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Programmatic Assessment of Critical Thinking
Assessing Critical Thinking in the Psychology Major
In addition to assessing critical thinking of our psychology students engaged in general
education coursework, we also test critical thinking during the end of our students’ under-
graduate careers. These senior assessments focus on the KSAs of the psychology major. The
instruments we use for these assessments focus on critical thinking as well as other impor-
tant learning goals and outcomes for the psychology major (see Halonen et al., 2002).
Assessment of Critical Thinking Using Behavioral Checklists
The Academic Skills-Experience Inventory (ASI; Kruger & Zechmeister, 2001) measures
10 skill areas relevant to the goals of a psychology major and liberal arts education. Each
skill area has 9 questions, so the entire scale consists of 90 questions. Each question
describes a specific behavior, and the student must select either “applies to me” or “does
not apply to me.” Although this 90-item scale is long, students are able to fill it out quickly
because they are making only a dichotomous choice for each item.
One of the 10 skill areas is critical thinking/problem solving. The critical thinking com-
ponent has 3 sections: evaluating research studies, evaluating costs/benefits, and taking
human biases into account when making decisions. Each of these sections has 3 items. For
example, one of the items relevant to evaluating research studies is “I have written a cri-
tique of a published research study.” The possible range on this scale is 0–9 with higher
numbers reflecting that the student has engaged in more of these activities. Kruger and
Zechmeister (2001) reported that seniors scored significantly higher on the critical think-
ing items than first-year students as a result of their educational experiences.
We have found this instrument helpful for measuring critical thinking for several rea-
sons. First, we are able to compare the critical thinking scores of our seniors to students
from other schools. Based on Kruger and Zechmeister’s (2001) article, we know that psy-
chology seniors at JMU (M = 4.91, SD = 1.67) report similar critical thinking experiences
as the students at Loyola University of Chicago (M = 4.59, SD = 2.06), t(232) = .41, p > .05.
Second, we are able to measure whether changes to our major will have an impact on the
critical thinking scores. We have recently modified our psychology curriculum. Because
we have been using the ASI for several years, we will be able to determine if these changes
to our program impact students’ critical thinking scores. Because this is just the first year
of the new major, it is too early to tell if the new curriculum will increase students’ critical
thinking experiences. However, we do have an assessment strategy in place to measure any
changes that may occur.
Assessment of Critical Thinking Using Student Reflections
In 2002, the Task Force on Undergraduate Psychology Major Competencies appointed by
the Board of Educational Affairs of the American Psychological Association published