disposition for critical thinking

12 Important Dispositions for Critical Thinking

A student-educator negotiated model facilitated through interactive management..

Posted April 5, 2019

Critical thinking (CT) consists of a number of skills and dispositions that, when used appropriately, increases the chances of producing a logical solution to a problem or a valid conclusion to an argument (Dwyer, Hogan, & Stewart, 2012, 2014, 2015). Though the skill aspect of CT is well researched, there is significantly less research focused on the dispositional aspect, which refers to an inclination, tendency or willingness to perform a given thinking skill (Dwyer, 2017; Facione, Facione & Giancarlo, 1997; Ku, 2009; Norris, 1992; Siegel, 1999; Valenzuela, Nieto & Saiz, 2011). Different types of CT dispositions (CTDs) are essential for understanding how we think and how we can make our thinking better, in both academic settings and everyday situations (Siegel, 1999).

In research by my colleagues and I (Dwyer et al., 2016), we investigated how students and educators conceptualize CT using interactive management (Warfield, 1994). The study highlighted the value of consulting with both students and educators in the development of consensus-based models regarding CTDs. While it may be useful for educators to begin with expert definitions of CT, these definitions may be perceived by educators as overly diverse and/or complex, and they may not align with what students or a broader array of educators consider important. Our research identified and structured a range of dispositions, which fit into the following 12 categories, with results revealing that the most influential of CTDs were inquisitiveness, open-mindedness and self-efficacy , whereas the CTDs most enhanced by other dispositions were reflection and resourcefulness.

1. Inquisitiveness refers to an inclination to be curious; desire to fully understand something, discover the answer to a problem and accept that the full answer may not yet be known; and make sure to understand a task and its associated requirements, available options and limits.

2. Open-mindedness refers to an inclination to be cognitively flexible and avoid rigidity in thinking; to tolerate divergent or conflicting views and treat all viewpoints alike, prior to subsequent analysis and evaluation; to detach from one’s own beliefs and consider, seriously, points of view other to one’s own without bias or self-interest; to be open to feedback by accepting positive feedback and to not reject criticism or constructive feedback without thoughtful consideration; to amend existing knowledge in light of new ideas and experiences; and to explore such new, alternative or ‘unusual’ ideas.

3. Self-efficacy refers to the tendency to be confident and trust in one’s own reasoned judgments; to acknowledge one’s sense of self while considering problems and arguments (i.e., knowledge, heuristics , biases, culture and environment); to be confident and believe in one’s ability to receive and internalize resulting feedback positively and constructively; to be self-efficacious in leading others in the rational resolution of problems; and recognize that good reasoning is the key to living a rational life.

4. Attentiveness refers to a willingness to focus and concentrate; to be aware of surroundings, context, consequences and potential obstacles; to have the ‘full picture.'

5. Intrinsic goal orientation refers to being positive, competitive and enthusiastic towards a goal, task, topic of focus and, if not the topic itself, the process of learning new things; to search for answers as a result of internal motivation , rather than an external, extrinsic reward system.

6. Perseverance refers to being resilient and motivated to persist at working through complex tasks and the associated frustration and difficulty inherent in such tasks, without giving up; the motivation to get the job done correctly; the desire to progress.

7. Organization refers to an inclination to be orderly, systematic and diligent with information, resources and time when determining and maintaining focus on the task, conclusion, problem or question, while simultaneously considering the total situation and being able to present the resulting information in a fashion likewise, for purposes of achieving some desired end.

8. Truth-seeking refers to having a desire for knowledge; to seek and offer both reasons and objections in an effort to inform and to be well-informed; a willingness to challenge popular beliefs and social norms by asking questions (of oneself and others); to be honest and objective about pursuing the truth even if the findings do not support one’s self-interest or preconceived beliefs or opinions; and to change one’s mind about an idea as a result of the desire for truth.

9. Creativity refers to a tendency to visualize and generate ideas; and to think differently than usual. Notably, the inclusion of creativity may reflect the importance of inference as a CT skill (i.e., the drawing of a reasonable conclusion) with respect to idea generation, as well as ‘divergence’ (see Dwyer et al. [2016] for more detail), which may more accurately refer to traits associated with open-mindedness (e.g., to amend existing knowledge in light of new ideas and experiences and explore such new, alternative or ‘unusual’ ideas) than to what may be implied as ‘thinking outside the box’ here. These potential caveats are included given that, though creative and critical thinking often get ‘lumped together’ as buzzwords, the two processes have just as many differences as similarities (see Strange Bedfellows: Creativity & Critical Thinking ). CT and creative thinking are very different entities if you treat the latter as something similar to lateral thinking or ‘thinking outside the box’; however, if we conceptualize creative thinking as synthesizing information for the purpose of inferring a logical and feasible conclusion or solution, then it becomes complementary and useful to CT.

10. Skepticism refers to an inclination to challenge ideas; to withhold judgment before engaging all the evidence or when the evidence and reasons are insufficient; to take a position and be able to change position when the evidence and reasons are sufficient; and to look at findings from various perspectives.

11. Reflection refers to an inclination to reflect on one’s behaviour, attitudes and opinions, as well as the motivations behind these; to distinguish what is known and what is not, as well as limited knowledge or uncertainty; to approach decision-making with a sense that some problems are necessarily ill-structured, some situations permit more than one plausible conclusion or solution and judgments must often be made based on analysis and evaluation, as well as feasibility, standards, contexts and evidence that preclude certainty.

12. Resourcefulness refers to the willingness to utilize existing internal resources to resolve problems; to search for additional external resources in order to apply analogies and resolve problems; to switch between solution processes and/or knowledge to seek new ways/information to solve a problem; to make the best of the resources available; to adapt and/or improve if something goes wrong; and to think about how and why it went wrong.

Dwyer, C.P. (2017). Critical thinking: Conceptual perspectives and practical guidelines. UK: Cambridge University Press.

Dwyer, C. P., Hogan, M. J., & Stewart, I. (2012). An evaluation of argument mapping as a method of enhancing critical thinking performance in e-learning environments. Metacognition and Learning, 7, 219–244.

Dwyer, C. P., Hogan, M. J., & Stewart, I. (2014). An integrated critical thinking framework for the 21st century. Thinking Skills & Creativity, 12, 43–52.

Dwyer, C. P., Hogan, M. J., & Stewart, I. (2015). The evaluation of argument mapping-infused critical thinking instruction as a method of enhancing reflective judgment performance. Thinking Skills & Creativity, 16, 11–26.

Dwyer, C. P., Harney, O., Hogan, M. J., & Kavanagh, C. (2016). Facilitating a Student-Educator Conceptual Model of Dispositions towards Critical Thinking through Interactive Management. Educational Technology & Research, doi: 10.1007/s11423-016-9460-7.

Facione, P. A., Facione, N. C., & Giancarlo, C. A. (1997). Setting expectations for student learning: New directions for higher education. Millbrae: California Academic Press.

Ku, K. Y. L. (2009). Assessing students’ critical thinking performance: Urging for measurements using multi-response format. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 4(1), 70–76.

Norris, S. P. (Ed.). (1992). The generalizability of critical thinking: Multiple perspectives on an educational ideal. New York: Teachers College Press.

Siegel, H. (1999). What (good) are thinking dispositions? Educational Theory, 49(2), 207–221.

Valenzuela, J., Nieto, A. M., & Saiz, C. (2011). Critical thinking motivational scale: A contribution to the study of relationship between critical thinking and motivation. Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 9(2), 823–848.

Warfield, J. N. (1994). A science of generic design: Managing complexity through systems design (2nd ed.). Salinas: Intersystems.

Christopher Dwyer, Ph.D., is a lecturer at the Technological University of the Shannon in Athlone, Ireland.

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4 What (Good) Are Thinking Dispositions?

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Recent work on critical thinking and related matters, by philosophers, psychologists, and other educational scholars, has made free use of the notion of thinking dispositions . What are thinking dispositions? In this paper I offer an account of them, according to which thinking dispositions are properties of thinkers: general tendencies, propensities, or inclinations to think in particular ways in particular circumstances . In developing this “realistic” account of dispositions, according to which dispositions are genuine properties of thinkers, I argue that thinking dispositions are neither equivalent nor reducible to rules or behaviors, and that they can be genuinely explanatory. I hope that by answering these philosophical questions concerning thinking dispositions it will be possible to appreciate more fully their proper place in educational theory and practice.

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Development and validation of the critical thinking disposition inventory for Chinese medical college students (CTDI-M)

Xiaoxia wang.

1 Department of Basic Psychology, School of Psychology, Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400038 China

Xiaoxiao Sun

2 Department of Psychological Nursing, School of Nursing, Army Medical University, Chongqing, 400038 China

Tianhao Huang

Renqiang he, associated data.

The datasets within the current study are available upon request from the corresponding author.

This study aimed to develop and conduct psychometric testing of the Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory to measure the critical thinking disposition of Chinese medical college students.

The study was conducted in two stages: (a) item generation, reliability analysis and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and (b) confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and testing of psychometric properties (Cronbach’ s alpha, test-retest reliability and convergent validity). The subjects included 1035 Chinese medical college students. The test-retest reliability of the instrument was determined at a two-week interval ( n  = 61). A general linear regression model was developed to examine the predictive effects of gender, age and major on CT disposition. The data were analysed with SPSS 22.0 and Amos 21.0 during item development and the reliability and validity analyses. Vista was utilized for parallel analysis during the principal axis analysis.

Eighteen final items were sorted into 3 factors, which were identified as “ Open-mindedness ”, “ Systematicity/Analyticity ” and “ Truth-seeking ”, with cumulative variance of 41.37, 46.00 and 49.59%, respectively. The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.924, and the factors’ alphas ranged from 0.824 to 0.862. The correlational analysis indicated significant correlations between the subscales of the CTDI-CM and the total scores of the CTDI-CV, indicating modest evidence for the convergent validity of the CTDI-CM. Gender, age and education significantly predicted the CT disposition of Chinese medical students. Open-mindedness and Systematicity/Analyticity were higher for medical students than for nursing students.

Conclusions

This study presents a reliable and valid instrument for clinical thinking disposition. Future studies should explore other predictive factors of CT dispositions (e.g., cognitive/motivational) and criterion validity.

Critical thinking is increasingly needed to produce adaptive and flexible learners in the information age (Dwyer, Hogan, & Stewart, 2014). The importance of being ‘critical’ for medical students and practitioners has also been increasingly emphasized [ 1 ]. The Delphi Report presented in 1990 by experts from the US and Canada defined critical thinking (CT) as the ability to apply cognitive skills (interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation, and self-regulation) and the disposition towards CT (being open-minded or intellectually honest) [ 2 , 3 ]. C ritical thinking has frequently been referred to as individuals’ cognitive ability to think and make correct decisions independently and to utilize rational/logical thought [ 4 , 5 ].

Increasing attention has been paid to the individual differences in critical thinking disposition, which is defined as the tendency or attitude to utilize a particular skill voluntarily and the willingness to make the effort to apply it [ 6 ], or, simply put, the attitude towards critical thinking. Dispositions towards critical thinking are vital to critical-thinking performance [ 7 ] and professional clinical judgement [ 8 ]. Practically, both disposition and ability are necessary for critical thinking [ 9 ]. The assessment of CT dispositions may help to identify targets to promote critical thinking through training programmes in both professional and educational contexts.

