Jane S. Halonen
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You may not have the luxury of being able to address your critical thinking concerns
through performance assessment. If you must use objective measures, a variety of
psychometrically solid strategies exists, and these are listed in Appendix 4.
Big Idea #9: Many variables should influence your choice of measurement strategy.
Just how do you pick the right kind of measure for gauging your success in helping students
to become critical thinkers? Resources, time, expertise, student motivation, and intrinsic
enthusiasm for measurement should all influence how a given department or faculty
member adopts a specific formal strategy. But one final take-home point remains ...
Big Idea #10: There is no single perfect solution to the challenge of measuring critical thinking.
Whatever measure you choose will be an imperfect representation of what your students
can do. Despite imperfection, we should move ahead. Psychology should embrace the
Figure 6.2. A student’s view of the risks involved in critical thinking. Taken from Halonen, J. S.
(1986). Teaching critical thinking in psychology (p. 165). Milwaukee, WI: Alverno College.