Critical Thinking: A Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction
01 Jan 1990-
About: The article was published on 1990-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 1129 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Critical thinking & Educational assessment.
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TL;DR: This paper conducted a meta-analysis that summarizes the available empirical evidence on the impact of instruction on the development and enhancement of critical thinking skills and dispositions and found that type of CT intervention and pedagogical grounding were substantially related to fluctuations in CT effects sizes, together accounting for 32% of the variance.
Abstract: Critical thinking (CT), or the ability to engage in purposeful, self-regulatory judgment, is widely recognized as an important, even essential, skill. This article describes an ongoing meta-analysis that summarizes the available empirical evidence on the impact of instruction on the development and enhancement of critical thinking skills and dispositions. We found 117 studies based on 20,698 participants, which yielded 161 effects with an average effect size (g+) of 0.341 and a standard deviation of 0.610. The distribution was highly heterogeneous (QT = 1,767.86, p < .001). There was, however, little variation due to research design, so we neither separated studies according to their methodological quality nor used any statistical adjustment for the corresponding effect sizes. Type of CT intervention and pedagogical grounding were substantially related to fluctuations in CT effects sizes, together accounting for 32% of the variance. These findings make it clear that improvement in students’ CT skills and ...
726 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) as discussed by the authors was used to sample college students at two comprehensive universities and found that entering college freshman students showed strengths in openmindedness and inquisitiveness, weaknesses in systematicity and opposition to truth-seeking.
Abstract: There is a set of characterological attributes thought to be associated with developing success at critical thinking (CT). This paper explores the disposition toward CT theoretically , and then as it appears to be manifest in college students. Factor analytic research grounded in a consensus-base d conceptual analysis of CT described seven aspects of the overall disposition toward CT: truth-seeking, open-mindedness, analyticity, systematicity, CTconfidence, inquisitiveness, and cognitive maturity. The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI), developed in 1992, was used to sample college students at two comprehensive universities. Entering college freshman students showed strengths in openmindedness and inquisitiveness, weaknesses in systematicity and opposition to truth-seeking. Additional research indicates the disposition toward CT is highly correlated with the psychological constructs of absorption and openness to experience, and strongly predictive of ego-resiliency. A preliminary study explores the interesting and potentially complex interrelationship between the disposition toward CT and CT abilities. In addition to the significance of this work for psychological studies of human development, empirical research on the disposition toward CT promises important implications for all levels of education.
555 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a research-based expert consensus definition of critical thinking, argues that human dispositions are neither hidden nor unknowable, describes a scientific process of developing conventional testing tools to measure cognitive skills, and summarizes recent empirical research findings that explore the possible relationship of critical-thinking skill and the consistent internal motivation, or disposition, to use that skill.
Abstract: Theorists have hypothesized that skill in critical thinking is positively correlated with the consistent internal motivation to think and that specific critical thinking skills are matched with specific critical thinking dispositions. If true, these assumptions suggest that a skill-focused curriculum
would lead persons to be both willing and able to think. This essay presents a researchbased expert consensus definition of critical thinking, argues that human dispositions are neither hidden nor unknowable, describes a scientific process of developing conventional testing tools to measure cognitive skills and human dispositions, and summarizes recent empirical research findings that explore the possible relationship of critical thinking skill and the consistent internal motivation, or disposition, to use that skill. Empirical studies indicate that for all practical purposes the hypothesized correlations are not evident. It would appear that effective teaching must include strategies for building intellectual character rather than relying exclusively on strengthening cognitive skills
554 citations
TL;DR: Findings indicate that DST participants performed significantly better than lecture-type ITII participants in terms of English achievement, critical thinking, and learning motivation, which highlights the important educational value of DST.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of Digital storytelling (DST) on the academic achievement, critical thinking, and learning motivation of senior high school students learning English as a foreign language. The one-year study adopted a pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design involving 110 10th grade students in two English classes. The independent variable was information technology-integrated instruction (ITII) on two different levels - lecture-type ITII (comparison group) and DST (experimental group). Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected, including English achievement and critical thinking scores, questionnaire responses for learning motivation, as well as recordings of student and teacher interviews for evaluating the effectiveness of DST in learning. Descriptive analysis, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), and qualitative content analysis was used for evaluating the obtained data. Our findings indicate that DST participants performed significantly better than lecture-type ITII participants in terms of English achievement, critical thinking, and learning motivation. Interview results highlight the important educational value of DST, as both the instructor and students reported that DST increased students' understanding of course content, willingness to explore, and ability to think critically, factors which are important in preparing students for an ever-changing 21st century.
508 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss various instructional formats for critical thinking from a social constructivist point of view, and propose a framework for the acquisition of the competence to participate critically in the communities and social practices.
Abstract: This article is about enhancing critical thinking as a crucial aspect of the competence citizens need to participate in society. First empirical research into the question which instructional strategies are ‘effective’ in enhancing critical thinking is reviewed. Characteristics of instruction that are assumed to enhance critical thinking are: paying attention to the development of the epistemological beliefs of students; promoting active learning; a problem-based curriculum; stimulating interaction between students; and learning on the basis of real-life situations. Research has failed to prove the effectiveness of programs especially devised to improve critical thinking (higher-order) skills. In the second part of this article, the various proposals for instructional formats for critical thinking are discussed from a social constructivist point of view. Learning to think critically is conceptualized as the acquisition of the competence to participate critically in the communities and social practices of which a person is a member. If education is to further the critical competence of students, it must provide them with the opportunity at the level of the classroom and the school to observe, imitate and practice critical agency and to reflect upon it. Learning contexts must be chosen which students can make sense of and in which they can develop a feeling of responsibility for the quality of the practice in question. # 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
470 citations