The most widely used measurement tool in China for this purpose is the translated version of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) [ 10 , 11 ]. The CCTDI is designed for the general adult working population at all levels and for students in grades 10 and above. The CCTDI includes seven subscales: “ Inquisitiveness ”, “ Systematicity ”, “ Analyticity ”, “ Truth-seeking ”, “ Open-mindedness ”, “ Self-confidence ” and “ Maturity ” [ 12 ]. Yeh et al. translated the CCTDI into Chinese and administered it to a sample of nursing undergraduate students in Taiwan. Compared to the English CCTDI (alpha = 0.79), the overall alpha (0.71) of the Chinese CCTDI was inferior, and the internal consistencies (Cronbach’s α) of three subscales were inadequate ( Open-mindedness = 0.34, Analyticity = 0.40, and systematicity = 0.47 ) [ 11 ]. In addition, the content validity of these three subscales was moderate (CVI = 0.50 to 0.67) compared to the English CCTDI subscales (CVI = 0.82 to 1). Peng et al. developed a conceptually equivalent version of the CCTDI, the CTDI-CV (Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory-Chinese Version), which showed more satisfactory subscale alphas ranging from 0.54 to 0.77 and an overall alpha of 0.90. The CVIs for the “ Open-mindedness ”, “ Analyticity ” and “S ystematicity ” subscales were improved to 0.90–1. However, the Cronbach’s α ( Chinese CCDTI = 0.46, CTDI-CV = 0.57 ) and the CVI ( Chinese CCDTI = 0.70, CTDI-CV = 0.60 ) of the “ Maturity ” subscale were lower for both the Chinese CCTDI and the CTDI-CV than for the English CCTDI (alpha = .64, CVI = .90) [ 10 ]. In another translated Chinese version of the CCTDI for university students, the Cronbach’s α of the “ Open-mindedness” (0.39), “Systematicity” (0.43) and “ Maturity ” (0.45) subscales were also not satisfactory [ 13 ]. The conceptualizations and measurement of CT dispositions in the Chinese-speaking population merit further exploration.

An important factor that may explain the diversity of the psychometric characteristics of versions of the CCTDI is cultural sensitivity. According to a literature review, Asian students tend to show less critical thinking dispositions compared with students from non-Asian countries [ 14 – 16 ].

• Analyticity and Systematicity are the cognitive components of CT dispositions that are culturally sensitive. “ Analyticity ” means the use of evidence and the anticipation of possible consequences to resolve problems. “ Systematicity ” means being organized, focused and diligent in resolving problems. In comparison with American university students, the percentage of students with lower than moderate levels of “ Analyticity ” and “ Systematicity ” is greater in the Chinese population [ 13 ]. Specifically, for Chinese medical undergraduates, the average score for “ Systematicity ” was at the lowest level of all subscales of CT dispositions [ 17 ]. The Systematicity of Chinese nursing students was at a moderate level [ 10 ]. A previous study suggested that Western cultures tend to be analytic, whereas traditional Chinese societies tend to be holistic and synthetic, which is manifested in language [ 18 ], thinking models of medicine [ 19 ] and preferences for dialectical proverbs and dialectical resolution of social contradictions [ 20 ]. Since the cognitive components of CT dispositions are crucial for effective critical thinking, cultural differences in thinking patterns need to be considered in the context of Chinese culture.
• “ Inquisitiveness ”, “ Truth-seeking ” and “ Open-mindedness ” are the motivation components of CT dispositions. CT ability is presumed to be significantly related to learning motivation [ 21 ]. First, Inquisitiveness refers to the inclination to be curious and eager to learn knowledge that may not be of immediate use. This may encourage learners to engage in deep and creative reasoning [ 22 ]. Second, the average score for Truth-seeking was at the lowest level of all subscales of CT dispositions among Chinese medical undergraduates [ 17 ]. The Truth-seeking of Chinese nursing students was at a moderate level [ 10 ]. Asian university students tended to learn for pragmatic purposes compared to American university students, who tend to possess an attitude that values truth [ 23 ]. While Open-mindedness and Truth-seeking have been deemed important in good critical thinkers, only Truth-seeking significantly predicts Chinese students’ critical thinking performance, and their responses are more concerned with seeking solutions from authorities or preconceptions rather than seeking independent evidence or reasoning [ 24 ]. Third, in comparison with American university students, the proportion of students displaying a lower than moderate level of Open-mindedness is greater in the Chinese population [ 13 ]. Open-minded people in Asian culture may be more inclined to accept contradictory propositions and avoid social conflicts. These cultural diversities may explain the low internal consistency of “ Open-mindedness ” for the CCTDI in Chinese nursing students [ 11 ]. Therefore, the motivation components of CT dispositions should focus on these culturally sensitive traits and examine how these traits may influence medical performance.
• “ Self-confidence ” and “ Maturity ” are the personality components of CT dispositions. The Self-confidence subscale measures individuals’ confidence in their thinking and reasoning processes. Emotionally taxing situations, threats to self-identity (e.g., gender prejudice) or inappropriate priorities of values challenge the self-confidence of critical thinkers and impair their self-reflection ability [ 3 ]. Thus, Self-confidence is particularly important to CT dispositions. The Maturity scale assesses the disposition towards judicious decision-making and thus requires self-reflection, which develops gradually from adolescence to adulthood. Chinese students who exhibit a lower than moderate level of Maturity constitute a greater proportion compared with American university students [ 13 ]. More research is needed to develop specialized instruments for the Chinese context.

Empirically, critical thinking is valued both for nursing [ 25 ] and clinical expertise [ 4 ]. Critical thinking can improve diagnostic skills and reduce errors in management [ 4 ]. Critical thinking constitutes not only logical thinking ability but also problem-solving ability, which is content dependent [ 26 ]. For instance, CT enhances the capacity to transfer knowledge and skills obtained from the classroom to the clinical context [ 27 ]. As a result, CT skills have been emphasized by the Global Minimum Essential Requirements (GMER) as one of the seven student competence domains [ 28 ]. The competences contained in the GMER define the learning outcomes of medical graduates that are required for medical practice [ 29 ]. These domains have been assessed with an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) that defined competence in critical thinking and research as the ability to generate and test hypotheses with scientific methods [ 30 ]. Although critical thinking competencies are generic abilities, CT behaviours may be more effectively learned or taught in specific discipline settings [ 31 ]. Therefore, knowledge about the individual differences of CT dispositions specific to the medical discipline could facilitate the teaching of critical thinking. In contrast to the two Chinese versions of the CCTDI that were directed at nursing students only, the current study also included medical students during the development of the CT disposition assessment tool.

An instrument for measuring critical thinking dispositions developed independently for Chinese medical students aims to (1) increase the content validity of specific factors of CT disposition (i.e., Open-mindedness , Analyticity , Systematicity and Maturity ) and (2) identify those traits with greater cultural differences and evaluate the criterion validity of their measurement.

Participants and procedures

Phase 1 development and factor analysis of the critical thinking disposition inventory for chinese medical college students (ctdi-cm).

The (semi-)open-ended and closed-ended questionnaire of Critical Thinking Disposition for Chinese medical college students (CTDI-CM)

Note: The items in italics represent the semi-open-ended questionnaire of CTDI-CM (61 items). The items in bold represent the final version of CTDI-CM (18 items)

• A total of 199 undergraduate students (clinical medicine = 138, nursing = 61) and 20 educational/ psychological specialists were recruited. A 97-item half-open-ended questionnaire resulting from the responses of the open-ended questionnaire as well as a complementary open-ended question (“Please list other dispositions not included in the questionnaire________.”) was completed. The participants were required to rate each item in terms of its relevance (yes/no) to the content of CT dispositions. Ultimately, 209 surveys were deemed valid and analysed (male: n  = 99, age = 23.26 ± 9.72; female: n  = 110, age = 23.45 ± 8.41). The items ( n  = 61) endorsed by more than 50% of respondents as reflecting the conceptualization of CT disposition were identified and entered into a closed-ended questionnaire (Table ​ (Table1 1 ).
• A total of 431 undergraduate students (clinical medicine = 299, preventive medicine/medical laboratory science = 71, nursing = 61) and 20 educational/psychological specialists were recruited. A closed-ended 61-item questionnaire of CT dispositions was completed (Table ​ (Table1). 1 ). Participants were required to complete the questionnaire on a five-point Likert-type scale (1 = disagree strongly; 2 = disagree somewhat; 3 = neutral; 4 = agree somewhat; 5 = agree strongly). Ultimately, 442 surveys were deemed valid and analysed (male: n  = 342, age = 21.35 ± 5.41; female: n  = 100; age = 24.08 ± 8.61). Among this sample, 61 participants (majoring in nursing) completed the scale at a two-week interval. An 18-item questionnaire resulted from exploratory factor analysis (EFA).

Phase 2 confirmation of factor structure of the CTDI-CM

Confirmatory factor analysis (cfa).

An independent sample of 441 undergraduate students and 641 medical graduate students (age = 26.73 ± 3.96) (enrolled in 2012) was recruited. The aims of the phase 2 data collection were (1) to confirm the factor structure of the 18-item CT disposition scale for Chinese medical students (CTDI-CM) and (2) to examine the generalization capacity of the CTDI-CM. Participants were required to complete the questionnaire on a five-point Likert-type scale (1 = disagree strongly; 2 = disagree somewhat; 3 = neutral; 4 = agree somewhat; 5 = agree strongly). A total of 420 surveys were deemed valid for undergraduate students (clinical medicine = 278, preventive medicine/medical laboratory science = 81, nursing = 61) (male: n  = 323, age = 20.50 ± 1.08; female: n  = 97, age = 21.17 ± 1.43), and 641 surveys were deemed valid for graduate students (major not recorded during data collection due to technical problem) (male: n  = 397, age = 27.09 ± 3.94; female: n  = 244, age = 26.16 ± 3.95).

Convergent validity

A total of 289 medical undergraduate students (enrolled in 2014) (age = 19.57 ± 1.63) were recruited (male: n  = 264, age = 19.63 ± 1.67; female: n  = 23, age = 18.87 ± 0.81). Three versions of the CT disposition scales (CTDI-CM, CTDI-CV, CCTDI) were completed to estimate the convergent validity of the CTDI-CM. Only comparisons between the CTDI-CM and the CTDI-CV were reported due to the lack of a scoring system for the CCTDI.

The current study was approved by the ethics committee of the university. The data collection in each phase was conducted after the enrolment of each student (from April to June) and before the school year began (Fig.  1 ). This was intended to alleviate the learning effects of college course studies and academic training on CT disposition. Verbal informed consent was obtained from each participant prior to the surveys. All of the participants’ information was confidential, and the participants could withdraw from the study at any time on a voluntary basis. The sample size had sufficient power to detect significant differences revealed by the power analysis.

Development of CTDI-CM and reliability/validity steps

Statistical analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 for Windows (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA).

Development of CTDI-CM and item analysis

The remaining 18 items (Table ​ (Table1) 1 ) survived the two criteria of item analysis. (1) Item discriminability . A critical ratio (CR) index was used to quantify the difference of each item for the 27% highest-scoring group versus the 27% lowest-scoring group. Two independent-sample t tests with a CR value exceeding 3 indicated good item discriminability [ 32 ]. (2) Item homogeneity test . Item-total statistics were computed to examine the content homogeneity between items, with a value over 0.3 indicating that the item correlated well with the total scale [ 33 ].

Reliability analysis of the CTDI-CM

(1) For internal consistency, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated for the scores of each subscale and the total scale based on the assumption that the CTDI-CM measures the single trait of CT disposition. The questionnaire had substantial internal consistency according to the following rules of thumb: > 0.9 as excellent, > 0.8 as good, > 0.7 as acceptable, > 0.6 as questionable, > 0.5 as poor and < 0.5 as unacceptable [ 34 ]. (2) Item-to-total correlations were examined with the recommended value of up to 0.3 [ 35 ]. (3) Test-retest reliability was analysed by the intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) with a two-week interval, which was long enough to avoid confounding effects of practice and allow for a natural change in the construct. ICC provides an estimate of the reproducibility (stability) of the assessments according to the following criteria: > 0.6 indicates good reliability and > 0.74 indicates excellent reliability [ 36 ].

Validity analysis of the CTDI-CM

Exploratory factor analysis (efa).

Principal axis factor analysis was performed to identify the latent variables of CT dispositions. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity were examined for the adequacy of the factor analysis. Factors were extracted based on Kaiser’s (1960) eigenvalues-greater-than-1 rule and the scree test after a direct oblimin rotation solution. The validation procedures were implemented with SPSS 22.0. To replicate these results, we also conducted parallel analysis, which is recommended as a statistically based and more validated procedure for determining the number of components [ 37 ]. The parallel analysis was conducted with ViSta (visual statistics system) ( https://www.uv.es/visualstats/Book/DownloadBook.html ) [ 38 ]. Parallel analysis using Monte Carlo simulations of permutations of 1000 randomly generated datasets was conducted. The eigenvalue of the raw data exceeding the eigenvalue of the 95th percentile (and mean) of random data could be extracted as a factor [ 37 ].

