Student Perception of the Level of Development of Complex Thinking: An Approach Involving University Women in Mexico

ABSTRACT

Going beyond teaching knowledge to develop students’ competencies challenges contemporary universities because acquiring knowledge is insufficient without the capacity to implement it in real environments. Complex thinking is among the most valued competencies. It allows people to reason to solve problems, integrating their scientific, systemic, critical, and innovative skills. However, theoretically, there is a gender gap in the acquisition and development of complex thinking, suggesting inequity within the training processes. This article examines how acquiring and developing complex thinking are configured in a group of Mexican university students. Employing a multivariate descriptive statistical analysis, we intended our study to identify a possible gender gap and particular characteristics in the sample of female students to understand the formation of complex thinking considering the gender variable. Our conclusion found that, although the data suggests no statistically significant gap between the genders, it is still present in the unequal development of procedural knowledge in women, affecting their perception of their ability to implement what they know when solving problems. Practically, this text shows an area of opportunity for institutions that train complex thinking and establish educational policies to promote women’s leadership.

KEYWORDS:

• Professional education
• educational innovation
• future of education
• complex thinking
• educational gender gap
• higher education

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial and technical support of Writing Lab, Institute for the Future of Education, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico, in producing this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey through the Challenge-Based Research Funding Program 2022 [ID # I001 - IFE001 - C1-T1 – E].