Development and validation of an instrument to measure undergraduate chemistry students’ critical thinking skills

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-78
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Danczak ◽  
Christopher D. Thompson ◽  
Tina L. Overton

The importance of developing and assessing student critical thinking at university can be seen through its inclusion as a graduate attribute for universities and from research highlighting the value employers, educators and students place on demonstrating critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are seldom explicitly assessed at universities. Commercial critical thinking assessments, which are often generic in context, are available. However, literature suggests that assessments that use a context relevant to the students more accurately reflect their critical thinking skills. This paper describes the development and evaluation of a chemistry critical thinking test (the Danczak–Overton–Thompson Chemistry Critical Thinking Test or DOT test), set in a chemistry context, and designed to be administered to undergraduate chemistry students at any level of study. Development and evaluation occurred over three versions of the DOT test through a variety of quantitative and qualitative reliability and validity testing phases. The studies suggest that the final version of the DOT test has good internal reliability, strong test–retest reliability, moderate convergent validity relative to a commercially available test and is independent of previous academic achievement and university of study. Criterion validity testing revealed that third year students performed statistically significantly better on the DOT test relative to first year students, and postgraduates and academics performed statistically significantly better than third year students. The statistical and qualitative analysis indicates that the DOT test is a suitable instrument for the chemistry education community to use to measure the development of undergraduate chemistry students’ critical thinking skills.

2014 ◽  
Vol 138 (6) ◽  
pp. 809-813
Author(s):  
Carolyn R. Vitek ◽  
Jane C. Dale ◽  
Henry A. Homburger ◽  
Sandra C. Bryant ◽  
Amy K. Saenger ◽  
...  

Context.— Systems-based practice (SBP) is 1 of 6 core competencies required in all resident training programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Reliable methods of assessing resident competency in SBP have not been described in the medical literature. Objective.— To develop and validate an analytic grading rubric to assess pathology residents' analyses of SBP problems in clinical chemistry. Design.— Residents were assigned an SBP project based upon unmet clinical needs in the clinical chemistry laboratories. Using an iterative method, we created an analytic grading rubric based on critical thinking principles. Four faculty raters used the SBP project evaluation rubric to independently grade 11 residents' projects during their clinical chemistry rotations. Interrater reliability and Cronbach α were calculated to determine the reliability and validity of the rubric. Project mean scores and range were also assessed to determine whether the rubric differentiated resident critical thinking skills related to the SBP projects. Results.— Overall project scores ranged from 6.56 to 16.50 out of a possible 20 points. Cronbach α ranged from 0.91 to 0.96, indicating that the 4 rubric categories were internally consistent without significant overlap. Intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.63 to 0.81, indicating moderate to strong interrater reliability. Conclusions.— We report development and statistical analysis of a novel SBP project evaluation rubric. The results indicate the rubric can be used to reliably assess pathology residents' critical thinking skills in SBP.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Oktariani Oktariani ◽  
Asyti Febliza ◽  
Nurul Fauziah

