A Factor-Analytic Study of Critical Thinking

Abstract

Perhaps one of the first large scale attempts to teach was the Critical Thinking Project (Smith, Henderson, Swift, Ennis, Aschner, and Payette, in press) of the Illinois Curriculum Program Committee, which was launched in Septem ber, 1954. The teachers and project staff members responsible for the planning of this project conceiv ed of critical thinking as the process of evaluating arguments and assessing the way in which conclu sions are reached. Lists of critical thinking abili ties and items of knowledge were drawn up, and in the summer of 1954 a student handbook en t i tied Guide to Clear Thinking (Henderson, Smith, Swift, j and Aschner, 1954) was prepared. Nearly three thousand students in five Illinois high schools were | involved in this project. Approximately one-third of these students served as a control group. The remaining students were given instruction and prac tice in processes of critical thinking in connection I with the conventional subjects: English, social studj ies, science, and mathematics. In September, 1955, differences between the ex perimental and control groups were measured. Two standardized tests of critical thinking were selected for this purpose, the Watson-Glaser Critical Think ing Appraisal, Form Bm, and A Test of C ritical Thinking, Form G, prepared by the American Coun cil on Education (hereafter called the ACE test). As another evaluation technique the staff used _A Test on Principles of Critical Thinking, Form F_l 5, which was especially designed to d i s cover whether the students knew principles of critical thinking. | Various achievement tests were also administered. On the whole, the findings were not conclusive. Only some differences between experimental and control groups were statistically significant. One finding of particular interest was the low intercor relations obtained among the tests of critical think ing.