[net-gold] Assessment of Critical Thinking Skills
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:28:35 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:02:59 -0700
From: Richard Hake <rrhake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: AERA-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Net-Gold] Assessment of Critical Thinking Skills
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ABSTRACT: David Musick of the DrEd list wrote (paraphrasing): "We are
working on a project related to 'critical thinking skills' and how
they might be assessed in medical students. I am aware of the
'California Critical Thinking Skills Test series' and the
'Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal.' I would be interested in
learning more about similar instruments."
DrEd subscribers suggested the "Health Sciences Reasoning Test," a
test "developed for use by educators and researchers to assess the
critical thinking skills of health science professionals and health
science students," commercially available from "Insight Assessment"
<http://www.insightassessment.com/>.
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Among other tests that might be of interest to Musick and others are:
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a. Biologist Anton Lawson's "Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning"
(CTSR), a test of "ability to apply aspects of scientific and
mathematical reasoning to analyze a situation, make a prediction, or
solve a problem." The CTSR has contributed importantly to physics
education research, thanks to Coletta, Phillips, & Steinert.
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b. The Council for Aid to Education's "Collegiate Learning
Assessment" (CLA) employed by Arum & Roksa to show (purportedly) that
U.S. higher education is "Academically Adrift." Arum & Roksa (2011,
p. 21) wrote: "According to its developers, the CLA was designed to
access 'core outcomes espoused by all of higher education - critical
thinking, analytical reasoning, problem solving, and writing.' "
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I give academic references to all the above tests as well as to
valuable articles in the critical thinking area:
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(1) "Assessing Critical Thinking Skills" [Stein et al. (2003)],
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(2) "Responding Responsibly To the Frenzy to Assess Learning in
Higher Education" [Shavelson & Huang (2003)].
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David Musick (2011) in his DrEd post "Assessment of Critical Thinking
Skills" wrote [my insert at ". . . . .[[insert]]. . . . .":
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"We are working on a project related to 'critical thinking skills'
and how they might be assessed in medical students. A cursory review
of the literature reveals two instruments that have been used among
health professions students: the California Critical Thinking Skills
Test series. . . .[[see e.g. Facione (1990)]]. . . . ., and the
Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. . . .[[commercially
available at "Creative Organizational Design"
<http://bit.ly/nM6lPe>.]]. . . . . I would be interested in learning
more about similar instruments and research projects on this topic
involving medical students and/or resident physicians."
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DrEd subscribers suggested the "Health Sciences Reasoning Test,"
commercially available from from "Insight Assessment"
<http://www.insightassessment.com/>.
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It's possible that Musick and others might be interested in:
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a. Biologists Anton Lawson's "Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning"
(CTSR), a test of "ability to apply aspects of scientific and
mathematical reasoning to analyze a situation, make a prediction, or
solve a problem." The CTSR has contributed importantly to physics
education research, thanks to Coletta, Phillips, & Steinert.
.
b. The Council for Aid to Education's "Collegiate Learning
Assessment" (CLA) employed by Arum & Roksa to show (purportedly) that
U.S. higher education is "Academically Adrift." Arum & Roksa (2011,
p. 21) wrote: "According to its developers, the CLA was designed to
access 'core outcomes espoused by all of higher education - critical
thinking, analytical reasoning, problem solving, and writing.' " See
also CAE (2011).
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Musick's post initiated an 11-post (as 23 August 2011 17:02-0700)
thread at <http://bit.ly/ozwGh7>, most of the posts concerned the
"Health Sciences Reasoning Test."
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According to information unearthed by Hugh Stoddard (2011) that test
"Was developed for use by educators and researchers to assess the
critical thinking skills of health science professionals and health
science students" and is commercially available from "Insight
Assessment," online at <http://www.insightassessment.com/>.
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Among interesting articles in the critical thinking area are:
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(1) "Assessing Critical Thinking Skills" [Stein et al. (2003)],
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(2) "Responding Responsibly To the Frenzy to Assess Learning in
Higher Education" [Shavelson & Huang (2003)].
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Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands
President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References which Recognize the
Invention of the Internet (PEDARRII)
<rrhake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>
<http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com>
<http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake>
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REFERENCES [All URL's accessed on 24 August 2011; most are shortened
by <http://bit.ly/>.]
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Arum, R. & J. Roksa. 2011. "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on
College Campuses." University of Chicago Press, publisher's
information, including a synopsis and bio, are online at
<http://bit.ly/gPYBHj>. Amazon.com information at
<http://amzn.to/f1f45O>. See also Hake (2011).
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Benjamin, R., M. Chun, E. Hong, C. Jackson, H. Kugelmass, & R.
Shavelson. 2009. "Returning to Learning in an Age of Assessment," as
a 430 kB pdf at <http://bit.ly/eXL9Gd>.
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Bransford, J.D. & B.S. Stein. 1993. "The Ideal Problem Solver: A
guide for improving thinking, learning and creativity." Worth
Publishers; 2nd edition. Amazon.com information at
<http://amzn.to/n1fG5E>.