CFA analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Amos 21.0. CMIN/DF(≈2), GFI (goodness-of-fit index) ≥ 0.90, AGFI (adjusted goodness-of-fit index) ≥ 0.80, CFI (comparative fit index) ≥ 0.90 and 0.05 ≤ RMSEA (root-mean-square error of approximation) ≤ 0.08 are typically considered to indicate goodness of the model fit [ 39 ].

The intercorrelations among the scores of the subscales of the CTDI-CV and the CTDI-CM were computed. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was estimated, with a significance level of p  < 0.05 for statistical testing. Pearson’s r with a positive value greater than 0.70 is recommended (Terwee et al., 2007). To replicate the results, we also performed regression analyses for convergent validity with the CTDI-CM subscales as the predictors and the CTDI-CV total score as the outcome variable, with a positive beta coefficient of 0.40–0.59 as recommended [ 40 ].

GLM analysis of CT dispositions of Chinese medical college students

The general linear regression model (model 1) was utilized to estimate the significant predictive factor of CT dispositions, with gender (male = 1; female = 2), age and education (undergraduate student = 1; graduate student = 2) as independent variables and the subscale scores of the CTDI-CM ( Open-mindedness , Systematicity/Analyticity , Truth-seeking ) as dependent variables. The information on major for graduate students was omitted during the data collection. Thus, we only report the comparison between the two majors (medical vs. nursing) in undergraduate students.

Item and reliability analysis

We obtained an 18-item questionnaire on Chinese medical college students’ critical thinking dispositions. Item analyses showed that the items of the CTDI-M were recognized by the respondents as relevant to CT disposition. Additionally, these items could discriminate those with higher versus lower levels of CT disposition (Fig.  2 ) ( Ps  < 0.003, Bonferroni corrected).

Item discriminability analysis of CTDI-CM (between-group comparison: higher versus lower CT dispositions)

The item-total analysis confirmed the homogeneity of content among items (Table  2 ). The results also showed that the questionnaire had excellent internal consistency (0.776~0.965) and two-week test-retest reliability of the CDTI-CM (0.808~0.965) (Table  3 ).

Item-Total Statistics of CTDI-CM

Reliability analysis of CTDI-CM

** p  < 0.01 (2-tailed), Pearson correlation

Validity analysis

The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy was 0.946, which was greater than 0.5 (and close to one), indicating satisfactory factor analysis. Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity (χ 2  = 3410.42, P  < 0.001) (less than 0.05) suggested the appropriateness of the factor analysis model. The principal axis factor analysis identified a three-factor model, with the eigenvalues of 3 factors exceeding one (Table  4 ). The scree test confirmed the three-factor model of CT dispositions (Fig.  3 ). The first factor ( Open-mindedness ) explained 41.37% of the accumulated variance with seven items (with an eigenvalue of 7.95), which indicated an open attitude and willingness to listen to and consider other people’s ideas and suggestions before arriving at conclusions. The second factor ( Systematicity/Analyticity ) explained 46.00% of the accumulated variance with six items (with an eigenvalue of 1.32), which indicated the traits of being painstaking and careful and demonstrating effective decision-making and problem-solving. The third factor ( Truth-seeking ) explained 49.59% of the accumulated variance with five items (with an eigenvalue of 1.12), which indicated the state of active curiosity, active engagement in thinking, and avoiding the negative effects of mental state. To replicate these results, three factors were extracted through parallel analysis after comparison of the actual data eigenvalues with the eigenvalues extracted from random data (Fig. ​ (Fig.4). 4 ). Additionally, CFA indicated the goodness of the three-factor model fit: CMIN/DF (2.103), GFI (0.930 ≥ 0.90), CFI (0.956 ≥ 0.90), AGFI (0.909 ≥ 0.80) and RMSEA (0.05 ≤ 0.051 ≤ 0.08).

Factor Loadings of Each Item of CTDI-CM (Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory for Chinese medical students)

Note. principal axis factor analysis, direct oblimin rotation method

Scree plot of principal axis factor analysis of CTDI-CM

Parallel analysis for factor analysis of CTDI-CM

The convergent validity was examined by correlating the subscales of the CTDI-CM with the CTDI-CV. Open-mindedness on the CTDI-CM was positively correlated with Maturity and Self-confidence on the CTDI-CV (r = 0.170, P  < 0.005, n  = 282). The Systematicity/Analyticity of the CTDI-CM was positively correlated with self-confidence (r = 0.215, P  < 0.001, n = 282) on the CTDI-CV and negatively correlated with Inquisitiveness on the CTDI-CV (r = − 0.219, P  < 0.001, n  = 284). Truth-seeking on the CTDI-CM was positively correlated with self-confidence on the CTDI-CV (r = 0.200, P  < 0.005, n  = 280) and negatively correlated with Inquisitiveness (r = − 0.318, P  < 0.001) and Analyticity (r = − 0.129, P  < 0.05, n  = 179) on the CTDI-CV. However, there was no significant correlation between the total scores of the CTDI-CV and the CTDI-CM (r = 0.028, P  = 0.643) (Table  5 ). The VIF (2.237, 3.755 and 3.630) and tolerance scores (0.447, 0.266 and 0.275) indicated no multicollinearity among the predictors.

Inter-correlations among the scores of subscales of CTDI-CV and CTDI-CM a

Notes: * p  < .05; ** p  < .01

a CTDI-CV (Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory-Chinese Version)

b CTDI-CM (Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory for Chinese medical students)

The predictors of CT dispositions: gender, age, education and major

The multivariate general linear model (GLM) (model 1) indicated that education significantly predicted three CT dispositions ( Open-mindedness , Systematicity/Analyticity , and Truth-seeking ) ( P  < 0.001, partial η 2  = 0.023, 0.033, 0.034) (Table  6 ). Similarly, age ( P  < 0.001, partial η 2  = 0.021, 0.014, 0.013) and gender ( P  < 0.001, partial η 2  = 0.014, 0.013, 0.012) significantly predicted the CT dispositions of medical students. Furthermore, an independent-sample t-test between medical and nursing students revealed that the mean scores for Open-mindedness and Systematicity/Analyticity were higher for medical students than for nursing students (Table  7 ).

Multiple regression coefficients of the independent variables (subscales of CTDI-CM) and the dependent variable (CDTI-CV scale)

Note: N  = 305. * P  < 0.05, ** P  < 0.001

Comparison of mean scores of Critical Thinking Dispositions between medical and nursing students (mean ± SD)

Note: a p  < 0.01 (2-tailed), independent sample t-test (medical vs. nursing students)

This study provided a preliminary instrument to measure the critical thinking dispositions of Chinese medical college students and presented its psychometric properties. The critical thinking dispositions of Chinese medical college students include Open-mindedness , Systematicity/Analyticity and Truth-seeking . Open-mindedness targets the openness to different viewpoints and possibilities before making a decision. Systematicity/Analyticity involves values such as fairness and truth and the skills to strive for sound and unbiased judgements. Truth-seeking refers to the enthusiasm for true knowledge and active engagement in thinking. The present study revealed that the Chinese version of the CDTI-CM for medical college students showed acceptable psychometric properties.

Comparison among different versions of inventories for critical thinking dispositions

Since non-cognitive factors may have a great impact on participants’ critical thinking, such as culture and motivation [ 41 ], we compared the psychometric properties of the CTDI-CM with the Chinese CCTDI (California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory) [ 11 ] and the CTDI-CV (Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory-Chinese Version) [ 10 ], which were developed to be conceptually or semantically equivalent to the original CCTDI, respectively. While the Chinese CCTDI verified construct validity for the Truth-seeking, Open-mindedness, Systematicity and Maturity subscales [ 11 ], the content validity (alpha = 0.34) of Open-mindedness for the Chinese CCTDI was less satisfactory than the current study (alpha = 0.86). Additionally, the criterion validity analysis revealed that Open-mindedness on the CTDI-CV was irrelevant to the three factors of the CTDI-CM. Thus, the content validity of the CTDI-CM is different from that of the CTDI-CV. Open-mindedness (CTDI-CM) means being open to divergent views and prudent in decision making and, most importantly, not being submissive to authority. By contrast, Open-mindedness (CTDI-CV) addresses the tolerance of divergent world views/cultures and readiness to monitor one’s own cognitive bias. The attitude towards authorities may differentiate the content of the two measurements. Indirect evidence showed that Chinese undergraduate nursing students are not as open-minded as their American student counterparts [ 42 ] and have ambivalent attitudes towards this disposition [ 43 ]. Chinese students, as obedient learners, may be more submissive to their teachers and dependent on rules, which may hinder their willingness to be open-minded [ 44 ]. Consequently, the inclination towards open-mindedness may lead to more solid decision-related reasoning and prevent nurses from making medical errors when they implement doctors’ clinical decisions. Therefore, the content of the Open-mindedness factor of the CTDI-CM may be more suitable to detect the potential inclination of these individuals.

Furthermore, the results provided only modest support for the convergent validity of the CTDI-CM with the CTDI-CV. (1) Open-mindedness on the CTDI-CM is significantly correlated with Maturity on the CTDI-CV. A plausible explanation is that open-mindedness may depend on self-reflection, which shows different developmental trajectories between young adults of different cultures. However, the developmental characteristics of Open-mindedness merit further exploration. (2) Systematicity/Analyticity and Truth-seeking on the CTDI-CM were positively related to self-confidence on the CTDI-CV and negatively related to Inquisitiveness on the CTDI-CV. The latter result may reflect the different emphases of Inquisitiveness (CTDI-CV) and Truth-seeking (CTDI-CM). Inquisitiveness represents eagerness to explore the unknown and interest in mechanisms behind phenomena, while Truth-seeking and Systematicity/Analyticity measure cognitive operations following informal and formal logical rules. Therefore, the motivation aspect of CT dispositions was less emphasized in the CTDI-CM than in the CTDI-CV, which explains the inverse relationship between the two groups of factors. Chinese philosophy and Confucius’ teaching emphasize thinking as reflection in the context of relationships and identification with the interests of the whole [ 44 ], which may help to explain the negative relationship between Inquisitiveness (CTDI-CV) and Systematicity/Analyticity (CTDI-CM).

Compared with a previous study [ 11 ], the test-retest analysis of the CTDI for medical students yielded more stable results across two assessment occasions (2 weeks apart) in the current study. All correlations were statistically significant, ranging from 0.808 to 0.965 with an overall correlation of 0.881. In addition, the results supported the internal consistency reliability of the Chinese version of the CTDI for medical students, which performed better than the two Chinese versions of the CCTDI [ 10 , 11 ]. These results confirm the current inventory as a reliable instrument for measuring the critical thinking disposition.

The predictors of CT dispositions

In health care, medicine and nursing may both require high critical thinking dispositions, which can lead to increased quality of care and better treatment outcomes. Our results suggest that medical students performed better on Open-mindedness and Systematicity/Analyticity than nursing students, which contrasts with previous findings. A survey conducted with the Chinese version of the CTDI (CTDI-CV) indicated that general performance for critical thinking ability in medicine and nursing was positive (overall score > 280) [ 10 ]. Dispositional differences using the CCTDI among several majors [(practice disciplines, i.e., nursing, education, business) and nonpractice disciplines (i.e., English, history, psychology)] were found in a previous study, with nursing students achieving among the highest scores [ 45 ]. Another study found that the average scores for the CTDI-CV and Analyticity in nursing were higher than those of medical students [ 46 ]. Due to the imbalance of the sample size of nursing versus medical students, further studies are needed to explore the differences in CT dispositions among majors.

