Educational Effectiveness: Validation of an Instrument to Measure Students’ Critical Thinking and Disposition

Abstract

Critical thinking has become an educational ideal in a higher education context, where the goal is to develop students’ critical and reflective attitudes. There is a need for validated tools to raise awareness of the student’s perception of their critical thinking, and to measure whether teaching has a positive impact on students’ ability to think critically and to increase the students’ disposition towards critical thinking. The aim of this study was to adapt and validate the Critical Thinking Disposition Scale (CTDS) for use in social work education in Norway, and to explore students’ perceptions of their critical thinking. CFA was conducted for psychometric evaluation, and Cronbach’s alpha was used to evaluate internal consistency. Students’ perception of their critical thinking was analysed at item and factor level. CTDS-NO show satisfying psychometric properties with high reliability and validity and may be a valuable tool for measuring students’ critical thinking disposition during their education. Results indicate that the questionnaire may also be a useful tool for measuring whether the teaching contributes to the development of critical thinking students.