Critical Thinking Assessment in Nursing Education Programs: An Aggregate Data Analysis

Including both theory and empirical research, this book analyzes and synthesizes an aggregate data set comprising 145 predominantly undergraduate samples contributed by on site collaborative investigators at 50 programs of nursing education throughout the United States (Total N = 7,926 cases). Collaborators are listed in this report, as are the analyses of each independent sample, for purposes of validation of the reported findings. The data analyzed were collected from 1992 through 1997. Significant relationships are reported between two measures of critical thinking [The Califoria Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) and The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI)] and a wide variety of academic achievement indicators (e.g. grade point average, standardized test scores), student descriptors (e.g. age, sex, RN-status, NCLEX passage), and program descriptors (e.g. student to faculty ratio, location of program, faculty focus on CT in planning and curriculum development). Modest cross sectional increases and longitudinal gains are demonstrated in critical thinking skills and habits of mind. Several of these relationships are also explored in the limited graduate level sample available. Initial percentile norms for the CCTST are calculated for nursing students by undergraduate class level. Percentile distributions by class for the seven scales of the CCTDI are also reported. A relative strength in students critial thinking skills and dispositions scores were observed in samples collected in nursing programs where faculty reported being engaged in discussions about critical thinking and curriculum reform to optimize teaching for critical thinking. Evidence was observed for a comparable strength in critical thinking (CT) skills in both generic and RN completion students on both entry and exit. Disposition scores were higher for RN to BSN students than for same class level generic nursing student on entry. Scores in CT disposition for exiting RN to BSN students raise concern for whether these students CT disposition is being nurtured by current nursing curricula. A similar concern is raised in relation to female students versus male students as a result of analyses of observed CCTDI scores by sex at exit. Using this data-set, the largest aggregation of CT skills and dispositions test data known to date, the theoretical relationships between the traditional and the Delphi constructs, in terms of division of CT skills, are also explored empirically, as was the relationship between CT skill and the disposition toward CT.