Development of a Scale to Measure the Critical Thinking Disposition of Medical Care Professionals

Abstract

Our aim was to develop the Critical Thinking Disposition Assessment (CTDA) scale to assess medical care professionals' or students' level of critical thinking disposition and to validate the psychometric properties of this instrument. A total of 775 medical care professionals and students agreed to respond to the survey instrument. Exploratory factor analysis extracted 3 factors; systematicity and analyticity, inquisitiveness and conversance, and maturity and skepticism, accounting for 63.40% of the variance. The final scale comprised 19 statements rated on a 7-point Likert scale. Reliability analysis produced Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from .86 to .94 for the 3 factors and the overall scale, indicating acceptable reliability for the instrument. The concurrent validity analysis was also conducted to compare the instrument with other measures. In light of these findings, the CTDA was found to be a valid and reliable instrument to measure the critical thinking disposition of medical care professionals and students.