Limitations

There are limitations of the current study that await further exploration. First, direct comparison of three Chinese versions of the critical thinking disposition inventory should be considered. Furthermore, due to the limitations of time and resources, we did not obtain external measures of the constructs, such as academic or professional performance, which should be addressed in the future to improve the criterion validity. Second, like most studies on critical thinking disposition, the current study was descriptive without analysing the causes of different critical thinking dispositions across cultures, such as teaching and learning strategies. Further studies may utilize active learning approaches such as problem-based learning (PBL) [ 47 , 48 ] and intervention programmes that target motivation components, such as self-awareness and mindfulness [ 9 ], to confirm the effectiveness and validity of the CDTI-CM. Third, we mainly focused on demographic variables that may affect the critical thinking disposition. More studies are necessary to broaden the understanding of other relevant factors (e.g., motivational and cognitive variables) of the CT disposition. Finally, the self-reported disposition may be subject to demand characteristics and social desirability, which are common to CT disposition scales. Future studies require the development of more reliable tests, such as behavioural and cognitive tasks (e.g., a cognitive reflection test, which can measure Analyticity ), and comparison of these different measures of critical thinking.

The current study developed a questionnaire (CTDI-CM) to evaluate the critical thinking dispositions of Chinese medical students. The CTDI-CM includes three factors, Open-mindedness , Systematicity/Analyticity and Truth-seeking , which measure the motivation and cognitive components of the CT dispositions of medical college students. The CTDI-CM was confirmed to be a reliable and valid CT measurement. Age, gender and major were significant predictors of the CT dispositions of Chinese medical college students.

Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful for the comments of Dr. Mark Battersby to the manuscript. In addition, we appreciate for the helpful discussions with Dr. Dongping Gao during preparation of the manuscript.

This study was supported by a grant from the Medical Education Branch of Chinese Medical Association and the Medical Education Professional Committee of Chinese Association of Higher Education in 2010 (2010-02-33), the project of teaching reform research of Army Medical University (2014B06) and the Project of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training for College Students (201590031003).

Availability of data and materials

Abbreviations, authors’ contributions.

XXW made substantial contributions to the study design and conception, analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. XXS made substantial contributions to the data collection and interpretation. THH made substantial contributions to data collection and interpretation and revised the manuscript critically. RQH made substantial contributions to the data collection, analysis and interpretation. WNH made substantial contributions to the data collection, analysis and interpretation. LZ developed the study design and made substantial contributions to the study conception. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The project and the informed consent procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of Army Medical University. The consent procedures included the following items, which were explained to potential participants: (1) participation in the study was voluntary, and the participants were allowed to withdraw at any time during the study; (2) the purpose and methodology of the study and the expected duration of participation; (3) the questionnaires would be used only for scientific use, and the research records identifying the participants will be maintained confidentiality. Verbal consents from the participants were obtained at the time of recruitment.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Xiaoxia Wang, Phone: +86-23-68771770, Email: moc.liamg@gnawonomel .

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Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a widely accepted educational goal. Its definition is contested, but the competing definitions can be understood as differing conceptions of the same basic concept: careful thinking directed to a goal. Conceptions differ with respect to the scope of such thinking, the type of goal, the criteria and norms for thinking carefully, and the thinking components on which they focus. Its adoption as an educational goal has been recommended on the basis of respect for students’ autonomy and preparing students for success in life and for democratic citizenship. “Critical thinkers” have the dispositions and abilities that lead them to think critically when appropriate. The abilities can be identified directly; the dispositions indirectly, by considering what factors contribute to or impede exercise of the abilities. Standardized tests have been developed to assess the degree to which a person possesses such dispositions and abilities. Educational intervention has been shown experimentally to improve them, particularly when it includes dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring. Controversies have arisen over the generalizability of critical thinking across domains, over alleged bias in critical thinking theories and instruction, and over the relationship of critical thinking to other types of thinking.

2.1 Dewey’s Three Main Examples

2.2 dewey’s other examples, 2.3 further examples, 2.4 non-examples, 3. the definition of critical thinking, 4. its value, 5. the process of thinking critically, 6. components of the process, 7. contributory dispositions and abilities, 8.1 initiating dispositions, 8.2 internal dispositions, 9. critical thinking abilities, 10. required knowledge, 11. educational methods, 12.1 the generalizability of critical thinking, 12.2 bias in critical thinking theory and pedagogy, 12.3 relationship of critical thinking to other types of thinking, other internet resources, related entries.

Use of the term ‘critical thinking’ to describe an educational goal goes back to the American philosopher John Dewey (1910), who more commonly called it ‘reflective thinking’. He defined it as

active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends. (Dewey 1910: 6; 1933: 9)

and identified a habit of such consideration with a scientific attitude of mind. His lengthy quotations of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and John Stuart Mill indicate that he was not the first person to propose development of a scientific attitude of mind as an educational goal.

In the 1930s, many of the schools that participated in the Eight-Year Study of the Progressive Education Association (Aikin 1942) adopted critical thinking as an educational goal, for whose achievement the study’s Evaluation Staff developed tests (Smith, Tyler, & Evaluation Staff 1942). Glaser (1941) showed experimentally that it was possible to improve the critical thinking of high school students. Bloom’s influential taxonomy of cognitive educational objectives (Bloom et al. 1956) incorporated critical thinking abilities. Ennis (1962) proposed 12 aspects of critical thinking as a basis for research on the teaching and evaluation of critical thinking ability.

Since 1980, an annual international conference in California on critical thinking and educational reform has attracted tens of thousands of educators from all levels of education and from many parts of the world. Also since 1980, the state university system in California has required all undergraduate students to take a critical thinking course. Since 1983, the Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking has sponsored sessions in conjunction with the divisional meetings of the American Philosophical Association (APA). In 1987, the APA’s Committee on Pre-College Philosophy commissioned a consensus statement on critical thinking for purposes of educational assessment and instruction (Facione 1990a). Researchers have developed standardized tests of critical thinking abilities and dispositions; for details, see the Supplement on Assessment . Educational jurisdictions around the world now include critical thinking in guidelines for curriculum and assessment. Political and business leaders endorse its importance.

For details on this history, see the Supplement on History .

2. Examples and Non-Examples

Before considering the definition of critical thinking, it will be helpful to have in mind some examples of critical thinking, as well as some examples of kinds of thinking that would apparently not count as critical thinking.

Dewey (1910: 68–71; 1933: 91–94) takes as paradigms of reflective thinking three class papers of students in which they describe their thinking. The examples range from the everyday to the scientific.

Transit : “The other day, when I was down town on 16th Street, a clock caught my eye. I saw that the hands pointed to 12:20. This suggested that I had an engagement at 124th Street, at one o'clock. I reasoned that as it had taken me an hour to come down on a surface car, I should probably be twenty minutes late if I returned the same way. I might save twenty minutes by a subway express. But was there a station near? If not, I might lose more than twenty minutes in looking for one. Then I thought of the elevated, and I saw there was such a line within two blocks. But where was the station? If it were several blocks above or below the street I was on, I should lose time instead of gaining it. My mind went back to the subway express as quicker than the elevated; furthermore, I remembered that it went nearer than the elevated to the part of 124th Street I wished to reach, so that time would be saved at the end of the journey. I concluded in favor of the subway, and reached my destination by one o’clock.” (Dewey 1910: 68-69; 1933: 91-92)

Ferryboat : “Projecting nearly horizontally from the upper deck of the ferryboat on which I daily cross the river is a long white pole, having a gilded ball at its tip. It suggested a flagpole when I first saw it; its color, shape, and gilded ball agreed with this idea, and these reasons seemed to justify me in this belief. But soon difficulties presented themselves. The pole was nearly horizontal, an unusual position for a flagpole; in the next place, there was no pulley, ring, or cord by which to attach a flag; finally, there were elsewhere on the boat two vertical staffs from which flags were occasionally flown. It seemed probable that the pole was not there for flag-flying.

“I then tried to imagine all possible purposes of the pole, and to consider for which of these it was best suited: (a) Possibly it was an ornament. But as all the ferryboats and even the tugboats carried poles, this hypothesis was rejected. (b) Possibly it was the terminal of a wireless telegraph. But the same considerations made this improbable. Besides, the more natural place for such a terminal would be the highest part of the boat, on top of the pilot house. (c) Its purpose might be to point out the direction in which the boat is moving.

“In support of this conclusion, I discovered that the pole was lower than the pilot house, so that the steersman could easily see it. Moreover, the tip was enough higher than the base, so that, from the pilot's position, it must appear to project far out in front of the boat. Morevoer, the pilot being near the front of the boat, he would need some such guide as to its direction. Tugboats would also need poles for such a purpose. This hypothesis was so much more probable than the others that I accepted it. I formed the conclusion that the pole was set up for the purpose of showing the pilot the direction in which the boat pointed, to enable him to steer correctly.” (Dewey 1910: 69-70; 1933: 92-93)

Bubbles : “In washing tumblers in hot soapsuds and placing them mouth downward on a plate, bubbles appeared on the outside of the mouth of the tumblers and then went inside. Why? The presence of bubbles suggests air, which I note must come from inside the tumbler. I see that the soapy water on the plate prevents escape of the air save as it may be caught in bubbles. But why should air leave the tumbler? There was no substance entering to force it out. It must have expanded. It expands by increase of heat, or by decrease of pressure, or both. Could the air have become heated after the tumbler was taken from the hot suds? Clearly not the air that was already entangled in the water. If heated air was the cause, cold air must have entered in transferring the tumblers from the suds to the plate. I test to see if this supposition is true by taking several more tumblers out. Some I shake so as to make sure of entrapping cold air in them. Some I take out holding mouth downward in order to prevent cold air from entering. Bubbles appear on the outside of every one of the former and on none of the latter. I must be right in my inference. Air from the outside must have been expanded by the heat of the tumbler, which explains the appearance of the bubbles on the outside. But why do they then go inside? Cold contracts. The tumbler cooled and also the air inside it. Tension was removed, and hence bubbles appeared inside. To be sure of this, I test by placing a cup of ice on the tumbler while the bubbles are still forming outside. They soon reverse” (Dewey 1910: 70–71; 1933: 93–94).

Dewey (1910, 1933) sprinkles his book with other examples of critical thinking. We will refer to the following.

Weather : A man on a walk notices that it has suddenly become cool, thinks that it is probably going to rain, looks up and sees a dark cloud obscuring the sun, and quickens his steps (1910: 6–10; 1933: 9–13).

Disorder : A man finds his rooms on his return to them in disorder with his belongings thrown about, thinks at first of burglary as an explanation, then thinks of mischievous children as being an alternative explanation, then looks to see whether valuables are missing, and discovers that they are (1910: 82–83; 1933: 166–168).

Typhoid : A physician diagnosing a patient whose conspicuous symptoms suggest typhoid avoids drawing a conclusion until more data are gathered by questioning the patient and by making tests (1910: 85–86; 1933: 170).

Blur : A moving blur catches our eye in the distance, we ask ourselves whether it is a cloud of whirling dust or a tree moving its branches or a man signaling to us, we think of other traits that should be found on each of those possibilities, and we look and see if those traits are found (1910: 102, 108; 1933: 121, 133).

Suction pump : In thinking about the suction pump, the scientist first notes that it will draw water only to a maximum height of 33 feet at sea level and to a lesser maximum height at higher elevations, selects for attention the differing atmospheric pressure at these elevations, sets up experiments in which the air is removed from a vessel containing water (when suction no longer works) and in which the weight of air at various levels is calculated, compares the results of reasoning about the height to which a given weight of air will allow a suction pump to raise water with the observed maximum height at different elevations, and finally assimilates the suction pump to such apparently different phenomena as the siphon and the rising of a balloon (1910: 150–153; 1933: 195–198).

Diamond : A passenger in a car driving in a diamond lane reserved for vehicles with at least one passenger notices that the diamond marks on the pavement are far apart in some places and close together in others. Why? The driver suggests that the reason may be that the diamond marks are not needed where there is a solid double line separating the diamond line from the adjoining lane, but are needed when there is a dotted single line permitting crossing into the diamond lane. Further observation confirms that the diamonds are close together when a dotted line separates the diamond lane from its neighbour, but otherwise far apart.