This research was conducted to identify and describe prospective teachers’ critical thinking skills profile as readiness to face the industrial revolution 4.0. This research was a descriptive research. Research subjects were  chemistry education students who are prospective chemistry teachers. The instruments used in this study were the Critical Thinking Ability Test and Critical Thinking Ability Questionnaire. The instrument used is valid and reliable. The results of the study showed that the critical thinking skills of prospective chemistry teacher students are still in sufficient criteria with average score 46,7. It was also found that students' critical thinking skills in 5th  semester  were better than those in semester 3rd and 1st with average score 57,46 and 41. This result was also supported by differences in student performance for each indicator of critical thinking skills. Chemistry students show better performance on indicators of building basic skills compared to other critical thinking skills indicators. Meanwhile, the indicators on building strategies and tactics of chemistry education students still showed  poor performance than other indicators. This needs to be improved immediately in order to prepare prospective chemistry teachers who are ready to compete in facing the industrial revolition 4.0. Improvements can be made by designing learning methods, teaching materials and evaluation tools that can improve students' critical thinking skills.Keywords: critical thinking skill, education 4.0., prospective chemistry teachers, revolutioanl industry 4.0ABSTRAK.Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengidentifikasi dan mendeskripsikan profil keterampilan berpikir kritis calon guru kimia sebagai kesiapan dalam menghadapi revolusi industri 4.0. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian deskriptif. Subjek penelitian merupakan mahasiswa pendidikan kimia yang merupakan calon guru kimia. Instrumen yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah tes keterampilan berpikir kritis dan kuisioner keterampilan berpikir kritis. Instrumen yang digunakan sudah valid dan reliabel.  Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa keterampilan berpikir kritis calon guru kimia masih berada pada kriteria cukup yaitu dengan skor rata-rata 46,7. Selain itu juga ditemukan bahwa keterampilan berpikir kritis mahasiswa semester 5 lebih baik dibandingkan semester 3 dan semester 1 dengan skor rata-rata masing-masingnya yaitu 57, 46 dan 41.  Hasil ini juga didukung dengan adanya perbedaan performa mahasiswa untuk masing-masing indikator keterampilan berpikir kritis. Calon guru kimia menunjukkan  performa yang lebih baik pada indikator membangun keterampilan dasar dibandingkan dengan indikator keterampilan berpikir kritis lainnya. Sementara itu, pada indikator membangun strategi dan taktik calon guru kimia masih menunjukkan performa yang kurang baik dibandingkan dengan indikator yang lainnya. Hal ini perlu segera diperbaiki guna mempersiapkan calon guru kimia yang siap bersaing menghadapi era revolusi industri 4.0. Perbaikan dapat dilakukan dengan cara merancang metode pembelajaran, bahan ajar dan alat evaluasi yang dapat mengasah keterampilan berpikir kritis peserta didik. Kata kunci: calon guru kimia, keterampilan berpikir kritis, pendidikan 4.0, revolusi industri 4.0


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Betty Agustina ◽  
Danang Biyatmoko ◽  
Aminuddin Prahatama Putra

The wetland learning system is still conventional and lecturer-centered so that students are not accustomed to doing problem solving activities that have an impact on the lack of students' critical thinking skills. This study aims to develop multimedia learning of problem solving based peat swamp forest concepts to determine the validity of multimedia to train students' critical thinking skills. The stages carried out following the ADDIE instructional design flow include analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. Data collection techniques used a validation sheet instrument for two material experts from Lambung Mangkurat University and one multimedia expert from Politeknik Hasnur. Readability test was conducted on three active students who had taken a course to introduce the wetland environment in FMIPA ULM. The results showed that the multimedia learning concept of problem solving peat swamp forest to train critical thinking skills of chemistry students of FMIPA ULM Banjarbaru is very valid.AbstrakSistem pembelajaran lahan basah masih bersifat konvensional dan berpusat pada dosen sehingga mahasiswa tidak terbiasa melakukan kegiatan pemecahan masalah yang berdampak pada kurangnya keterampilan berpikir kritis mahasiswa. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengembangkan  multimedia pembelajaran konsep hutan rawa gambut berbasis problem solving untuk mengetahui bagaimana validitas multimedia untuk melatihkan keterampilan berpikir kritis mahasiswa. Tahapan yang dilakukan mengikuti alur desain instruksional ADDIE meliputi analisis, desain, pengembangan, implementasi dan evaluasi. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan instrumen lembar validasi terhadap dua ahli materi dari Universitas Lambung Mangkurat dan satu ahli multimedia dari Politeknik Hasnur. Uji keterbacaan dilakukan terhadap tiga mahasiswa aktif yang pernah mengambil mata kuliah pengenalan lingkungan lahan basah di FMIPA ULM. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa multimedia pembelajaran konsep hutan rawa gambut berbasis problem solving untuk melatihkan keterampilan berpikir kritis mahasiswa kimia FMIPA ULM Banjarbaru sangat valid.


