Critical thinking which must be one of the major educational goals may well serve to not only solve the problems in a reasonable way but also enhance human dignity, construct a mature democratic society and develop the education.
The purpose of this s...
Critical thinking which must be one of the major educational goals may well serve to not only solve the problems in a reasonable way but also enhance human dignity, construct a mature democratic society and develop the education.
The purpose of this study is to develop 『Critical Thinking Ability Test(CTAT)』, 『Critical Thinking Dispositions Test(CTDT)』 nd 『Critical Thinking Ability Improvement Program(CTAIP)』 for college students' level and using these instruments and thereby, test the effects of the CTAIP.
The procedures for developing of CTAT, CTDT and CTAIP were as follows; First, various preceding studies regarding this issue were reviewed to establish a critical thinking concept model covering all the critical thinking ability and dispositions.
For testing of the critical thinking ability, question items related with the components of critical thinking ability were developed together with their scaling criteria and implementation procedures. Then reliability and validity of the test were also analyzed through content validity, preliminary and main tests to determine the question items finally, which were again subject to cross-validity to verify the reliability and validity of the test and develop norms for college students.
For testing of the critical thinking dispositions, question items related with the components of critical thinking dispositions were developed together with their scaling criteria and implementation procedures. Then reliability and validity of the test were also analyzed through content validity, preliminary and main tests to determine the question items finally, which were again subject to cross-validity to verify the reliability and validity of the test.
The CTAIP is linked in a conceptual way with the critical thinking concept model established for this study, while incorporating various insights from similar preceding programs. In cooperation of such a theoretical and experimental background as well as subjects' cognitive development and transfer of the critical thinking ability, goals and contents of learning were selected and organized.
This study was aimed at achieving the following study points for subject college students;
First, the CTAIP would be tested to confirm experimentally whether it would help students improve their critical thinking ability and dispositions.
Second, differences of the critical thinking ability depending on students' college experiences would be determined.
Third, differences of the critical thinking dispositions depending on between sexes would be determined.
Fourth, relationship between critical thinking ability and dispositions would be examined. In order to test the above study points, t-test, ANCOVA, ANOVA, Scheffe′ test and Pearson r were relied upon.
The results of this study can be summarized as follows;
First, as a result of cross-validity of the CTAT, it was found that score distribution and reliability for sample 1 was almost similar to those for sample 2(half-reliability coefficient was .72~.74, while Cronbach α coefficient was .70~.74). Such a level of validity seemed to be relatively satisfactory. In addition, as a consequence of verifying the construct validity by using the CTAIP, it was disclosed that the experimental groups' improvement was significant, proving that the construct validity is proper comparatively, although not being high.
Upon double cross-validity of the CTDT, it was revealed that a structure consisting of 4 factors was apparent in sample 1 and 2, while every measure variable was highly related with a certain factor only and less related with the others. Moreover, the score distributions of sample 1 and 2 were almost similar(as for sub-factors, Cronbach α for sample 1 was .57~.71, while being .64~.73 for sample 2).
Second, as a result of experimenting the CTAIP, it was found that there was a significant difference for experimental group between pretest and post-test scores for CTAT, while there was no such a difference for control group. In the pretest and post-test for CTDT, experimental group's average score was a little higher in the post-test, but not significant. This result was same for control group.
Third, as a result of analyzing the differences of critical thinking ability among grades, university and junior college students showed a significant difference in all sub-areas. However for the junior college students, the higher grade they were in, their average score was higher. In contrast, for the university students, the average score of freshmen was highest, which was not consistent with the case of junior college students.
Fourth, as a consequence of analyzing the difference of critical thinking dispositions between sexes, it was disclosed that showed significant difference. And in all sub-areas, male students showed more critical thinking dispositions.
Fifth, upon examining the correlation between critical thinking ability and critical thinking dispositions, it was confirmed that the correlation was significant, although not being higher than expected. In particular, there was a higher correlation than others in evaluation area. And male students showed a higher correlation than their female counterparts.
As discussed above, the CTAT and CTDT can be useful to the measurement of college students' critical thinking, and CTAIP can be useful to the training program to their critical thinking ability. It is conceived that the alternatives and teaching strategies suggested in this program may be applicable to the actual classroom situation for specific content treatment or teaching method. In particular, it is believed that the results of this study may give some insights needed to develop a training program for the area requiring a high level of critical thinking ability.