Cross-cultural Equivalency of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory

Abstract

This study describes the cross-cultural applicability of a multidimensional inventory of students' evaluation of critical thinking dispositions (California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory). The goal was to assess the cross-cultural psychometric equivalency of the CCTDI through testing measurement invariance across American and Turkish linguistic populations. Based on the data from 583 Turkish students and 448 American students from different teacher education programs, the translated Turkish version and the original English version of the CCTDI displayed positive psychometric properties, thus supporting the applicability of the CCTDI in a Turkish educational context with alpha coefficients ranging from .81 to .90 for the sub-scales of the CCTDI Turkish and ranging from .85 to .91 for the sub-scales of the CCTDI English. Results also supported high content validity across cultural versions of the inventory with minimum content validity indices of .81 and .97 for both the Turkish and American versions of the inventory, respectively. However, a cross-cultural comparison of the factorial structure produced a poor fit of the hypothesized multidimensional model of CCTDI to the combined sample. Further analysis, based on the modification indices, supported the use of a four-factor model with reduced items for cross-cultural comparative research studies. Reasons for poor model fit and non-invariance across cultural groups were elaborated.

Improvement in university students’ critical thinking following a strategic thinking training program

“…The inventory consisted of 75 questions and covers ratings of truth-seeking (12 items), Criticism-accepting (12 items), power to analysis (11 items), power to organize information (11 items), self-confidence (9 items), growth rate (10 items), searching (10 items). Empirical evidence supported the reliability and validity of CCTDI (Yeh, 2002;Iskifoglu, 2014;O'Hare, 2005;Sulaiman et al, 2010;Pang et al, 2004;Meici et al, 2004.…”

The Evaluation of Qualitative Studies in Turkey about Critical Thinking Skills: A Meta-Synthesis Study

“…Eleştirel düşünmenin öneminden dolayı Türkiye'de özellikle 2005'ten bu yana birçok araştırma yapılmıştır (Akbıyık ve Karadüz, 2014;Bayat, 2014;İskifoğlu, 2014;Başoğlu ve Mutlu, 2012;Yeşilpınar, 2011;Kazu ve Şentürk, 2010;Ünal ve Ilgaz, 2010). Bu çalışmalardan aynı konu üzerine yapılanları belli temalar (matrix/template) oluşturularak eleştirel bir bakış açısıyla yeniden sentezlenmesi ve yorumlanması sosyal bilgiler eğitimi ve eğitim bilimleri alanına önemli bir katkı sağlayacağı düşünülmektedir.…”

Indonesian Employees' Writing Skills, Linguistic Intelligence, and Critical Thinking Levels

“…A number of studies on the relationship between writing skills and the level of linguistic intelligence as well as writing skills and the level of critical writing have been widely conducted. This can be seen in the reviewing papers of Ahmadian and Hosseini [1], Khodabakhsh et al [2], Tsai &Lin [3], Fahim and Anshori [4], Harkla [5], Idrus and Abdullah [6], Iskifoglu [7]. This shows that the interest in studying the relationship among writing skills, linguistic intelligence and critical thinking is very high.…”

“…Thinking critically is a process of making use the ability to think effectively that it may assist one to make, evaluate, and decide on what to believe and what to do. One premier tool for surveying the dispositional aspects of critical thinking is The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) [7]. The CCTDI is specifically designed to measure the disposition to engage problems and make decisions using critical thinking [17].…”