Rash : A woman suddenly develops a very itchy red rash on her throat and upper chest. She recently noticed a mark on the back of her right hand, but was not sure whether the mark was a rash or a scrape. She lies down in bed and thinks about what might be causing the rash and what to do about it. About two weeks before, she began taking blood pressure medication that contained a sulfa drug, and the pharmacist had warned her, in view of a previous allergic reaction to a medication containing a sulfa drug, to be on the alert for an allergic reaction; however, she had been taking the medication for two weeks with no such effect. The day before, she began using a new cream on her neck and upper chest; against the new cream as the cause was mark on the back of her hand, which had not been exposed to the cream. She began taking probiotics about a month before. She also recently started new eye drops, but she supposed that manufacturers of eye drops would be careful not to include allergy-causing components in the medication. The rash might be a heat rash, since she recently was sweating profusely from her upper body. Since she is about to go away on a short vacation, where she would not have access to her usual physician, she decides to keep taking the probiotics and using the new eye drops but to discontinue the blood pressure medication and to switch back to the old cream for her neck and upper chest. She forms a plan to consult her regular physician on her return about the blood pressure medication.

Candidate : Although Dewey included no examples of thinking directed at appraising the arguments of others, such thinking has come to be considered a kind of critical thinking. We find an example of such thinking in the performance task on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+), which its sponsoring organization describes as

a performance-based assessment that provides a measure of an institution’s contribution to the development of critical-thinking and written communication skills of its students. (Council for Aid to Education 2017)

A sample task posted on its website requires the test-taker to write a report for public distribution evaluating a fictional candidate’s policy proposals and their supporting arguments, using supplied background documents, with a recommendation on whether to endorse the candidate.

Immediate acceptance of an idea that suggests itself as a solution to a problem (e.g., a possible explanation of an event or phenomenon, an action that seems likely to produce a desired result) is “uncritical thinking, the minimum of reflection” (Dewey 1910: 13). On-going suspension of judgment in the light of doubt about a possible solution is not critical thinking (Dewey 1910: 108). Critique driven by a dogmatically held political or religious ideology is not critical thinking; thus Paulo Freire (1968 [1970]) is using the term (e.g., at 1970: 71, 81, 100, 146) in a more politically freighted sense that includes not only reflection but also revolutionary action against oppression. Derivation of a conclusion from given data using an algorithm is not critical thinking.

What is critical thinking? There are many definitions. Ennis (2016) lists 14 philosophically oriented scholarly definitions and three dictionary definitions. Following Rawls (1971), who distinguished his conception of justice from a utilitarian conception but regarded them as rival conceptions of the same concept, Ennis maintains that the 17 definitions are different conceptions of the same concept. Rawls articulated the shared concept of justice as

a characteristic set of principles for assigning basic rights and duties and for determining… the proper distribution of the benefits and burdens of social cooperation. (Rawls 1971: 5)

Bailin et al. (1999b) claim that, if one considers what sorts of thinking an educator would take not to be critical thinking and what sorts to be critical thinking, one can conclude that educators typically understand critical thinking to have at least three features.

• It is done for the purpose of making up one’s mind about what to believe or do.
• The person engaging in the thinking is trying to fulfill standards of adequacy and accuracy appropriate to the thinking.
• The thinking fulfills the relevant standards to some threshold level.

One could sum up the core concept that involves these three features by saying that critical thinking is careful goal-directed thinking. This core concept seems to apply to all the examples of critical thinking described in the previous section. As for the non-examples, their exclusion depends on construing careful thinking as excluding jumping immediately to conclusions, suspending judgment no matter how strong the evidence, reasoning from an unquestioned ideological or religious perspective, and routinely using an algorithm to answer a question.

If the core of critical thinking is careful goal-directed thinking, conceptions of it can vary according to its presumed scope, its presumed goal, one’s criteria and threshold for being careful, and the thinking component on which one focuses As to its scope, some conceptions (e.g., Dewey 1910, 1933) restrict it to constructive thinking on the basis of one’s own observations and experiments, others (e.g., Ennis 1962; Fisher & Scriven 1997; Johnson 1992) to appraisal of the products of such thinking. Ennis (1991) and Bailin et al. (1999b) take it to cover both construction and appraisal. As to its goal, some conceptions restrict it to forming a judgment (Dewey 1910, 1933; Lipman 1987; Facione 1990a). Others allow for actions as well as beliefs as the end point of a process of critical thinking (Ennis 1991; Bailin et al. 1999b). As to the criteria and threshold for being careful, definitions vary in the term used to indicate that critical thinking satisfies certain norms: “intellectually disciplined” (Scriven & Paul 1987), “reasonable” (Ennis 1991), “skillful” (Lipman 1987), “skilled” (Fisher & Scriven 1997), “careful” (Bailin & Battersby 2009). Some definitions specify these norms, referring variously to “consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends” (Dewey 1910, 1933); “the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning” (Glaser 1941); “conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication” (Scriven & Paul 1987); the requirement that “it is sensitive to context, relies on criteria, and is self-correcting” (Lipman 1987); “evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations” (Facione 1990a); and “plus-minus considerations of the product in terms of appropriate standards (or criteria)” (Johnson 1992). Stanovich and Stanovich (2010) propose to ground the concept of critical thinking in the concept of rationality, which they understand as combining epistemic rationality (fitting one’s beliefs to the world) and instrumental rationality (optimizing goal fulfillment); a critical thinker, in their view, is someone with “a propensity to override suboptimal responses from the autonomous mind” (2010: 227). These variant specifications of norms for critical thinking are not necessarily incompatible with one another, and in any case presuppose the core notion of thinking carefully. As to the thinking component singled out, some definitions focus on suspension of judgment during the thinking (Dewey 1910; McPeck 1981), others on inquiry while judgment is suspended (Bailin & Battersby 2009), others on the resulting judgment (Facione 1990a), and still others on the subsequent emotive response (Siegel 1988).

In educational contexts, a definition of critical thinking is a “programmatic definition” (Scheffler 1960: 19). It expresses a practical program for achieving an educational goal. For this purpose, a one-sentence formulaic definition is much less useful than articulation of a critical thinking process, with criteria and standards for the kinds of thinking that the process may involve. The real educational goal is recognition, adoption and implementation by students of those criteria and standards. That adoption and implementation in turn consists in acquiring the knowledge, abilities and dispositions of a critical thinker.

Conceptions of critical thinking generally do not include moral integrity as part of the concept. Dewey, for example, took critical thinking to be the ultimate intellectual goal of education, but distinguished it from the development of social cooperation among school children, which he took to be the central moral goal. Ennis (1996, 2011) added to his previous list of critical thinking dispositions a group of dispositions to care about the dignity and worth of every person, which he described as a “correlative” (1996) disposition without which critical thinking would be less valuable and perhaps harmful. An educational program that aimed at developing critical thinking but not the correlative disposition to care about the dignity and worth of every person, he asserted, “would be deficient and perhaps dangerous” (Ennis 1996: 172).

Dewey thought that education for reflective thinking would be of value to both the individual and society; recognition in educational practice of the kinship to the scientific attitude of children’s native curiosity, fertile imagination and love of experimental inquiry “would make for individual happiness and the reduction of social waste” (Dewey 1910: iii). Schools participating in the Eight-Year Study took development of the habit of reflective thinking and skill in solving problems as a means to leading young people to understand, appreciate and live the democratic way of life characteristic of the United States (Aikin 1942: 17–18, 81). Harvey Siegel (1988: 55–61) has offered four considerations in support of adopting critical thinking as an educational ideal. (1) Respect for persons requires that schools and teachers honour students’ demands for reasons and explanations, deal with students honestly, and recognize the need to confront students’ independent judgment; these requirements concern the manner in which teachers treat students. (2) Education has the task of preparing children to be successful adults, a task that requires development of their self-sufficiency. (3) Education should initiate children into the rational traditions in such fields as history, science and mathematics. (4) Education should prepare children to become democratic citizens, which requires reasoned procedures and critical talents and attitudes. To supplement these considerations, Siegel (1988: 62–90) responds to two objections: the ideology objection that adoption of any educational ideal requires a prior ideological commitment and the indoctrination objection that cultivation of critical thinking cannot escape being a form of indoctrination.

Despite the diversity of our 11 examples, one can recognize a common pattern. Dewey analyzed it as consisting of five phases:

• suggestions , in which the mind leaps forward to a possible solution;
• an intellectualization of the difficulty or perplexity into a problem to be solved, a question for which the answer must be sought;
• the use of one suggestion after another as a leading idea, or hypothesis , to initiate and guide observation and other operations in collection of factual material;
• the mental elaboration of the idea or supposition as an idea or supposition ( reasoning , in the sense on which reasoning is a part, not the whole, of inference); and
• testing the hypothesis by overt or imaginative action. (Dewey 1933: 106–107; italics in original)

The process of reflective thinking consisting of these phases would be preceded by a perplexed, troubled or confused situation and followed by a cleared-up, unified, resolved situation (Dewey 1933: 106). The term ‘phases’ replaced the term ‘steps’ (Dewey 1910: 72), thus removing the earlier suggestion of an invariant sequence. Variants of the above analysis appeared in (Dewey 1916: 177) and (Dewey 1938: 101–119).

The variant formulations indicate the difficulty of giving a single logical analysis of such a varied process. The process of critical thinking may have a spiral pattern, with the problem being redefined in the light of obstacles to solving it as originally formulated. For example, the person in Transit might have concluded that getting to the appointment at the scheduled time was impossible and have reformulated the problem as that of rescheduling the appointment for a mutually convenient time. Further, defining a problem does not always follow after or lead immediately to an idea of a suggested solution. Nor should it do so, as Dewey himself recognized in describing the physician in Typhoid as avoiding any strong preference for this or that conclusion before getting further information (Dewey 1910: 85; 1933: 170). People with a hypothesis in mind, even one to which they have a very weak commitment, have a so-called “confirmation bias” (Nickerson 1998): they are likely to pay attention to evidence that confirms the hypothesis and to ignore evidence that counts against it or for some competing hypothesis. Detectives, intelligence agencies, and investigators of airplane accidents are well advised to gather relevant evidence systematically and to postpone even tentative adoption of an explanatory hypothesis until the collected evidence rules out with the appropriate degree of certainty all but one explanation. Dewey’s analysis of the critical thinking process can be faulted as well for requiring acceptance or rejection of a possible solution to a defined problem, with no allowance for deciding in the light of the available evidence to suspend judgment. Further, given the great variety of kinds of problems for which reflection is appropriate, there is likely to be variation in its component events. Perhaps the best way to conceptualize the critical thinking process is as a checklist whose component events can occur in a variety of orders, selectively, and more than once. These component events might include (1) noticing a difficulty, (2) defining the problem, (3) dividing the problem into manageable sub-problems, (4) formulating a variety of possible solutions to the problem or sub-problem, (5) determining what evidence is relevant to deciding among possible solutions to the problem or sub-problem, (6) devising a plan of systematic observation or experiment that will uncover the relevant evidence, (7) carrying out the plan of systematic observation or experimentation, (8) noting the results of the systematic observation or experiment, (9) gathering relevant testimony and information from others, (10) judging the credibility of testimony and information gathered from others, (11) drawing conclusions from gathered evidence and accepted testimony, and (12) accepting a solution that the evidence adequately supports (cf. Hitchcock 2017: 485).

Checklist conceptions of the process of critical thinking are open to the objection that they are too mechanical and procedural to fit the multi-dimensional and emotionally charged issues for which critical thinking is urgently needed (Paul 1984). For such issues, a more dialectical process is advocated, in which competing relevant world views are identified, their implications explored, and some sort of creative synthesis attempted.

If one considers the critical thinking process illustrated by the 11 examples, one can identify distinct kinds of mental acts and mental states that form part of it. To distinguish, label and briefly characterize these components is a useful preliminary to identifying abilities, skills, dispositions, attitudes, habits and the like that contribute causally to thinking critically. Identifying such abilities and habits is in turn a useful preliminary to setting educational goals. Setting the goals is in its turn a useful preliminary to designing strategies for helping learners to achieve the goals and to designing ways of measuring the extent to which learners have done so. Such measures provide both feedback to learners on their achievement and a basis for experimental research on the effectiveness of various strategies for educating people to think critically. Let us begin, then, by distinguishing the kinds of mental acts and mental events that can occur in a critical thinking process.