Author(s):  
Sherouk J. Kadhm

This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of the Arabic version of Sherouk's Critical Thinking Test. This test has four parts, each of which provides a story that is divided into an introduction and a scene; each story is then followed by a list of sensitive questions featuring two response options (Agree/Disagree). A sample of 158 university students participated in this study. The results showed that the reliability of the entire scale was 0.885, and the reliability of each of its four parts was 0.885, 0.829, 0.772, and 0.721, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis of the collected data revealed a good fit with the latent constructs (CMIN/DF: 1.446; CMIN/DF: 1.357; CMIN/DF: 1.417; and CMIN/DF: 1.151) for parts one to four, respectively. The test's adaptability was considered when designing this instrument, and examinees were invited to review it. This paper recommended using this instrument in the fields of performance, leadership, selection, training, and improvement, and it was also created as a tool to measure individuals' critical thinking skills and abilities in organizations, companies, and academic environments. The English and German versions of this test were also examined; these versions are now currently available for use.


Author(s):  
Sherouk J. Kadhm

This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of the Arabic version of Sherouk's Critical Thinking Test. This test has four parts, each of which provides a story that is divided into an introduction and a scene; each story is then followed by a list of sensitive questions featuring two response options (Agree/Disagree). A sample of 158 university students participated in this study. The results showed that the reliability of the entire scale was 0.885, and the reliability of each of its four parts was 0.885, 0.829, 0.772, and 0.721, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis of the collected data revealed a good fit with the latent constructs (CMIN/DF: 1.446; CMIN/DF: 1.357; CMIN/DF: 1.417; and CMIN/DF: 1.151) for parts one to four, respectively. The test's adaptability was considered when designing this instrument, and examinees were invited to review it. This paper recommended using this instrument in the fields of performance, leadership, selection, training, and improvement, and it was also created as a tool to measure individuals' critical thinking skills and abilities in organizations, companies, and academic environments. The English and German versions of this test were also examined; these versions are now currently available for use.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
Ümmüye Nur Tüzün ◽  
Gülseda Eyceyurt Türk

STEM is the process of integrating science, technology, engineering and mathematics in education. STEAM differs from STEM by a letter of ‘A’ which means arts, on the basic logic of science and arts mustn’t be decomposed from each other. This research aimed to assist tenth-grade students in learning through their own constructed materials for bringing up them as well-qualified individuals by using chemistry, technology, engineering, popart and mathematics (STEAM) integration which would improve their creativity and critical-thinking too. 33 tenth-grade students from a high school in Turkey participated in this qualitative research in 2015-2016 academic year. Student constructed materials, and student process evaluation worksheets were used as data collecting tools. Content analysis was utilized for the gathered data. Content analysis was cross-checked for the reliability of the research too. The results showed that students’ creativity and critical-thinking skills were enhanced through such a STEAM process, and this process was also helped to educate well-qualified individuals in the abovementioned fields. Keywords: chemistry education, critical thinking, educating well-qualified individuals, STEAM.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yayuk Andayani

This research employs Ex Facto approach to analyse the relation between prospective teachers’ critical thinking tendency (CTT) and their critical thinking skills (CTS) towards their learning outcome. The subject of this research the fifth semester students of Chemistry Education, Faculty of Teaching, Universitas Mataram academic year of 2017/2018. The research focuses on the teaching of Chemical Physics III subject to 40 people who are chosen under purposive sampling method. The variable of attribute is the use of project-based learning and CTT while the dependent variable is the CTS and students’ learning outcome. The data of CTT were obtained through questionnaires focusing on the matter while the students’ CTS and learning outcome were measured using essay tests. The analysis of the data utilizes Pearson correlation test. The result of the test showed significant relevance between CTT and CTS (rcount ; 0.341 > rtable ;0.312). Meanwhile, the total of CTT and learning outcome do not show significant coexistence (rcount ; 0.096 < rtable ;0.312), even though the indicator of open-mindedness displayed a significant coherence to learning outcome (rcount ; 0.449 > rtable ;0.312). Based on the result, to sum up, there is a significant relation between critical thinking tendency and critical thinking skills.


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