Critical Thinking and its Relationship to the Knowledge Integration and Familiarity among University Students during Open-Book Tests

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the relationship between critical thinking and knowledge integration and familiarity among university students during the open book tests. Also identifying levels of critical, Knowledge familiar and integrating and critical thinking among university students. A targeted sample of 239 students had been drawn from the Psychology (division in the first, third, and fourth teams), Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences, Port Said University. The study relied on practical and social problems related to the courses taught to students. The study prepared the Critical Thinking Scale, Familiarity, and Knowledge Integration Scale. Use exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to verify the validity. The instruments had acceptable stability according to the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. The results confirmed the existence of a high positive correlation between critical thinking and knowledge integration and familiarity. This means that the learner has become more professional and experienced in dealing with and criticizing problems. And the studied knowledge became more familiar and integrated due to the formation and qualification of the knowledge structure with the continuous application of open-book tests. The levels of critical thinking, familiarity and integration of knowledge were high among the sample students according to descriptive statistics indices.