• Observing : One notices something in one’s immediate environment (sudden cooling of temperature in Weather , bubbles forming outside a glass and then going inside in Bubbles , a moving blur in the distance in Blur , a rash in Rash ). Or one notes the results of an experiment or systematic observation (valuables missing in Disorder , no suction without air pressure in Suction pump )
• Feeling : One feels puzzled or uncertain about something (how to get to an appointment on time in Transit , why the diamonds vary in frequency in Diamond ). One wants to resolve this perplexity. One feels satisfaction once one has worked out an answer (to take the subway express in Transit , diamonds closer when needed as a warning in Diamond ).
• Wondering : One formulates a question to be addressed (why bubbles form outside a tumbler taken from hot water in Bubbles , how suction pumps work in Suction pump , what caused the rash in Rash ).
• Imagining : One thinks of possible answers (bus or subway or elevated in Transit , flagpole or ornament or wireless communication aid or direction indicator in Ferryboat , allergic reaction or heat rash in Rash ).
• Inferring : One works out what would be the case if a possible answer were assumed (valuables missing if there has been a burglary in Disorder , earlier start to the rash if it is an allergic reaction to a sulfa drug in Rash ). Or one draws a conclusion once sufficient relevant evidence is gathered (take the subway in Transit , burglary in Disorder , discontinue blood pressure medication and new cream in Rash ).
• Knowledge : One uses stored knowledge of the subject-matter to generate possible answers or to infer what would be expected on the assumption of a particular answer (knowledge of a city’s public transit system in Transit , of the requirements for a flagpole in Ferryboat , of Boyle’s law in Bubbles , of allergic reactions in Rash ).
• Experimenting : One designs and carries out an experiment or a systematic observation to find out whether the results deduced from a possible answer will occur (looking at the location of the flagpole in relation to the pilot’s position in Ferryboat , putting an ice cube on top of a tumbler taken from hot water in Bubbles , measuring the height to which a suction pump will draw water at different elevations in Suction pump , noticing the frequency of diamonds when movement to or from a diamond lane is allowed in Diamond ).
• Consulting : One finds a source of information, gets the information from the source, and makes a judgment on whether to accept it. None of our 11 examples include searching for sources of information. In this respect they are unrepresentative, since most people nowadays have almost instant access to information relevant to answering any question, including many of those illustrated by the examples. However, Candidate includes the activities of extracting information from sources and evaluating its credibility.
• Identifying and analyzing arguments : One notices an argument and works out its structure and content as a preliminary to evaluating its strength. This activity is central to Candidate . It is an important part of a critical thinking process in which one surveys arguments for various positions on an issue.
• Judging : One makes a judgment on the basis of accumulated evidence and reasoning, such as the judgment in Ferryboat that the purpose of the pole is to provide direction to the pilot.
• Deciding : One makes a decision on what to do or on what policy to adopt, as in the decision in Transit to take the subway.

By definition, a person who does something voluntarily is both willing and able to do that thing at that time. Both the willingness and the ability contribute causally to the person’s action, in the sense that the voluntary action would not occur if either (or both) of these were lacking. For example, suppose that one is standing with one’s arms at one’s sides and one voluntarily lifts one’s right arm to an extended horizontal position. One would not do so if one were unable to lift one’s arm, if for example one’s right side was paralyzed as the result of a stroke. Nor would one do so if one were unwilling to lift one’s arm, if for example one were participating in a street demonstration at which a white supremacist was urging the crowd to lift their right arm in a Nazi salute and one were unwilling to express support in this way for the racist Nazi ideology. The same analysis applies to a voluntary mental process of thinking critically. It requires both willingness and ability to think critically, including willingness and ability to perform each of the mental acts that compose the process and to coordinate those acts in a sequence that is directed at resolving the initiating perplexity.

Consider willingness first. We can identify causal contributors to willingness to think critically by considering factors that would cause a person who was able to think critically about an issue nevertheless not to do so (Hamby 2014). For each factor, the opposite condition thus contributes causally to willingness to think critically on a particular occasion. For example, people who habitually jump to conclusions without considering alternatives will not think critically about issues that arise, even if they have the required abilities. The contrary condition of willingness to suspend judgment is thus a causal contributor to thinking critically.

Now consider ability. In contrast to the ability to move one’s arm, which can be completely absent because a stroke has left the arm paralyzed, the ability to think critically is a developed ability, whose absence is not a complete absence of ability to think but absence of ability to think well. We can identify the ability to think well directly, in terms of the norms and standards for good thinking. In general, to be able do well the thinking activities that can be components of a critical thinking process, one needs to know the concepts and principles that characterize their good performance, to recognize in particular cases that the concepts and principles apply, and to apply them. The knowledge, recognition and application may be procedural rather than declarative. It may be domain-specific rather than widely applicable, and in either case may need subject-matter knowledge, sometimes of a deep kind.

Reflections of the sort illustrated by the previous two paragraphs have led scholars to identify the knowledge, abilities and dispositions of a “critical thinker”, i.e., someone who thinks critically whenever it is appropriate to do so. We turn now to these three types of causal contributors to thinking critically. We start with dispositions, since arguably these are the most powerful contributors to being a critical thinker, can be fostered at an early stage of a child’s development, and are susceptible to general improvement (Glaser 1941: 175)

8. Critical Thinking Dispositions

Educational researchers use the term ‘dispositions’ broadly for the habits of mind and attitudes that contribute causally to being a critical thinker. Some writers (e.g., Paul & Elder 2006; Hamby 2014; Bailin & Battersby 2016) propose to use the term ‘virtues’ for this dimension of a critical thinker. The virtues in question, although they are virtues of character, concern the person’s ways of thinking rather than the person’s ways of behaving towards others. They are not moral virtues but intellectual virtues, of the sort articulated by Zagzebski (1996) and discussed by Turri, Alfano, and Greco (2017).

On a realistic conception, thinking dispositions or intellectual virtues are real properties of thinkers. They are general tendencies, propensities, or inclinations to think in particular ways in particular circumstances, and can be genuinely explanatory (Siegel 1999). Sceptics argue that there is no evidence for a specific mental basis for the habits of mind that contribute to thinking critically, and that it is pedagogically misleading to posit such a basis (Bailin et al. 1999a). Whatever their status, critical thinking dispositions need motivation for their initial formation in a child—motivation that may be external or internal. As children develop, the force of habit will gradually become important in sustaining the disposition (Nieto & Valenzuela 2012). Mere force of habit, however, is unlikely to sustain critical thinking dispositions. Critical thinkers must value and enjoy using their knowledge and abilities to think things through for themselves. They must be committed to, and lovers of, inquiry.

A person may have a critical thinking disposition with respect to only some kinds of issues. For example, one could be open-minded about scientific issues but not about religious issues. Similarly, one could be confident in one’s ability to reason about the theological implications of the existence of evil in the world but not in one’s ability to reason about the best design for a guided ballistic missile.

Critical thinking dispositions can usefully be divided into initiating dispositions (those that contribute causally to starting to think critically about an issue) and internal dispositions (those that contribute causally to doing a good job of thinking critically once one has started) (Facione 1990a: 25). The two categories are not mutually exclusive. For example, open-mindedness, in the sense of willingness to consider alternative points of view to one’s own, is both an initiating and an internal disposition.

Using the strategy of considering factors that would block people with the ability to think critically from doing so, we can identify as initiating dispositions for thinking critically attentiveness, a habit of inquiry, self-confidence, courage, open-mindedness, willingness to suspend judgment, trust in reason, wanting evidence for one’s beliefs, and seeking the truth. We consider briefly what each of these dispositions amounts to, in each case citing sources that acknowledge them.

• Attentiveness : One will not think critically if one fails to recognize an issue that needs to be thought through. For example, the pedestrian in Weather would not have looked up if he had not noticed that the air was suddenly cooler. To be a critical thinker, then, one needs to be habitually attentive to one’s surroundings, noticing not only what one senses but also sources of perplexity in messages received and in one’s own beliefs and attitudes (Facione 1990a: 25; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001).
• Habit of inquiry : Inquiry is effortful, and one needs an internal push to engage in it. For example, the student in Bubbles could easily have stopped at idle wondering about the cause of the bubbles rather than reasoning to a hypothesis, then designing and executing an experiment to test it. Thus willingness to think critically needs mental energy and initiative. What can supply that energy? Love of inquiry, or perhaps just a habit of inquiry. Hamby (2015) has argued that willingness to inquire is the central critical thinking virtue, one that encompasses all the others. It is recognized as a critical thinking disposition by Dewey (1910: 29; 1933: 35), Glaser (1941: 5), Ennis (1987: 12; 1991: 8), Facione (1990a: 25), Bailin et al. (1999b: 294), Halpern (1998: 452), and Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo (2001).
• Self-confidence : Lack of confidence in one’s abilities can block critical thinking. For example, if the woman in Rash lacked confidence in her ability to figure things out for herself, she might just have assumed that the rash on her chest was the allergic reaction to her medication against which the pharmacist had warned her. Thus willingness to think critically requires confidence in one’s ability to inquire (Facione 1990a: 25; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001).
• Courage : Fear of thinking for oneself can stop one from doing it. Thus willingness to think critically requires intellectual courage (Paul & Elder 2006: 16).
• Open-mindedness : A dogmatic attitude will impede thinking critically. For example, a person who adheres rigidly to a “pro-choice” position on the issue of the legal status of induced abortion is likely to be unwilling to consider seriously the issue of when in its development an unborn child acquires a moral right to life. Thus willingness to think critically requires open-mindedness, in the sense of a willingness to examine questions to which one already accepts an answer but which further evidence or reasoning might cause one to answer differently (Dewey 1933; Facione 1990a; Ennis 1991; Bailin et al. 1999b; Halpern 1998, Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001). Paul (1981) emphasizes open-mindedness about alternative world-views, and recommends a dialectical approach to integrating such views as central to what he calls “strong sense” critical thinking.
• Willingness to suspend judgment : Premature closure on an initial solution will block critical thinking. Thus willingness to think critically requires a willingness to suspend judgment while alternatives are explored (Facione 1990a; Ennis 1991; Halpern 1998).
• Trust in reason : Since distrust in the processes of reasoned inquiry will dissuade one from engaging in it, trust in them is an initiating critical thinking disposition (Facione 1990a, 25; Bailin et al. 1999b: 294; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001; Paul & Elder 2006). In reaction to an allegedly exclusive emphasis on reason in critical thinking theory and pedagogy, Thayer-Bacon (2000) argues that intuition, imagination, and emotion have important roles to play in an adequate conception of critical thinking that she calls “constructive thinking”. From her point of view, critical thinking requires trust not only in reason but also in intuition, imagination, and emotion.
• Seeking the truth : If one does not care about the truth but is content to stick with one’s initial bias on an issue, then one will not think critically about it. Seeking the truth is thus an initiating critical thinking disposition (Bailin et al. 1999b: 294; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001). A disposition to seek the truth is implicit in more specific critical thinking dispositions, such as trying to be well-informed, considering seriously points of view other than one’s own, looking for alternatives, suspending judgment when the evidence is insufficient, and adopting a position when the evidence supporting it is sufficient.

Some of the initiating dispositions, such as open-mindedness and willingness to suspend judgment, are also internal critical thinking dispositions, in the sense of mental habits or attitudes that contribute causally to doing a good job of critical thinking once one starts the process. But there are many other internal critical thinking dispositions. Some of them are parasitic on one’s conception of good thinking. For example, it is constitutive of good thinking about an issue to formulate the issue clearly and to maintain focus on it. For this purpose, one needs not only the corresponding ability but also the corresponding disposition. Ennis (1991: 8) describes it as the disposition “to determine and maintain focus on the conclusion or question”, Facione (1990a: 25) as “clarity in stating the question or concern”. Other internal dispositions are motivators to continue or adjust the critical thinking process, such as willingness to persist in a complex task and willingness to abandon nonproductive strategies in an attempt to self-correct (Halpern 1998: 452). For a list of identified internal critical thinking dispositions, see the Supplement on Internal Critical Thinking Dispositions .

