Peter Facione

Measured Reasons LLC & Insight Assessment · www.measuredreasons.com

Since the publication of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) our research team has often been asked what a person might do in order to develop strong critical thinking habits of mind. The answer, as it turns out, is both easier and more difficult than might at first be imagined. This essay offers specific suggestions – pr...

When presented with a problem, our cognitive heuristics and our capacity for logical reasoning play critical roles in the natural human quest to find a resolution that we can assert with plausible confidence to be our best available option. We can call this option the dominant or superior option in any given context. In decision making we move, mor...

We all want candidates who can think, but standard interview questions simply do not allow the candidate to demonstrate their critical thinking skills and mindset in action. Every candidate can claim they have strong critical thinking skills on their resume, but how can managers determine whether the claim is true before taking a risk and hiring th...

Anything that is valued is measured. Over the past three decades building critical thinking skills and a thinking mindset has moved from a theoretical academic discussion to a global concern for employers, educators, and those seeking to advance truth-seeking for the sake of democracy and the reasoned pursuit of our common good. This white paper su...

The theoretical model book for measuring holistic critical thinking (PCH) in the teaching of the nursing diagnostic process (PDE) highlights the complexity of the PDE based on the application of the PCH of nursing students in face of the requirement of making accurate clinical decisions; in addition, it demonstrates the applicability of the Holisti...

Responses to today's top10 most frequently asked questions about critical thinking: 1. Can experts agree on a definition? 2. Who benefits from developing strong critical thinking? 3. What skills are used in thinking critically? 4. What about creativity and emotion -- are they part of critical thinking?" 5. Words like "courageously," "systemati...

This post is a discussion starter. It is based on an actual debate about three diverging perspectives regarding critical thinking. It begins, "During the lunch break between sessions of the workshop on leadership decision making, three C-Suite executives got into it about critical thinking. Not often a topic that sparks raised voices, I could not r...

This post is a discussion starter. It is based on an actual debate about three diverging perspectives regarding critical thinking. It begins, "During the lunch break between sessions of the workshop on leadership decision making, three C-Suite executives got into it about critical thinking. Not often a topic that sparks raised voices, I could not r...

Deceptive astroturfing cleverly promotes products, policies, people, and political positions while concealing who is really behind the false claims. Astroturfing makes the critical thinking task of evaluating credibility more difficult and yet more important than ever. This blog, along with the two video examples it references, lists five questions...

Posing as a Midwestern housewife and using thousands of other fake accounts on Twitter and facebook, lying Russian meddlers reached 126 million Americans during the 2016 election. These days all of us need to defend ourselves against blizzards of false information. We cannot permit our democracy to be buried under our own gullibility. After all, if...

Cuando se nos presenta un problema, nuestra heurística cognitiva para el razonamiento lógico juega un papel muy importante en la búsqueda humana natural para encontrar una resolución que podamos hacer valer con la confianza plausible de ser nuestra mejor alternativa disponible. En cualquier contexto dado, podemos llamar a esta alternativa, la alter...

Like anyone's, my CT course boldly assumes (1) CT can be learned, (2) CT can be assessed, and (3) CT can be taught. I sleep easier these days knowing that (1) is probably true in spite of anything I might do in the classroom. I pray (3) is true, and I most certainly conduct myself on campus as if it were. Imagine the budgetary bloodshed should the...

The literature documents significant claims of experienced prejudice in healthcare delivery in relationship to ethnicity, race, female gender, and homosexual orientation. Studies link perceived prejudice with negative healthcare outcomes, particularly in hypertension, heart disease, depression, and human immunodeficiency virus or acquired immune de...

The reasons women give for delaying diagnosis of breast cancer symptoms are numerous and striking. Yet none prove reliable as indicators of those who will delay, and most women overcome all barriers to seek immediate diagnosis. This study looks more deeply into the reasoning of symptomatic women sustaining confidence in a decision to delay diagnosi...

Senior academic leaders are in consensus that, for purposes of tenure, a candidate's significant contributions to collaborative scholarship should be valued highly. The fundamental issue is how to give due weight and proper consideration for purposes of tenure to the intellectual work and scholarly worth of various kinds of contributions. As a grou...

Five Essentials Budgeting at too many colleges and universities amounts to muddling from one year to the next. This is a poor enough way to function in good times; it can be fatal to an institution in bad economic times. Even when the national economy is strong, few worthy of being called leaders in higher education are genuinely satisfied with the...

This article examines the critical thinking (CT) dispositions, as measured by the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory, of students at a four-year, private, liberal arts, comprehensive university. This paper follows up results first published in 1995. The present findings represent another snapshot of CT dispositions among students wh...

People make significant decisions in contexts of risk and un- certainty. Some of these decisions seem wise under the circumstances, and others seem like irrational choices. In both cases, people offer rea- sons as clarifications and explanations of these choices to others and to themselves. Argument analysis, a technique well known in philosophy an...

