted to find out the relationships between interactive instructional practices employed by teachers to promote critical thinking among students and improve their academic achievement. This study also explored mediation effect of critical thinking skills and critical thinking dispositions in the relationship between instructional practices of university faculty and academic achievement of higher education students. Results showed a positive and significant correlation among the study variables. Findings also discovered that critical thinking skills were partially mediating the relationship between interactive instructional practice and academic achievement while mediating effect of critical thinking dispositions was found non-significant.    &nbsp