Some theorists postulate skills, i.e., acquired abilities, as operative in critical thinking. It is not obvious, however, that a good mental act is the exercise of a generic acquired skill. Inferring an expected time of arrival, as in Transit , has some generic components but also uses non-generic subject-matter knowledge. Bailin et al. (1999a) argue against viewing critical thinking skills as generic and discrete, on the ground that skilled performance at a critical thinking task cannot be separated from knowledge of concepts and from domain-specific principles of good thinking. Talk of skills, they concede, is unproblematic if it means merely that a person with critical thinking skills is capable of intelligent performance.

Despite such scepticism, theorists of critical thinking have listed as general contributors to critical thinking what they variously call abilities (Glaser 1941; Ennis 1962, 1991), skills (Facione 1990a; Halpern 1998) or competencies (Fisher & Scriven 1997). Amalgamating these lists would produce a confusing and chaotic cornucopia of more than 50 possible educational objectives, with only partial overlap among them. It makes sense instead to try to understand the reasons for the multiplicity and diversity, and to make a selection according to one’s own reasons for singling out abilities to be developed in a critical thinking curriculum. Two reasons for diversity among lists of critical thinking abilities are the underlying conception of critical thinking and the envisaged educational level. Appraisal-only conceptions, for example, involve a different suite of abilities than constructive-only conceptions. Some lists, such as those in (Glaser 1941), are put forward as educational objectives for secondary school students, whereas others are proposed as objectives for college students (e.g., Facione 1990a).

The abilities described in the remaining paragraphs of this section emerge from reflection on the general abilities needed to do well the thinking activities identified in section 6 as components of the critical thinking process described in section 5 . The derivation of each collection of abilities is accompanied by citation of sources that list such abilities and of standardized tests that claim to test them.

Observational abilities : Careful and accurate observation sometimes requires specialist expertise and practice, as in the case of observing birds and observing accident scenes. However, there are general abilities of noticing what one’s senses are picking up from one’s environment and of being able to articulate clearly and accurately to oneself and others what one has observed. It helps in exercising them to be able to recognize and take into account factors that make one’s observation less trustworthy, such as prior framing of the situation, inadequate time, deficient senses, poor observation conditions, and the like. It helps as well to be skilled at taking steps to make one’s observation more trustworthy, such as moving closer to get a better look, measuring something three times and taking the average, and checking what one thinks one is observing with someone else who is in a good position to observe it. It also helps to be skilled at recognizing respects in which one’s report of one’s observation involves inference rather than direct observation, so that one can then consider whether the inference is justified. These abilities come into play as well when one thinks about whether and with what degree of confidence to accept an observation report, for example in the study of history or in a criminal investigation or in assessing news reports. Observational abilities show up in some lists of critical thinking abilities (Ennis 1962: 90; Facione 1990a: 16; Ennis 1991: 9). There are items testing a person’s ability to judge the credibility of observation reports in the Cornell Critical Thinking Tests, Levels X and Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005). Norris and King (1983, 1985, 1990a, 1990b) is a test of ability to appraise observation reports.

Emotional abilities : The emotions that drive a critical thinking process are perplexity or puzzlement, a wish to resolve it, and satisfaction at achieving the desired resolution. Children experience these emotions at an early age, without being trained to do so. Education that takes critical thinking as a goal needs only to channel these emotions and to make sure not to stifle them. Collaborative critical thinking benefits from ability to recognize one’s own and others’ emotional commitments and reactions.

Questioning abilities : A critical thinking process needs transformation of an inchoate sense of perplexity into a clear question. Formulating a question well requires not building in questionable assumptions, not prejudging the issue, and using language that in context is unambiguous and precise enough (Ennis 1962: 97; 1991: 9).

Imaginative abilities : Thinking directed at finding the correct causal explanation of a general phenomenon or particular event requires an ability to imagine possible explanations. Thinking about what policy or plan of action to adopt requires generation of options and consideration of possible consequences of each option. Domain knowledge is required for such creative activity, but a general ability to imagine alternatives is helpful and can be nurtured so as to become easier, quicker, more extensive, and deeper (Dewey 1910: 34–39; 1933: 40–47). Facione (1990a) and Halpern (1998) include the ability to imagine alternatives as a critical thinking ability.

Inferential abilities : The ability to draw conclusions from given information, and to recognize with what degree of certainty one’s own or others’ conclusions follow, is universally recognized as a general critical thinking ability. All 11 examples in section 2 of this article include inferences, some from hypotheses or options (as in Transit , Ferryboat and Disorder ), others from something observed (as in Weather and Rash ). None of these inferences is formally valid. Rather, they are licensed by general, sometimes qualified substantive rules of inference (Toulmin 1958) that rest on domain knowledge—that a bus trip takes about the same time in each direction, that the terminal of a wireless telegraph would be located on the highest possible place, that sudden cooling is often followed by rain, that an allergic reaction to a sulfa drug generally shows up soon after one starts taking it. It is a matter of controversy to what extent the specialized ability to deduce conclusions from premisses using formal rules of inference is needed for critical thinking. Dewey (1933) locates logical forms in setting out the products of reflection rather than in the process of reflection. Ennis (1981a), on the other hand, maintains that a liberally-educated person should have the following abilities: to translate natural-language statements into statements using the standard logical operators, to use appropriately the language of necessary and sufficient conditions, to deal with argument forms and arguments containing symbols, to determine whether in virtue of an argument’s form its conclusion follows necessarily from its premisses, to reason with logically complex propositions, and to apply the rules and procedures of deductive logic. Inferential abilities are recognized as critical thinking abilities by Glaser (1941: 6), Facione (1990a: 9), Ennis (1991: 9), Fisher & Scriven (1997: 99, 111), and Halpern (1998: 452). Items testing inferential abilities constitute two of the five subtests of the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (Watson & Glaser 1980a, 1980b, 1994), two of the four sections in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005), three of the seven sections in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005), 11 of the 34 items on Forms A and B of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Facione 1990b, 1992), and a high but variable proportion of the 25 selected-response questions in the Collegiate Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017).

Experimenting abilities : Knowing how to design and execute an experiment is important not just in scientific research but also in everyday life, as in Rash . Dewey devoted a whole chapter of his How We Think (1910: 145–156; 1933: 190–202) to the superiority of experimentation over observation in advancing knowledge. Experimenting abilities come into play at one remove in appraising reports of scientific studies. Skill in designing and executing experiments includes the acknowledged abilities to appraise evidence (Glaser 1941: 6), to carry out experiments and to apply appropriate statistical inference techniques (Facione 1990a: 9), to judge inductions to an explanatory hypothesis (Ennis 1991: 9), and to recognize the need for an adequately large sample size (Halpern 1998). The Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005) includes four items (out of 52) on experimental design. The Collegiate Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017) makes room for appraisal of study design in both its performance task and its selected-response questions.

Consulting abilities : Skill at consulting sources of information comes into play when one seeks information to help resolve a problem, as in Candidate . Ability to find and appraise information includes ability to gather and marshal pertinent information (Glaser 1941: 6), to judge whether a statement made by an alleged authority is acceptable (Ennis 1962: 84), to plan a search for desired information (Facione 1990a: 9), and to judge the credibility of a source (Ennis 1991: 9). Ability to judge the credibility of statements is tested by 24 items (out of 76) in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005) and by four items (out of 52) in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005). The College Learning Assessment’s performance task requires evaluation of whether information in documents is credible or unreliable (Council for Aid to Education 2017).

Argument analysis abilities : The ability to identify and analyze arguments contributes to the process of surveying arguments on an issue in order to form one’s own reasoned judgment, as in Candidate . The ability to detect and analyze arguments is recognized as a critical thinking skill by Facione (1990a: 7–8), Ennis (1991: 9) and Halpern (1998). Five items (out of 34) on the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Facione 1990b, 1992) test skill at argument analysis. The College Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017) incorporates argument analysis in its selected-response tests of critical reading and evaluation and of critiquing an argument.

Judging skills and deciding skills : Skill at judging and deciding is skill at recognizing what judgment or decision the available evidence and argument supports, and with what degree of confidence. It is thus a component of the inferential skills already discussed.

Lists and tests of critical thinking abilities often include two more abilities: identifying assumptions and constructing and evaluating definitions.

In addition to dispositions and abilities, critical thinking needs knowledge: of critical thinking concepts, of critical thinking principles, and of the subject-matter of the thinking.

We can derive a short list of concepts whose understanding contributes to critical thinking from the critical thinking abilities described in the preceding section. Observational abilities require an understanding of the difference between observation and inference. Questioning abilities require an understanding of the concepts of ambiguity and vagueness. Inferential abilities require an understanding of the difference between conclusive and defeasible inference (traditionally, between deduction and induction), as well as of the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions. Experimenting abilities require an understanding of the concepts of hypothesis, null hypothesis, assumption and prediction, as well as of the concept of statistical significance and of its difference from importance. They also require an understanding of the difference between an experiment and an observational study, and in particular of the difference between a randomized controlled trial, a prospective correlational study and a retrospective (case-control) study. Argument analysis abilities require an understanding of the concepts of argument, premiss, assumption, conclusion and counter-consideration. Additional critical thinking concepts are proposed by Bailin et al. (1999b: 293), Fisher & Scriven (1997: 105–106), and Black (2012).

According to Glaser (1941: 25), ability to think critically requires knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning. If we review the list of abilities in the preceding section, however, we can see that some of them can be acquired and exercised merely through practice, possibly guided in an educational setting, followed by feedback. Searching intelligently for a causal explanation of some phenomenon or event requires that one consider a full range of possible causal contributors, but it seems more important that one implements this principle in one’s practice than that one is able to articulate it. What is important is “operational knowledge” of the standards and principles of good thinking (Bailin et al. 1999b: 291–293). But the development of such critical thinking abilities as designing an experiment or constructing an operational definition can benefit from learning their underlying theory. Further, explicit knowledge of quirks of human thinking seems useful as a cautionary guide. Human memory is not just fallible about details, as people learn from their own experiences of misremembering, but is so malleable that a detailed, clear and vivid recollection of an event can be a total fabrication (Loftus 2017). People seek or interpret evidence in ways that are partial to their existing beliefs and expectations, often unconscious of their “confirmation bias” (Nickerson 1998). Not only are people subject to this and other cognitive biases (Kahneman 2011), of which they are typically unaware, but it may be counter-productive for one to make oneself aware of them and try consciously to counteract them or to counteract social biases such as racial or sexual stereotypes (Kenyon & Beaulac 2014). It is helpful to be aware of these facts and of the superior effectiveness of blocking the operation of biases—for example, by making an immediate record of one’s observations, refraining from forming a preliminary explanatory hypothesis, blind refereeing, double-blind randomized trials, and blind grading of students’ work.

Critical thinking about an issue requires substantive knowledge of the domain to which the issue belongs. Critical thinking abilities are not a magic elixir that can be applied to any issue whatever by somebody who has no knowledge of the facts relevant to exploring that issue. For example, the student in Bubbles needed to know that gases do not penetrate solid objects like a glass, that air expands when heated, that the volume of an enclosed gas varies directly with its temperature and inversely with its pressure, and that hot objects will spontaneously cool down to the ambient temperature of their surroundings unless kept hot by insulation or a source of heat. Critical thinkers thus need a rich fund of subject-matter knowledge relevant to the variety of situations they encounter. This fact is recognized in the inclusion among critical thinking dispositions of a concern to become and remain generally well informed.

Experimental educational interventions, with control groups, have shown that education can improve critical thinking skills and dispositions, as measured by standardized tests. For information about these tests, see the Supplement on Assessment .

What educational methods are most effective at developing the dispositions, abilities and knowledge of a critical thinker? Abrami et al. (2015) found that in the experimental and quasi-experimental studies that they analyzed dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring each increased the effectiveness of the educational intervention, and that they were most effective when combined. They also found that in these studies a combination of separate instruction in critical thinking with subject-matter instruction in which students are encouraged to think critically was more effective than either by itself. However, the difference was not statistically significant; that is, it might have arisen by chance.

Most of these studies lack the longitudinal follow-up required to determine whether the observed differential improvements in critical thinking abilities or dispositions continue over time, for example until high school or college graduation. For details on studies of methods of developing critical thinking skills and dispositions, see the Supplement on Educational Methods .

