a novel instrument for assessing students’....pdf

RESEARCH AND TEACHING
A Novel Instrument for Assessing
Students’ Critical Thinking Abilities
By Brian White, Marilyne Stains, Marta Escriu-Sune, Eden Medaglia, Leila Rostamnjad,
Clark Chinn, and Hannah Sevian
Science literacy involves knowledge of both science content and science global climate includes data from
process skills. In this study, we describe the Assessment of Critical historical sources, current measure-
Thinking Ability survey and its preliminary application to assess the ments, and computer models. The
critical thinking skills of undergraduate students, graduate students, and conclusions of individual studies
postdoctoral fellows. This survey is based on a complex and partially are not always consistent with those
conflicting data set drawn from the medical literature of the early 20th of other studies. Additional recent
century. Several open-response questions ask subjects to synthesize the examples include the safety of sili-
data to a single conclusion, propose studies to increase confidence in the cone breast implants (McLaughlin
conclusion, and ask if other conclusions are possible. Their responses et al. 2007) and the existence of
to each question are scored on a 4-level scale in terms of their ability to infectious protein particles, or pri-
dea