Return to References: Critical Thinking factor page.
Numerous measures exist to gain a full picture of a student's learning strengths and challenges. Following are examples of measures used to assess this Learner Factor. These measures should be administered and interpreted by experienced professionals.
California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory: (Facione et al., 2001): Learner questionnaire assessing attitudes and dispositions towards Critical Thinking.
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.
Bailin, S., Case, R., Coombs, J. R., & Daniels, L. B. (1999). Conceptualizing critical thinking. Journal of curriculum studies, 31(3), 285-302.
Bernier, A., Beauchamp, M. H., Bouvette‐Turcot, A. A., Carlson, S. M., & Carrier, J. (2013). Sleep and cognition in preschool years: specific links to executive functioning.Child Development, 84(5), 1542-1553.
Bustamante, A. S., Greenfield, D. B., & Nayfeld, I. (2018). Early childhood science and engineering: Engaging platforms for fostering domain-general learning skills. Education Sciences, 8(144), 1-13.
Bustamante, A. S., Hassinger‐Das, B., Hirsh‐Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2019). Learning landscapes: Where the science of learning meets architectural design. Child Development Perspectives, 13(1), 34-40.
Chi, M. T. H. (1989). Self-explanations: How students study and use examples in learning to solve problems. Cognitive Science, 13(2), 145-182.
Crowell, A., & Kuhn, D. (2014). Developing dialogic argumentation skills: A 3-year intervention study. Journal of Cognition and Development, 15(2), 363-381.
Davis, S., Rawlings, B., Clegg, J. M., Ikejimba, D., Watson-Jones, R. E., Whiten, A., & Legare, C. H. (2022). Cognitive flexibility supports the development of cumulative cultural learning in children. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 14073.
Ennis, R. H. (1985). A logical basis for measuring critical thinking skills. Educational Leadership, 43(2), 44-48.
Facione, P. A., Facione, N. C., & Giancarlo, C. A. (2001). California critical thinking disposition inventory: Inventory manual. California Academic Press, Millbrae, CA. PA Facione and NC Facione. Talking critical thinking change. Higher Learning, 39(2), 2007.
Fisher, Robert. (2005) (2nd ed.) Teaching Children to Think. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.
Forchelli, G. A., Vuijk, P. J., Colvin, M. K., Ward, A. K., Koven, M. R., Dews, A., ... & Braaten, E. B. (2022). What is a processing speed weakness? Importance of cognitive ability when defining processing speed in a child psychiatric population. Child Neuropsychology, 28(2), 266-286.
García Franco, A., Ferrara Reyes, L., & Gómez Galindo, A. A. (2022). Culturally relevant science education and critical thinking in indigenous people: bridging the gap between community and school science. Critical Thinking in Biology and Environmental Education: Facing Challenges in a Post-Truth World, 55-72.
Gopnik, A., O'Grady, S., Lucas, C. G., Griffiths, T. L., Wente, A., Bridgers, S., ... & Dahl, R. E. (2017). Changes in cognitive flexibility and hypothesis search across human life history from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(30), 7892-7899.
Handley, S. J., Capon, A., Beveridge, M., Dennis, I., & Evans, J. S. B. (2004). Working memory, inhibitory control and the development of children's reasoning. Thinking & Reasoning, 10(2), 175-195.
Hu, W., Jia, X., Plucker, J. A., & Shan, X. (2016). Effects of a critical thinking skills program on the learning motivation of primary school students. Roeper Review, 38(2), 70-83.
Jirout, J., & Klahr, D. (2020). Questions–and some answers–about young children's questions. Journal of Cognition and Development, 21(5), 729-753.
Kail, R. V., Lervåg, A., & Hulme, C. (2016). Longitudinal evidence linking processing speed to the development of reasoning. Developmental Science, 19(6), 1067-1074.
Kuhn, D. (1999). A developmental model of critical thinking. Educational Researcher, 28(2), 16-46.
Lai, E. R. (2011). Critical thinking: A literature review. Pearson's Research Reports, 6(1), 40-41.
Lapidow, E., Killeen, I., & Walker, C. M. (2022). Learning to recognize uncertainty vs. recognizing uncertainty to learn: Confidence judgments and exploration decisions in preschoolers. Developmental science, 25(2), e13178.
Mayer, D., Sodian, B., Koerber, S., & Schwippert, K. (2014). Scientific reasoning in elementary school children: Assessment and relations with cognitive abilities. Learning and Instruction, 29, 43-55.
Meltzoff, A. (1999). Origins of theory of mind, cognition, and communication. Journal of Communication Disorders, 32(4), 251-269.
Nettelbeck, T., & Burns, N. R. (2010). Processing speed, working memory and reasoning ability from childhood to old age. Personality and Individual Differences, 48(4), 379-384.
O'Reilly, C., Devitt, A., & Hayes, N. (2022). Critical thinking in the preschool classroom-a systematic literature review. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 101110.
Papadopoulos, I., & Bisir, E. (2020). Fostering critical thinking skills in preschool education: Designing, implementing and assessing a multiliteracies-oriented program based on intercultural tales. Multilingual Academic Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 9(1), 1-19.
Radulović, L., & Stančić, M. (2017). What is needed to develop critical thinking in schools? Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 7(3), 9-25.
Ren, X., Tong, Y., Peng, P., & Wang, T. (2020). Critical thinking predicts academic performance beyond general cognitive ability: Evidence from adults and children. Intelligence, 82, 101487.
Ryu, S., & Sandoval, W. A. (2012). Improvements to elementary children's epistemic understanding from sustained argumentation. Science Education, 96(3), 488-526.
Schulz, L. E., & Bonawitz, E. B. (2007). Serious fun: preschoolers engage in more exploratory play when evidence is confounded. Developmental psychology, 43(4), 1045.
Shamir, A., Zion, M., & Spector-Levi, O. (2008). Peer tutoring, metacognitive processes and multimedia problem-based learning: The effect of mediation training on critical thinking. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 17(4), 384-398.
Shaw, P., Eckstrand, K., Sharp, W., Blumenthal, J., Lerch, J. P., Greenstein, D. E. E. A., ... & Rapoport, J. L. (2007). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is characterized by a delay in cortical maturation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(49), 19649-19654.
Silva, H., Lopes, J., Dominguez, C., & Morais, E. (2022). Think-Pair-Share and Roundtable: Two Cooperative Learning Structures to Enhance Critical Thinking Skills of 4th Graders. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 15(1), 11-21.