Critical thinking skills of students in the baccalaureate program in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

پژوهش نامه مبانی تعلیم و تربیت

Article 5, Volume 011, Issue 2, March 2011   

Document Type: پژوهشی

DOI: 10.22067/fe.v11i2.2524

Authors

tahereh javidi^* ; Afsaneh Abdoli

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to evaluate students’ critical thinking at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. A total of 144 questionnaires were sent to undergraduate students to assess their Critical thinking skills. In this research, the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal has been used as of critical thinking’s tool that contains 80 item questions across a series of five test exercises and takes about 60 minutes to complete. Each item requires the application of analytic reasoning skills. Categories of The five exercises are: Drawing Inferences, Recognizing Assumptions, Argument Evaluation, Deductive Reasoning and Logical Interpretation A cross sectional method, T- Test and ANOVA were advantaged to analyze the data. The result indicates that that there is a significant difference between the first year University students’ critical thinking and the last year students’ CT. the research also shows that there is no significant difference between the students’ CT based on their sex and academic discipline.

Keywords

Critical thinking; Higher Education; Inferences; Recognizing Assumptions; Argument Evaluation; Deductive Reasoning and Logical Interpretation