Effectiveness of critical thinking skill instruction and measurement

¶ … exercises improve critical thinking skills?, Cotter and Tally take a closer look at how effective the teaching of critical thinking skills actually is. They had students complete a number of different tests. The authors noted that while there was a correlation between the scores of the different tests, that these scores and the correlation did not improve over the course of the semester. They suggest that "critical thinking assignments did not have a positive effect on either formal thought or critical thinking skills."

So the authors here are investigating the idea that teaching critical thinking skills needs to be tested against actual outcomes that would demonstrate improvements in critical thinking skills. They sought to basically examine this by studying the issue on a before-and-after basis.

The literature review covers a variety of subjects. It begins with a definition of critical thinking, which includes "evaluating the sources of information, challenging assumptions, understanding context, analyzing arguments and using metacognition." They cite several articles that discuss different ways to measure critical thinking skills. This literature exists because of the educational field, where critical thinking skills have been taught and there is a need to measure the effectiveness of these teaching techniques.

There has also been considerable literature over the years that seeks to analyze the different variables at play in critical thinking skills. This literature is also presented by the authors. The material dates back to the 1970s but most of it is from the 1980s. So the field of critical thinking is actually a relatively new field, and this is why these authors are just now starting to take a look at how effective critical thinking teaching is. Their literature review does not spend much time on this particular subject, perhaps indicating that there is a lack of research on the subject entirely.

Measurement

In terms of measurement, the California Critical Thinking Skills Test was used. This test has 34 multiple choice questions that "measure interpretation, analysis, inference, explanation, self-regulation and evaluation." The authors note that these skills are consistent with the American Psychological Association's definition of critical thinking. This creates a direct link between the choice of measures and the skills that are being tested. This is not a sloppy proxy, this is an accurate assessment using tests that have been proven in the past.

The students were allowed to choose the assignments that they completed, and these assignments were graded based on writing mechanics, clarity and depth of thought. The ability to formulate a logical, coherent argument was also tested as part of this study on critical thinking.

Outcomes

The data was analyzed using the standard means of evaluating those tests, and then was subject to statistical analysis with regression. The data was also evaluated against a variety of demographic variables as well. The regression was simply and provided only a handful of statistics discussing correlation of the different variables together and the strength of the different outcomes. The two test scores were highly correlated, which means that the students who perform at a certain level on one test are likely to perform at roughly the same level on the other tests. However, the completion of critical thinking exercises did not improve scores on either instrument and in fact the critical thinking scores declined over the course of the semester, very much contrary to expectations.

The researchers conclude that the current regime of critical thinking exercise was failing to improve the caliber of critical thinking in schools.

The answer to the question was laid out in the introduction. This makes it easier to undemand the results when they are presented right away and it is only necessary at that point to look at the details that are the most interesting.

There were perhaps issues with the study. It was not diverse and the study not randomized, but every person in the class was full a member of the study's target market. So there is that, but the study could have been larger and maybe have incorporated other schools were critical thinking is taught differently This would help to established better 'best practices' for the education industry with respect to teaching critical thinking.