Impact of Social Science (Economics) Distribution Requirement on Critical Thinking Skills in Kenya's Second and Third Year Social Science Students

Abstract

Regarding the learning effects of critical thinking courses, this paper focuses on attendance and Economics distribution requirement. The study results indicate that 9-weekcritical thinking course attendance matters in developing critical thinking skills that improve the learning process, ultimately, acquirement of high order critical thinking skills such as inference and argument. At the same time, the level of Economics prerequisite coursework taken concurrently as distribution requirement positively affects criticalthinking. However, this study argues that the effects of Economics prerequisite coursework on critical thinking vary across individuals as the students who took the beginning-level conceptual prerequisite courses had higher learning effect in critical thinking than those of advanced computational courses.