Abstract
This paper examines the content of The California Critical Thinking Skills Test (1990). This report is not a statistical review. Instead it brings under scrutiny the content of the exam. This content will be of interest to the general reader, because the issues range from logic to ethics to pedagogy, and to questions of evidential and epistemological support. Anyone interested in clear thought and expression will find these issues of significance. Although the exam has a number of strengths and has the clearest instructions of all the presently available Critical Thinking exams, the content of 9 of the exam’s 34 questions is defective, namely the content of questions 6, 7, 8, 19, 21, 23, 24, 29, and 33. These questions make errors in critical thinking. Hence, no statistical results pertaining to the administration of these questions to students can be acceptable. The remaining questions are acceptable as to content. But until the problems are corrected, those who may use the exam should remove the defective questions from test administration or from data collection and reporting.
The scope of the exam also is quite limited, but this may be unavoidable for any instrument designed to be completed in about an hour. Further, the scores resulting from any such testing can be understood only as a measure of minimal competency (below which remediation likely is needed) for the skills tested, but not as an adequate measure of critical thinking.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Crosschecked Models of Critical Thinking
D the Delphi model: Facione, Peter A. 1990, Critical Thinking: A Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction, “The Delphi Report”, The California Academic Press, Milbrae, California.
E the U.S. National Educational Goals model: Click, Benjamin A.L., Hoffman, Steven, Jones, Elizabeth, Moore, Lynne M., Ratcliff, Gary & Tibbitts, Stacy: 1990, National Educational Goals, National Assessment of College Student Learning: Identifying College Graduates’ Essential Skills in Writing, Speech and Listening and Critical Thinking, Final Round Consensus of Faculty, Employers, and Policymakers, United States Department of Education.
S the Sonoma model: Paul, Richard et al.: 1998, Center for Critical Thinking, Sonoma State University, Critical Thinking: Basic Theory & Instructional Structures, Rohnert Park, California: The Foundation for Critical Thinking.
General References
Facione, Peter A. & Facione, Noreen C.: 1992, The California Critical Thinking Skills Test,Milbrae, California: The California Academic Press, Second Edition (updated) 1994.
Fawkes, Don: 2001, ’Analyzing the Scope of Critical Thinking Exams’, American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy, Spring.
Fawkes, Don, Adajian, Tom, Flage, Dan, Hoeltzel, Steven, Knorpp, Bill, O’Meara, Bill, and Weber, Dave: 2001, ’Examining The Exam: A Critical Look At The Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Exam’, Inquiry, Fall.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Disclosure: Three of the authors are engaged in producing and marketing a critical thinking test. Though this paper was written before any of us considered developing such a test, the reader should be informed. Each of the writers has exercised considerable care to avoid any bias, and we thank our independent reviewers for helping us in this regard as well.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fawkes, D., O’meara, B., Weber, D. et al. Examining the Exam: A Critical Look at The California Critical Thinking Skills Test. Sci Educ 14, 117–135 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-005-6181-4
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-005-6181-4