Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment Predicts Real-World Outcomes of Critical Thinking

Deconstruction and poststructuralism have profoundly shaped popular and academic thought, while also drawing both popular and academic resistance, and doing so (strangely) consistently over decades. In particular, deconstruction and poststructuralism (and their synecdoche—the capital-T “Theory”) are viewed as sources of existential peril to English studies, where their impact has been indelibly tied to a canon expansion that takes seriously—and particularly—the contributions of women, people of color, queer people, and others. Detractors often reduce poststructuralism to its -ism—making of it a stagnant force of destabilizing chaos or a hopelessly unproductive and apolitical form of theoretical play. Dogmatic enthusiasts often become similarly reductive. Thinkers like Barbara Johnson and fiction writers like Percival Everett exemplify and advocate for a brand of deconstructive self-critique in which we: avoid allowing our enthusiasm or opinions to harden into any -ism (even when the enthusiasm is for, say, undecidability); embrace (in fact, seek) opportunities of confrontation with ignorance in our own thought; and recognize the potential value of upheaval in our real-world practices. Such self-critique is far from an existential peril to central values of English studies; it is, in fact, something not unlike the “critical thinking” valued and marketed by the Humanities.

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Assessment of Undergraduates’ Real-World Outcomes of Critical Thinking in Everyday Situations

Psychological Reports ◽

10.1177/0033294117701906 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 120 (4) ◽

pp. 707-720 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Amanda R. Franco ◽

Patrício S. Costa ◽

Heather A. Butler ◽

Leandro S. Almeida

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Life Events ◽

Real World ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Negative Life Events ◽

Self Report ◽

First Year Students ◽

Portuguese Version ◽

Original Proposal ◽

The Impact

Critical thinking is a kind of “good” thinking that integrates a set of cognitive skills and dispositions to use those skills with knowledge to increase the chances of success in academic settings, job market, and daily life. The impact of critical thinking on life events, in face of everyday decisions and challenges, is still unclear, and further research is needed. In this exploratory study, a sample of 230 first-year students of a Bachelor’s Degree or a Master’s Degree in Portugal completed an experimental Portuguese version of the Real-World Outcomes, a self-report inventory measuring everyday negative life events that are mediated by a lack of critical thinking. Based on exploratory factor analysis results and theoretical premises, changes were made to the Portuguese version of the inventory that was administered, and items were aggregated into six dimensions, creating a new version that is more familiar to Portuguese young adults in college. This original proposal of the inventory presents six types of negative life events resulting from a lack of critical thinking: health neglect, mismanagement, slackness, poor impulse control, academic negligence, and rashness. Both limitations and future potentialities of this version are presented.

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Nursing Students’ Perceptions of the Effect on Critical Thinking, Assessment, and Learner Satisfaction in Simple Versus Complex High-Fidelity Simulation Scenarios

Journal of Nursing Education ◽

10.3928/01484834-20101130-03 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 73-78 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Jacqueline Guhde

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Nursing Students ◽

Learner Satisfaction ◽

High Fidelity ◽

High Fidelity Simulation ◽

Versus Complex ◽

Critical Thinking Assessment

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Graded Response Method: Does Question Type Influence the Assessment of Critical Thinking?

Journal of Curriculum and Teaching ◽

10.5430/jct.v8n1p1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Sherry Fukuzawa ◽

Michael DeBraga

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Multiple Choice ◽

Question Type ◽

Multiple Choice Questions ◽

Weak Correlation ◽

Course Grades ◽

Graded Response ◽

Critical Thinking Assessment ◽

Choice Testing ◽

Response Method

Graded Response Method (GRM) is an alternative to multiple-choice testing where students rank options accordingto their relevance to the question. GRM requires discrimination and inference between statements and is acost-effective critical thinking assessment in large courses where open-ended answers are not feasible. This studyexamined critical thinking assessment in GRM versus open-ended and multiple-choice questions composed fromBloom’s taxonomy in an introductory undergraduate course in anthropology and archaeology (N=53students).Critical thinking was operationalized as the ability to assess a question with evidence to support or evaluatearguments (Ennis, 1993). We predicted that students who performed well on multiple-choice from Bloom’staxonomy levels 4-6 and open-ended questions would perform well on GRM involving similar concepts. Highperforming students on GRM were predicted to have higher course grades. The null hypothesis was question typewould not have an effect on critical thinking assessment. In two quizzes, there was weak correlation between GRMand open-ended questions (R2=0.15), however there was strong correlation in the exam (R2=0.56). Correlations wereconsistently higher between GRM and multiple-choice from Bloom’s taxonomy levels 4-6 (R2=0.23,0.31,0.21)versus levels 1-3 (R2=0.13,0.29,0.18). GRM is a viable alternative to multiple-choice in critical thinking assessmentwithout added resources and grading efforts.

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