Transcript Assessing College Students’ Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking:
Conceptual definition
Peter A. Facione
Santa Clara U
Noreen C. Facione
UC San Francisco
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
Critical Thinking
Purposeful, self-regulatory judgment
which manifests itself in reasoned
consideration of evidence, context,
methods, standards, and
conceptualizations in deciding
what to believe or what to do.
The Delphi Report: Executive Summary: (1990), The California Academic Press, or ERIC Doc ED315 423
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
Willing and Able to Think
Skills
Two aspects of
critical thinking
Dispositions
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
Core Critical Thinking
Skills Interact
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
Definition of Interpretation
 To categorize
Formulate categories, distinctions, or
frameworks for understanding,
describing or characterizing information.
 To decode the significance
 To clarify the meaning
The Delphi Report: Executive Summary: (1990), The California Academic Press, or ERIC Doc ED315 423
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
Definition of Interpretation
 To categorize
 To decode the significance
Detect or describe the content, affective purport,
directive functions, motives, purposes, social
significance, values, views, rules, criteria, or
inferential relationships expressed in language,
drawings, graphs, social behaviors, symbols, etc’
Discern the use of irony or rhetorical questions.
 To clarify the meaning
The Delphi Report: Executive Summary: (1990), The California Academic Press, or ERIC Doc ED315 423
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
Definition of Interpretation
 To categorize
 To decode the significance
 To clarify the meaning
To paraphrase the contextual or intended meanings
of ideas, or make ideas more explicit, through
stipulation, description, behaviors, symbols, rules,
analogy or figurative expression, etc.
To remove vagueness and ambiguity by developing
distinctions for preserving conceptual differences
and intended meanings.
The Delphi Report: Executive Summary: (1990), The California Academic Press, or ERIC Doc ED315 423
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
CT Skills Test Scores by Sex
• Females: n =2,088, mean 15.40, s.d. 4.3
• Males:
n = 234, mean 15.42, s.d. 4.8
Finding: No significant difference at entry.
• Females: n = 924, mean 16.10, s.d. 4.3
• Males:
n = 103, mean 16.07, s.d. 5.3
Finding: No significant difference at exit.
Facione,N. (1997). Nursing Aggregate Data Analysis Study
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
Critical Thinking Skills by Age



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n = 2,340
mean age = 28.31 years
age, standard deviation = 8.97
r = -.007
Finding: Correlation of CT skills test
scores with age is not significant.
Facione,N. (1997). Nursing Aggregate Data Analysis Study
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
Habits and Skills
Nurtured and Honed by Use
Equally Important
Content
Practical
Experience Knowledge
Critical Thinking
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
The Facione Model of Reasoned Judgment
Affective Responses
Relevant Knowledge
Estimated Risk
Habits
Facilitating Factors
Constraining Factors
Cultural Norms
Perceived Consequences
Personality, Thinking Skills, Creativity, Philosophical Orientation
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
CT in Reasoned Judgment
Definition of the Problem
Selection of the Optimal Resolution
Applicability of each element of one’s
Philosophical Orientation
quality and nature of evidence
theory, concepts, and constructs
methods and techniques of inquiry
relevance of standards/criteria
context of this judgment relative to all else
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
What sort of person..?
Makes purposeful self-regulatory
judgments by giving
reasoned consideration to
•
•
•
•
•
evidence
context
theory / conceptualizations
methods
standards
One driven by the consistent internal
motivation to engage one’s cognitive
skills in problem framing and solving
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
Characteristics of a
Critical Thinker
Truth-seeking
Open-minded
Analytical
Systematic
CT- Confident
Inquisitive
Cognitively Mature
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
CT Dispositional Pairings
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
How to Nurture Thinking in
Working and Learning
Expect and reward virtue
Evaluate processes, not results only
Present information from the bottom up,
explaining why, not just what
Replace rote training with thoughtful mentoring
Build a culture of reasoned, evidence-based
thinking
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
Professional Judgment:
A goal oriented decision-making
or problem-solving process
carried out by a professional
acting in the interests of a client.
In the process of making this judgment, the professional takes
into consideration the context, criteria, data, concepts, and methods.
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
The Contexts of Judgment
Novel ………………………………. Familiar
Complex………..……….....……… Singular
High Stakes………………..….. Low Stakes
Time Constrained….…………..… Relaxed
Specialized………... Common Knowledge
Spontaneous………..………….… Planned
Individual…………....…….... Collaborative
How well do the teaching and testing contexts
match the professional practice contexts?
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.
Critical thinking purposeful self-regulatory
judgment - can be...
Assessed
Learned
Taught
Defined
© 1998, The California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA.