Investigation of reliability, validity and normality Persian version of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test; Form B (CCTST)

Abstract

Background: To evaluate the effectiveness of the present educational programs in terms of students' achieving problem solving, decision making and critical thinking skills, reliable, valid and standard instrument are needed. Purposes: To Investigate the Reliability, validity and Norm of CCTST Form.B .The California Critical Thinking Skills Test contain 34 multi-choice questions with a correct answer in the jive Critical Thinking (CT) cognitive skills domain. Methods: The translated CCTST Form.B were given t0405 BSN nursing students ojNursing Faculties located in Tehran (Tehran, Iran and Shahid Beheshti Universities)that were selected in the through random sampling. In order to determine the face and content validity the test was translated and edited by Persian and English language professor and researchers. it was also confirmed by judgments of a panel of medical education experts and psychology professor's. CCTST reliability was determined with internal consistency and use of KR-20. The construct validity of the test was investigated with factor analysis and internal consistency and group difference. Results: The test coefficien for reliablity was 0.62. Factor Analysis indicated that CCTST has been formed from 5 factor (element) namely: Analysis, Evaluation, lriference, Inductive and Deductive Reasoning. Internal consistency method shows that All subscales have been high and positive correlation with total test score. Group difference method between nursing and philosophy students (n=50) indicated that there is meaningfUl difference between nursing and philosophy students scores (t=-4.95,p=0.OOO1). Scores percentile norm also show that percentile offifty scores related to 11 raw score and 95, 5 percentiles are related to 17 and 6 raw score ordinary. Conclusions: The Results revealed that the questions test is sufficiently reliable as a research tool, and all subscales measure a single construct (Critical Thinking) and are able to distinguished the persons with different level's CT. Keywords: Critical Thinking, Nursing Education, Nursing Students, Reliability, validity, Normality, CCTST