Reliability and concurrent validity of a measure of critical thinking skills in biology

Abstract

The present study investigated the utility of 52 items, selected from a readily available item pool developed for instructional purposes, when the items are used to measure critical thinking abilities of biology students. The items yield scores that have reasonable internal consistency reliability.

Measuring Critical Thinking in Physics: Development and Validation of a Critical Thinking Test in Electricity and Magnetism

“…The test mainly targets junior and senior high school students, but it has also been used to assess scientific reasoning skills among college science freshmen (Lawson, 1978). The other domain-specific CT test is the biology critical thinking exam (McMurray, 1991). It is a multiple-choice test with 52 items that aims to measure college students' CT skills in biology, and the items were selected from a readily available item pool developed for instructional purposes in biology.…”

Psychological Versus Generic Critical Thinking as Predictors and Outcome Measures in a Large Undergraduate Human Development Course

“…Subject-specific critical thinking could readily be targeted in tasks required in a subject-matter course. Although subject-specific meas ures of critical thinking have been developed in such areas as psy chology (Lawson, 1999), biology (McMurray, Beisenherz, & Thompson, 1991), and statistics (Royalty, 1995), these measures have mainly been used as predictors of performance rather than as outcome measures of course experiences.…”

Targeting critical thinking within teacher education: The potential impact on society

“…The former instrument is considered a generic test of critical thinking because its questions are not linked to a particular subject area, and the latter instrument is a subject-specific assessment of critical thinking (in this case, psychological critical thinking). With respect to subject-specific assessment, critical thinking tests have been developed for a variety of subject areas and grade levels (Fisher & Scriven, 1997;Lawson, 1999;McMurray, Beisenherz, & Thompson, 1991;Royalty, 1995). An overview of different types of critical thinking tests for different levels of students has been prepared by Spicer and Hanks (1995).…”