A Multi-disciplinary Use of the Critical Incident Cycle: A Didactic Model
A Multi-disciplinary Use of the Critical Incident Cycle: A Didactic Model

Summary/Abstract: Critical incidents (CIs) refer to memorable situations from an individual’s life that contribute to the formation of their future decisions, behaviors, and actions. During WW2 and even after, CIs were used in varied professional settings, including the army, navy or air force, to analyze job performance and measure proficiency. Later, their use expanded to other areas such as dental medicine or counselling psychology to manage human behavior or to professional settings, such as business, to improve recruitment and leadership. More recently, CIs were adopted to facilitate intercultural dialogue and for teaching and training purposes. This text examines their wider use in higher education and beyond as tools to accelerate personal growth, professional development and life-long learning. Launched in 2017, this study is a part of a longitudinal project conducted at a private university with master’s degree students of Business English. CIs in the form of written narratives are collected in this project to record varied memorable moments from the students’ interaction in English locally or abroad. Six sample CIs structured as a report, reflection and reevaluation of each experience from the lens of the participant were selected from the data corpus for this text in order to describe the Critical Incident Cycle (CIC) and propose a didactic model for a multidisciplinary use. The data show the CIC model is a potent means for not only enhancing language and communication skills, but also developing a complex set of other intrapersonal and soft skills applicable in the world of the current social reality. Relevant recommendations for practical implications for the use of CIs in education, human resource management or social sciences are made.

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