12. Controversies

Scholars have denied the generalizability of critical thinking abilities across subject domains, have alleged bias in critical thinking theory and pedagogy, and have investigated the relationship of critical thinking to other kinds of thinking.

McPeck (1981) attacked the thinking skills movement of the 1970s, including the critical thinking movement. He argued that there are no general thinking skills, since thinking is always thinking about some subject-matter. It is futile, he claimed, for schools and colleges to teach thinking as if it were a separate subject. Rather, teachers should lead their pupils to become autonomous thinkers by teaching school subjects in a way that brings out their cognitive structure and that encourages and rewards discussion and argument. As some of his critics (e.g., Paul 1985; Siegel 1985) pointed out, McPeck’s central argument needs elaboration, since it has obvious counter-examples in writing and speaking, for which (up to a certain level of complexity) there are teachable general abilities even though they are always about some subject-matter. To make his argument convincing, McPeck needs to explain how thinking differs from writing and speaking in a way that does not permit useful abstraction of its components from the subject-matters with which it deals. He has not done so. Nevertheless, his position that the dispositions and abilities of a critical thinker are best developed in the context of subject-matter instruction is shared by many theorists of critical thinking, including Dewey (1910, 1933), Glaser (1941), Passmore (1980), Weinstein (1990), and Bailin et al. (1999b).

McPeck’s challenge prompted reflection on the extent to which critical thinking is subject-specific. McPeck argued for a strong subject-specificity thesis, according to which it is a conceptual truth that all critical thinking abilities are specific to a subject. (He did not however extend his subject-specificity thesis to critical thinking dispositions. In particular, he took the disposition to suspend judgment in situations of cognitive dissonance to be a general disposition.) Conceptual subject-specificity is subject to obvious counter-examples, such as the general ability to recognize confusion of necessary and sufficient conditions. A more modest thesis, also endorsed by McPeck, is epistemological subject-specificity, according to which the norms of good thinking vary from one field to another. Epistemological subject-specificity clearly holds to a certain extent; for example, the principles in accordance with which one solves a differential equation are quite different from the principles in accordance with which one determines whether a painting is a genuine Picasso. But the thesis suffers, as Ennis (1989) points out, from vagueness of the concept of a field or subject and from the obvious existence of inter-field principles, however broadly the concept of a field is construed. For example, the principles of hypothetico-deductive reasoning hold for all the varied fields in which such reasoning occurs. A third kind of subject-specificity is empirical subject-specificity, according to which as a matter of empirically observable fact a person with the abilities and dispositions of a critical thinker in one area of investigation will not necessarily have them in another area of investigation.

The thesis of empirical subject-specificity raises the general problem of transfer. If critical thinking abilities and dispositions have to be developed independently in each school subject, how are they of any use in dealing with the problems of everyday life and the political and social issues of contemporary society, most of which do not fit into the framework of a traditional school subject? Proponents of empirical subject-specificity tend to argue that transfer is more likely to occur if there is critical thinking instruction in a variety of domains, with explicit attention to dispositions and abilities that cut across domains. But evidence for this claim is scanty. There is a need for well-designed empirical studies that investigate the conditions that make transfer more likely.

It is common ground in debates about the generality or subject-specificity of critical thinking dispositions and abilities that critical thinking about any topic requires background knowledge about the topic. For example, the most sophisticated understanding of the principles of hypothetico-deductive reasoning is of no help unless accompanied by some knowledge of what might be plausible explanations of some phenomenon under investigation.

Critics have objected to bias in the theory, pedagogy and practice of critical thinking. Commentators (e.g., Alston 1995; Ennis 1998) have noted that anyone who takes a position has a bias in the neutral sense of being inclined in one direction rather than others. The critics, however, are objecting to bias in the pejorative sense of an unjustified favoring of certain ways of knowing over others, frequently alleging that the unjustly favoured ways are those of a dominant sex or culture (Bailin 1995). These ways favour:

• reinforcement of egocentric and sociocentric biases over dialectical engagement with opposing world-views (Paul 1981, 1984; Warren 1998)
• distancing from the object of inquiry over closeness to it (Martin 1992; Thayer-Bacon 1992)
• indifference to the situation of others over care for them (Martin 1992)
• orientation to thought over orientation to action (Martin 1992)
• being reasonable over caring to understand people’s ideas (Thayer-Bacon 1993)
• being neutral and objective over being embodied and situated (Thayer-Bacon 1995a)
• doubting over believing (Thayer-Bacon 1995b)
• reason over emotion, imagination and intuition (Thayer-Bacon 2000)
• solitary thinking over collaborative thinking (Thayer-Bacon 2000)
• written and spoken assignments over other forms of expression (Alston 2001)
• attention to written and spoken communications over attention to human problems (Alston 2001)
• winning debates in the public sphere over making and understanding meaning (Alston 2001)

A common thread in this smorgasbord of accusations is dissatisfaction with focusing on the logical analysis and evaluation of reasoning and arguments. While these authors acknowledge that such analysis and evaluation is part of critical thinking and should be part of its conceptualization and pedagogy, they insist that it is only a part. Paul (1981), for example, bemoans the tendency of atomistic teaching of methods of analyzing and evaluating arguments to turn students into more able sophists, adept at finding fault with positions and arguments with which they disagree but even more entrenched in the egocentric and sociocentric biases with which they began. Martin (1992) and Thayer-Bacon (1992) cite with approval the self-reported intimacy with their subject-matter of leading researchers in biology and medicine, an intimacy that conflicts with the distancing allegedly recommended in standard conceptions and pedagogy of critical thinking. Thayer-Bacon (2000) contrasts the embodied and socially embedded learning of her elementary school students in a Montessori school, who used their imagination, intuition and emotions as well as their reason, with conceptions of critical thinking as

thinking that is used to critique arguments, offer justifications, and make judgments about what are the good reasons, or the right answers. (Thayer-Bacon 2000: 127–128)

Alston (2001) reports that her students in a women’s studies class were able to see the flaws in the Cinderella myth that pervades much romantic fiction but in their own romantic relationships still acted as if all failures were the woman’s fault and still accepted the notions of love at first sight and living happily ever after. Students, she writes, should

be able to connect their intellectual critique to a more affective, somatic, and ethical account of making risky choices that have sexist, racist, classist, familial, sexual, or other consequences for themselves and those both near and far… critical thinking that reads arguments, texts, or practices merely on the surface without connections to feeling/desiring/doing or action lacks an ethical depth that should infuse the difference between mere cognitive activity and something we want to call critical thinking. (Alston 2001: 34)

Some critics portray such biases as unfair to women. Thayer-Bacon (1992), for example, has charged modern critical thinking theory with being sexist, on the ground that it separates the self from the object and causes one to lose touch with one’s inner voice, and thus stigmatizes women, who (she asserts) link self to object and listen to their inner voice. Her charge does not imply that women as a group are on average less able than men to analyze and evaluate arguments. Facione (1990c) found no difference by sex in performance on his California Critical Thinking Skills Test. Kuhn (1991: 280–281) found no difference by sex in either the disposition or the competence to engage in argumentative thinking.

The critics propose a variety of remedies for the biases that they allege. In general, they do not propose to eliminate or downplay critical thinking as an educational goal. Rather, they propose to conceptualize critical thinking differently and to change its pedagogy accordingly. Their pedagogical proposals arise logically from their objections. They can be summarized as follows:

• Focus on argument networks with dialectical exchanges reflecting contesting points of view rather than on atomic arguments, so as to develop “strong sense” critical thinking that transcends egocentric and sociocentric biases (Paul 1981, 1984).
• Foster closeness to the subject-matter and feeling connected to others in order to inform a humane democracy (Martin 1992).
• Develop “constructive thinking” as a social activity in a community of physically embodied and socially embedded inquirers with personal voices who value not only reason but also imagination, intuition and emotion (Thayer-Bacon 2000).
• In developing critical thinking in school subjects, treat as important neither skills nor dispositions but opening worlds of meaning (Alston 2001).
• Attend to the development of critical thinking dispositions as well as skills, and adopt the “critical pedagogy” practised and advocated by Freire (1968 [1970]) and hooks (1994) (Dalgleish, Girard, & Davies 2017).

A common thread in these proposals is treatment of critical thinking as a social, interactive, personally engaged activity like that of a quilting bee or a barn-raising (Thayer-Bacon 2000) rather than as an individual, solitary, distanced activity symbolized by Rodin’s The Thinker . One can get a vivid description of education with the former type of goal from the writings of bell hooks (1994, 2010). Critical thinking for her is open-minded dialectical exchange across opposing standpoints and from multiple perspectives, a conception similar to Paul’s “strong sense” critical thinking (Paul 1981). She abandons the structure of domination in the traditional classroom. In an introductory course on black women writers, for example, she assigns students to write an autobiographical paragraph about an early racial memory, then to read it aloud as the others listen, thus affirming the uniqueness and value of each voice and creating a communal awareness of the diversity of the group’s experiences (hooks 1994: 84). Her “engaged pedagogy” is thus similar to the “freedom under guidance” implemented in John Dewey’s Laboratory School of Chicago in the late 1890s and early 1900s. It incorporates the dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring that Abrami (2015) found to be most effective in improving critical thinking skills and dispositions.

What is the relationship of critical thinking to problem solving, decision-making, higher-order thinking, creative thinking, and other recognized types of thinking? One’s answer to this question obviously depends on how one defines the terms used in the question. If critical thinking is conceived broadly to cover any careful thinking about any topic for any purpose, then problem solving and decision making will be kinds of critical thinking, if they are done carefully. Historically, ‘critical thinking’ and ‘problem solving’ were two names for the same thing. If critical thinking is conceived more narrowly as consisting solely of appraisal of intellectual products, then it will be disjoint with problem solving and decision making, which are constructive.

Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives used the phrase “intellectual abilities and skills” for what had been labeled “critical thinking” by some, “reflective thinking” by Dewey and others, and “problem solving” by still others (Bloom et al. 1956: 38). Thus, the so-called “higher-order thinking skills” at the taxonomy’s top levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation are just critical thinking skills, although they do not come with general criteria for their assessment (Ennis 1981b). The revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson et al. 2001) likewise treats critical thinking as cutting across those types of cognitive process that involve more than remembering (Anderson et al. 2001: 269–270). For details, see the Supplement on History .

As to creative thinking, it overlaps with critical thinking (Bailin 1987, 1988). Thinking about the explanation of some phenomenon or event, as in Ferryboat , requires creative imagination in constructing plausible explanatory hypotheses. Likewise, thinking about a policy question, as in Candidate , requires creativity in coming up with options. Conversely, creativity in any field needs to be balanced by critical appraisal of the draft painting or novel or mathematical theory.

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• The Nature of Critical Thinking: An Outline of Critical Thinking Dispositions and Abilities , by Robert H. Ennis

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Disposition Towards Critical Thinking and Student Engagement in Higher Education

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Developing student critical thinking skills is a core purpose of higher education, and requires the cognitive and disposition components of critical thinking to be fostered. The present study aims to examine the relationship between disposition towards critical thinking and engagement in higher education students. Participants were 836 students from two universities in Spain. Results showed a direct and positive relationship between student critical thinking disposition and several aspects of student engagement, such as reflective learning and participation in high-impact practices. These results could inform general pedagogical practices within the higher education curriculum so as to foster critical thinking disposition among future graduates.

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Abrami, P. C., Bernard, R. M., Borokhovski, E., Waddington, D. I., Wade, C. A., & Persson, T. (2015). Strategies for teaching students to think critically: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 85 (2), 275–314. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654314551063

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This research was supported by a grant from Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundia to the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences of Mondragon Unibertsitatea.

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PAH conceived the research; AM analyzed the data; IL contributed to the interpretation of the results. PAH, AM and IL wrote the manuscript. All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript.

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Álvarez-Huerta, P., Muela, A. & Larrea, I. Disposition Towards Critical Thinking and Student Engagement in Higher Education. Innov High Educ 48 , 239–256 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-022-09614-9

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-022-09614-9

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