A transactional perspective on critical thinking

The quality of thinking has received much attention within the last decade. The scientific inquiry models introduced by Dewey, Dressel and Mayhew, and Watson-Glaser have been expanded to incorporate such aspects as reflection, development, attitude, skill, and knowledge domain. Dichotomies between critical and creative thinking have been eased. While this scholarship on thinking has been impressive, current pedagogy remains focused on scientific inquiry and on received knowledge. In nursing the learning paradigm has been similarly focused for the past 3 decades on a scientific inquiry model and received knowledge. The major cognitive approach to education and practice has been the nursing process, a linear problem-solving paradigm equivalent to the scientific method. This linear approach does not fully account for how nurses think and make judgments in clinical practice. The Transactional Model of Critical Thinking presented in this paper addresses the complexity of critical thinking in nursing. The model provides an educative and novel vision of thinking based on a transactional view of the individual, personal attributes, and the environment. Components and elements of the model are described and suggestions made for teaching-learning and for evaluation of critical thinking in nursing.