The ‘Building capacity for critical thinking enhancement in African Higher Education’ project focused on impact enhancement and capacity building, on the basis of the findings from the initial research grant ‘Pedagogies for critical thinking: innovation and outcomes in African higher education’. It was therefore not primarily focused on generating new evidence. Nevertheless, a small amount of data was collected through the process of monitoring impact, in the form of a survey of participating academic staff which comprised both quantitative and qualitative data collection exercises at small scale. This data collection followed capacity building workshops in three universities in Ghana for developing strategies for incorporating critical thinking into their educational programmes. All three universities held staff development workshops and established ongoing support for lecturers.Critical thinking is widely acknowledged as being key to individual capabilities and the development of societies. Ghana and other African countries are in great need of graduates with highly developed critical thinking skills, so as to address the challenges of poverty reduction, democratic governance and environmental sustainability. While universities have great potential for developing critical thinking, to do so effectively they need a conducive learning environment. Evidence from our earlier study 'Pedagogies for critical thinking: innovation and outcomes in African higher education' showed that there was unevenness between institutions, but that some were facilitating rapid improvements. The most significant factors were seen to be lecturers' orientation towards a 'facilitation' rather than 'transmission' approach, a shared collaborative culture in departments, and flexible assessment regulations. Building on these findings, this project aims to enhance impact on universities in Ghana and beyond. Through reflexive workshops with academic staff on a cascade model, it enhances the teaching practice of lecturers in five Ghanaian universities. It also aims to develop a broader transformation of teaching and learning in the institutions through strengthening of support units within universities, development of critical thinking assessments and the creation of a lecturer network. Finally, it addresses the macro level of policy through engagement with national higher education commissions, particularly in the area of assessment. The project aims to bring direct benefit to students in Ghana, to ensure they can develop their critical thinking, and go on to utilise it in their professional and personal lives. It therefore contributes to addressing the broader development challenges of the country. Through policy dialogue in Kenya, and dissemination to other African contexts, broader impact can also be achieved across the continent. In addition, implications for other regions of the world will be drawn out regarding the most effective ways of achieving pedagogical transformation in universities.

There were two forms of data collection, a questionnaire and an individual interview. An online questionnaire was distributed to 25 lecturers in four universities, in addition to members of senior management, and teaching and learning units in the same institutions. A total of 63 responses were achieved. The questionnaire focused on change in participants’ pedagogical approaches linked to their participation in the project and also to broader change taking place in their institutional environment and wider context. It comprised primarily questions gathering a range of attitudinal and experiential data. Questions were also included to address issues of barriers to and enablers of change plus understandings of required assumptions needed for successful pedagogical change. Owing to the small scale of the study, however, it was not appropriate to conduct formal inferential statistical analyses. The data was used to examine indicative trends and to gain insight into participants’ responses to the project and into their evolving pedagogical approaches. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with a small number of participants with the aim of exploring their experiences of the project and of pedagogical change in greater depth. These were carried out with 11 participants in three of the universities.