the watson glaser critical thinking test

 the watson glaser critical thinking test

The Importance of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test

1. Introduction

This essay is meant to critically analyze the importance of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test for undergraduate students, developed by Peter Facione and Noreen Facione in 2003. This test was designed with the intention of assessing a student’s critical thinking ability and also having the ability to generalize those results for a university’s general education outcomes. Critical thinking can be defined as the process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion. This entails using information gathering skills, curiosity, a positive attitude towards learning, and good reasoning abilities. The ability to think critically is a very important skill for undergraduate students to acquire since it is often not only a predictor of future academic success but of professional performance as well. Hence, educational institutions have the duty of assessing the general gains of the students’ critical thinking abilities throughout their years of study and offering courses and programs that can enhance those abilities. The California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) is designed to accomplish just that, giving the university a basis of the students’ critical thinking abilities at entry and a means of assessing their progress during the students’ years of study. An assessment of the effectiveness of the CCTST begins with an examination of its potential measurement of academic performance. Since critical thinking can be considered vital to academic and professional performance, a study could indicate the importance of the test itself. The study used two samples of university students at different levels of study. Overall findings suggest that the CCTST has consistent validity in measuring general critical thinking skills when comparing the first and second-year students in the second sample. This is important as it can give the university a basis of the students’ critical thinking abilities at entry and a means of assessing their progress during their years of study. It can also help to identify changes in the curriculum and develop programs to increase the students’ abilities.

2. Benefits of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test

The California Critical Thinking Skills Test has been a popular assessment of critical thinking for almost two decades. Employers in California and abroad have used the CCTST to assess job candidates, current employees, or students seeking internships. The CCTST has also been used in educational settings ranging from the elementary grades to graduate school. It has been required of students in school departments ranging from computer science to nursing. California lawmakers have even required public school classroom teachers in California to take the CCTST. Given its widespread use, the CCTST clearly has benefit in the view of those who use it to assess critical thinking. In fact, it is the perceived benefit of the CCTST to those being assessed, to our students, and to the general public that has kindled the interest of the Center and the CCTST developers. We have wondered whether those who take the test and those who are required to take it see any value in it beyond its use as a gatekeeping device. Current users of the CCTST have a variety of reasons for wanting to assess critical thinking. Employers have used the CCTST as a complement to trade or professional licensing tests and to general skills tests such as the ACT CAAP, Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency. They have seen the CCTST as a way to measure how well college graduates can handle problems in a complex environment, how well they are prepared to make decisions, and how well they inform themselves before acting. The CCTST has been used as an outcome assessment tool in professional education programs and to meet accreditation demands for proof of student learning. It has also been used as an initial or pretest measure of how well college students are developing critical thinking skills.

3. How to Administer the Test

Training in the administration of the tests is provided in workshops sponsored by the California Academic Press. The model or standard instrument is an hour as well as an extended 3.5-hour assessment composed of the CCTST (a 34-item written assessment for use in testing and evaluation), and a performance-based assessment of critical thinking dispositions/potential (5 subtests with items for inductive reasoning, attitude/belief assessment motivation for CT, and decision making for a total of 34 items). A matrix of all instruments displaying the weightings and relationships of these items has been submitted for publication. An oral assessment tool is under development. Our goal is to provide assessment in a wide variety of world languages. Development for language minority group assessments is planned after completion of the standard instrument translations. Complete validation data is available at: [Link] because of space limitations, results have been published in various formats including CCTST Technical Report 2A. Available in the CCTST Newsletter, 4(3). The CCTST is currently offered with a scale of prices per booklet, with discounts provided according to volume. Baccalaureate and graduate students are the primary focus for the CCTST. However, the CCTST is in use at the elementary and secondary levels, both with general student populations and with academically talented or “gifted” students. The CCTST is widely used in many different disciplines and applications. Materials and books related to CCTST applications to specific fields and special populations are gradually accumulating. Future newsletter submissions will include updates about these materials. A CCTST USERS’ HANDBOOK containing official information and documentation and valuable advice about using CCTST data to foster student learning and development has been completed and is available through the California Academic Press. Ongoing research in assessment technology and psychometric standards has prompted continued CCTST innovation. Future newsletters will feature updates on CCTST enhancements, as well as feedback from users. Special thanks to James E. Jones, past president of Educational Testing Service, and all CCTST users and supporters for their feedback and encouragement.

4. Interpreting the Results

It is key to realise that the California Critical Thinking Skills Test has been designed to measure the main aspects of strength and weaknesses in a selection of subject specific critical thinking skills. The total scale score is a sum of the five sub-scales scores. Think of the overall assessment as a container so the overall score is the size of the container. The weight it carries is a distribution of the areas on the sub-scales. What is important with any research, concluding in whether it is a test, a treatment or an art therapy, is to be sure that a conclusion, for example, that this person has below average skills is most likely a true conclusion. The way to determine how certain we can be regarding an overall score is to generate a confidence interval. This is a range of scores within which we can be confident that the true score lies. This will be influenced by how variable the scores are. An over or under estimation of a student’s real skill level can also be determined by comparing the number of correct answers within a section of the test and the range of scores for that particular sub-scale. This is a complex statistical procedure, guidance on this analysis can be provided on request. The probability associated with the statistical conclusion and its relevant practical decision assistance is evaluated through inference. Confidence in statistical inference is based on the concept of estimating how often an event is likely to occur, as we strive to ensure the sample mirrors the relevant population. The term Standard Error is the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of a statistic. This is a complicated concept in itself, so for more depth in statistics advice can be given. A consideration made when looking at the probability of error is the severity of making the incorrect decision. We may be more reluctant to conclude something about a student’s critical thinking skills if it is going to have a detrimental effect on their future.

5. Conclusion

Because the test aims to measure the critical thinking abilities of students across different levels and subject matters, it has the potential to provide important information about the strengths and weaknesses of students as reasoners. The importance of the CCTST has been seen in its ability to assess critical thinking and its components cross-sectionally, longitudinally (Watson and Glaser, 1994a), and predict student success in curriculum programs and in national norming studies on critical thinking. Watson and Glaser (1994b) found that the CCTST at the collegiate and employment levels is excellent in discriminating students who have high critical thinking grades or job performance evaluations from those who have low critical thinking grades or job performance evaluations. They also claim that the test is able to measure above and beyond cognitive ability measures with regard to predicting critical thinking skill attainment in college students. Measures of course and curriculum effectiveness are also pivotal to a test like the CCTST. With the push toward successful student learning and achieving excellence in education, assessment of program outcome effectiveness is crucial. Above all, the ability of the CCTST to provide a standard for comparing the critical thinking skills of students and program graduates to the critical thinking skills of college students nationally provides for an interesting and useful assessment tool.