Theorists have hypothesized that skill in critical thinking is positively correlated with the consistent internal motivation to think and that specific critical thinking skills are matched with specific critical thinking dispositions. If true, these assumptions suggest that a skill-focused curriculum would lead persons to be both willing and able t...

The goals of providing cancer prevention, detection, and treatment services in the United States imply an equity of access to cancer services for populations at risk for cancer disease. What does access to cancer services really mean, and what changes in current practice are dictated by an ethics of equity as we approach the 21st century.

Learners and workers must be willing, not just able, to make informed, skilled, and fair-minded judgments as they solve problems, make decisions, and engage in professional practice.

CRITICAL THINKING, DEFINED AS PURPOSEFUL SELF-REGULATORY JUDGMENT, IS CENTRALLY EVIDENT IN NURSING KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT AND EXPERT CLINICAL JUDGMENT. A HOLISTIC CT SCORING RUBRIC, A FRAMEWORK FOR CT INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP PRESENTATIONS, AND A CASE STUDY STRATEGY FOR TRAINING AND NURTURING CT IN STUDENTS ILLUSTRATE THAT THE CT IN NURSING KNOWLEDGE DE...

The assessment of graduating students' critical thinking skills and habits of mind challenges and rewards those who approach the task from a critical thinking perspective. The article identifies and discusses issues in the design of authentic assessments of critical thinking as an educational outcome predictive of competent professional judgment in...

There is a set of characterological attributes thought to be associated with developing success at critical thinking (CT). This paper explores the disposition toward CT theoretically , and then as it appears to be manifest in college students. Factor analytic research grounded in a consensus-base d conceptual analysis of CT described seven aspects...

Assessing critical thinking skills and disposition is crucial in nursing education and research. The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) uses the Delphi Report's consensus definition of critical thinking as the theoretical basis to measure critical thinking disposition. Item analysis and factor analysis techniques were used t...

This study explored the disposition of college students toward critical thinking. The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) was given to 586 freshmen in 1992 at a selective, private, urban, comprehensive university. The CCTDI is comprised of seven scales to assess inquisitiveness, open-mindedness, systematicity, analyticity, tr...

Criterion 20 of the National League for Nursing's accreditation process requires documentation of critical thinking (CT) as an outcome of nursing education. This raises two questions: What is meant by CT? and How can it be measured? Building on a consensus construct of CT as articulated in the American Philosophical Association 1990 Delphi Report,...

The California Critical Thinking Skills Test: College Level (CCTST) is a standardized test that targets core college-level critical thinking skills. It has been characterized as the best commercially available critical thinking skills assessment instrument. Building from CCTST validation studies in 1989 and 1990, this paper proposes avenues for fur...

In January 1988 the Committee on Pre-College Philosophy of the American Philosophical Association undertook a survey of the state of the art of critical thinking (CT) assessment. Using Delphi research methodology, a panel of 60 scholars and teachers from throughout the United States and Canada, with backgrounds in Philosophy, Psychology, Education,...

The California Critical Thinking Skills Test--College Level (CCTST) was examined in terms of the possible impact on critical thinking (CT) skill performance of: (1) student gender; (2) ethnicity; (3) academic major; and (4) CT self-esteem. The CCTST was administered to 1,196 students at California State University (Fullerton) in the 1989-90 school...

Group norms are provided for the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST)--College Level, a standardized 34-item multiple-choice test designed to assess the core critical thinking skills associated with baccalaureate general education. The CCTST offers three subtests conceptualized in terms of a national Delphi study on critical thinking. T...

Correlations between the California Critical Thinking Skills Test--College Level (CCTST) and student-related factors regarded as indicators of academic ability and success were studied in a series of four experiments investigating whether the CCTST measures improvement in critical thinking (CT) skills. During 1989-90, data were collected on 1,196 c...

Technical Report #1 presents the findings of four experiments to determine if the "California Critical Thinking Skills Test: College Level," (CCTST) measured the growth in critical thinking skills achieved by college students completing approved critical thinking courses. Conducted at California State University, Fullerton during the 1989/90 academ...

At the college level, the obstacles to machine-testing of critical thinking are more pedagogical and practical than theoretical and include creating an operational definition, differentiating critical thinking skills and subskills, and establishing test reliability and validity. (MSE)

Using the Delphi Technique, this study investigated the concept of acceptance and sought to identify behavioral indicators of patient acceptance of nurse practitioners. Thirty-four nurse practitioners participated in the study and came to consensus regarding 20 verbal and 16 nonverbal behaviors. This study was a step toward defining objective crite...

Recent reforms intended to strengthen teacher preparation programs are reviewed. Attributes of ideal teacher candidates before and after training are listed, and recommendations to improve training and professionalize teaching are discussed. (MT)

A discussion encouraging the development of a consistent and comprehensive theory of critical thinking for use in developing the liberal arts curriculum focuses on identifying teachable skills in the art of constructing and evaluating arguments. Further research in all disciplines is recommended. (MSE)