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CAE. 2011. Council for Aid to Education, Collegiate Learning
Assessment (CLA): Returning to Learning <http://bit.ly/e2HGzH>:
"Welcome readers of 'Academically Adrift.' To learn more about our
response to that publication, please read our press release
<http://bit.ly/gGh9jb>/"
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Coletta, V.P. and J.A. Phillips. 2005. "Interpreting FCI Scores:
Normalized Gain, Preinstruction Scores, & Scientific Reasoning
Ability," Am. J. Phys. 73(12): 1172-1182; online to subscribers at
<http://ajp.aapt.org/resource/1/ajpias/v73/i12>; an abstract is free
to all. See also Coletta et al. (2007a,b).
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Coletta, V.P., J.A. Phillips, & J.J. Steinert. 2007a."Why You Should
Measure Your Students' Reasoning Ability," Phys. Teach. 45(4):
235-238; online to subscribers at <http://bit.ly/rfuuCy> ; the
introductory paragraph is free to all.
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Coletta, V.P., J.A. Phillips, & J.J. Steinert. 2007b. "Interpreting
force concept inventory scores: Normalized gain and SAT scores,"
Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 010106, Issue 1 - June; freely
online at <http://prst-per.aps.org/abstract/PRSTPER/v3/i1/e010106>.
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Facione, P.A. 1990. "The California Critical Thinking Skills Test:
College Level Technical Report #1 - Experimental Validation and
Content Validity"; online as a 326 kB pdf at
<http://1.usa.gov/qaWQFE> thanks to ERIC.
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Hake, R.R. 2009. "Re: Lawson and FCI," online on the PhysLrnR
archives at <http://bit.ly/qxrlUo>. Post of 12 May 2009 11:18:31-0700
to PhysLrnR. To access the archives of PhysLnR one needs to subscribe
:-(, but that takes only a few minutes by clicking on
<http://bit.ly/nG318r> and then clicking on "Join or Leave
PHYSLRNR-LIST." If you're busy, then subscribe using the "NOMAIL"
option under "Miscellaneous." Then, as a subscriber, you may access
the archives and/or post messages at any time, while receiving NO
MAIL from the list!
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Hake, R.R. 2011. "Academically Adrift?" online on the OPEN! AERA-L
archives at <http://bit.ly/gwJD0W>. Post of 29 Jan 2011 10:00:09-0800
to AERA-L and Net-Gold. The abstract and link to the complete post
are being transmitted to various discussion lists are also online on
my blog "Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/hVYzHI> with a provision
for comments.
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Lawson, A.E. 1978. "The development and validation of a classroom
test of formal reasoning,"J. Res. Sci. Teach. 15(1): 11-24. The first
page is online at <http://bit.ly/nEKXUj>. This test, called by
Lawson the "Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning" (CTSR) appears in
Appendix F of Lawson (1995), as a 12 item, part MC, part free
response test. An updated 24 purely multiple-choice version of the
test is in the appendix of Coletta & Phillips (2005).
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Lawson, A.E. 1995. "Science Teaching and the Development of
Thinking." Wadsworth. Amazon.com information at
<http://amzn.to/aqWhQ2>, note the "Look Inside" feature. Appendix F
contains the "Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning," a 12-item test
that, according to Lawson: (a) is a test of "ability to apply aspects
of scientific and mathematical reasoning to analyze a situation, make
a prediction, or solve a problem"; (b) total scores indicate the
following levels of thinking: of 0-4 - empirical-inductive; 5-8 -
transitional; 9-12 hypothetical-deductive.
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Musick, D. 2011. "Assessment of Critical Thinking Skills," DrEd post
of 4 Aug 2011 19:58:17 +0000; online at <http://bit.ly/pnF11R>.
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Shavelson, R.J. & L. Huang. 2003. "Responding Responsibly To the
Frenzy to Assess Learning in Higher Education," Change Magazine,
January/February; online as a 123 kB pdf at <http://bit.ly/g0tCbU>.
See also Shavelson (2009) and Benjamin et al. (2009).
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Shavelson, R.J. 2009. "Measuring College Learning Responsibly:
Accountability in a New Era." Stanford University Press, publisher's
information at <http://bit.ly/cfoLbM>. Amazon.com information at
<http://amzn.to/i6zjbx>, note the searchable "Look Inside" feature.
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Stein, B.S. A.F. Haynes, and J. Unterstein. 2003. "Assessing Critical
Thinking Skills," Paper presented at SACS/COC Annual Meeting /
Nashville, Tennessee / December 6 - 9; online as a 385 kB pdf at
<http://bit.ly/mWzHkg>. The Appendix lists "Current Critical Thinking
Tests, Types, and Weaknesses (Based on Information Obtained from U.S.
Department of Education, 2000)." Stein is coauthor of "The Ideal
Problem Solver: A guide for improving thinking, learning and
creativity" [Bransford & Stein (1993)].
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Stoddard, H. 2011."Re: Assessment of Critical Thinking Skills," DrEd
post of 5 Aug 2011 12:24:21 -0500; online on the OPEN! DrEd archives
at <http://bit.ly/n8wV9L>.
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