Guidelines for The Assessment of Students’ Critical  Thinking: A Proposal for Discussion

Proceedings of The 5th International Academic Conference on Education

Year: 2022

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Guidelines for The Assessment of Students’ Critical  Thinking: A Proposal for Discussion

Mireia Vendrell-Morancho

ABSTRACT: 

Critical Thinking (CT), such as the ability to evaluate information or solve problems is widely identified as an essential competency for undergraduate students. The positive impact CT has on students’ life spheres has encouraged educators to design instructional programs that focus on acquiring and transferring such abilities. Nonetheless, capturing students’ CT is riddled with several challenges and limitations: educators are encouraged to teach and assess CT without a clear understanding of how CT is understood and how it can be properly measured. This study aims to propose some general guidelines for the assessment of CT. To that end, a systematic literature search was conducted in Eric, Scopus, Psicodoc, and REDIB, which resulted in the inclusion of eighty-three articles. From the identification of the strengths and good practices of these articles, some general guidelines are proposed. These are divided into four phases, which relate to (1) construct definition; (2) tool election or design; (3) application; and (4) data collection and interpretation. Finally, the implications and limitations of this study are discussed.

keywords: assessment, critical thinking, measurement, students.