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Critical thinking. Can it be measured?

Pensamiento crítico. Se puede medir?
KHALID HAMOUD ALOSAIMI 1, NORMAN REID 1, SUSAN RODRIGUES 2

1
Universities of Dundee and Glasgow, Scotland, UK, 2 Escieducation.Ltd, UK
E-mail: dr_n@btinternet.com

Abstract
It has been argued that critical thinking is a vital skill in science education. However,
there is a lack of clarity in describing what is meant by critical thinking and no test
designed to measure this skill. This paper seeks to develop an operational description
of critical thinking. Using that description, a test of critical thinking was developed
for 13-15 year old school students. After several stages of scrutiny and a pilot study,
the test was used with a sample of 240 school students from Saudi Arabia across three
age groups. The outcomes from the test were related to measured working memory
capacity and to performance in science examinations. The findings show that, while
critical thinking has to take place in the working memory, the test outcomes were
not being controlled by the capacity of working memory. It also showed that the test
of critical thinking, although based largely on science content, was not a measure
of that content.
Keywords: critical thinking, working memory capacity, science performance
Resumen
Se ha sostenido que el pensamiento crítico es una habilidad vital en la educación
científica. Sin embargo, hay una falta de claridad en la descripción de lo que significa
el pensamiento crítico y hay una prueba diseñada para medir esta habilidad. Este
trabajo busca desarrollar una descripción operacional del pensamiento crítico.
Con esa descripción, una prueba de pensamiento crítico fue desarrollado para
estudiantes de 13 a 15 años de la vieja escuela. Después de varias etapas de control
y un estudio piloto, la prueba utilizó una muestra de 240 estudiantes de las escuelas
de Arabia Saudita a través de tres grupos por edad. Los resultados de la prueba se
relacionaron con medidas de capacidad de memoria de trabajo y el desempeño en
los exámenes de ciencias. Los resultados muestran que, mientras que el pensamiento
crítico debe tener lugar en la memoria de trabajo, los resultados de las pruebas no
fueron controlados por la capacidad de esta memoria . También demostró que la
prueba de pensamiento crítico, aunque se basa en gran medida en el contenido de
la ciencia, no era una medida de ese contenido.
Palabras clave: pensamiento crítico, capacidad de memoria, rendimiento en
ciencias
INTRODUCTION
There has been exponentially rapid progress in science and technology
in recent years. Access to knowledge has changed dramatically with new
technologies. The value of what we know is being eroded and replaced
step-by-step by an increasing value placed upon a knowledge of how to
obtain information. In turn, this generates an increasing need to know what
knowledge to seek and how to evaluate what is found. Thus, educational
development requires a new outlook on the way students think: this does not
mean changing what they learn, but it does mean changing how they think.
In this context, the concept of critical thinking has gained in importance
and has become a widely-used term in the education field in recent years
(Fisher, 2005; Kong, 2005). According to Norris (1985), critical thinking is
not an educational choice but all students should be taught to think critically.
The first aim in this paper is to generate an operational description of
critical thinking, based on an analysis of the literature. The second aim is
to develop a test of critical thinking (for 13-15 year old learners) and gain
evidence of its validity.
The History of Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is not a new phenomenon (Facione, 2009). Paul (1990)
considers that the roots of critical thinking can be traced back 2500 years
to Socrates, who revealed through questioning that most individuals could
offer no rational justification for their strongly-held beliefs. However, John
Dewey is often considered to be the originator of the modern-day tradition
of critical thinking (Ennis, 1993; Fisher, 2005).
A key landmark came in 1962 with the article by Ennis entitled, ‘A Concept
of Critical Thinking’ (Ennis, 1962; Kong, 2005). Rather than focussing on the
process of critical thinking, this concentrated on the quality of its products.
Ennis redefined his original concept in the late 1980s, and included within it
a process of critical thinking directed towards making decisions as to beliefs
or actions (Ennis, 1989; Norris and Ennis, 1989).
The multiplicity of definitions for critical thinking can be attributed to the
multiplicity of specialities among scholars. Logicians define critical thinking
as arriving at results from premises; biologists define it as the attempts made

30 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE EDUCATION - Nº 1, Vol. 15, pp. 30-36, 2014, ISSN 0124-5481, www.accefyn.org.co/rec
 Critical thinking. Can it be measured?

by the living organism to overcome obstacles encountered in the environment;
and educationalists and psychologists are interested in the skills involved in
critical thinking in order to reach logical conclusions (Abdul Jalil, 2006).
Some of the educational descriptions are summarised in table 1, illustrating
the wide range of perceptions of the nature of critical thinking.
Thinking Critically about Critical Thinking
Another way of looking at critical thinking is to consider the absence of
critical thinking. In essence, if we are thinking uncritically, that implies a
lack of questioning.

Table 1 Some historical insights

Author Summary

Differs from simple thinking in that it presents opinions only

Limpan (1988)
supported by evidence.

Distinguishes critical thinking from problem solving and from

Beyer (1988) Figure 1. Thinking Uncritically and Critically
decision-making strategies.

Views it in terms of attitude where the individual seeks the truth Another way to look at critical thinking is:
McPeck (1990)
independently to reach a conclusion.

The concept is frequently used as an umbrella term to cover

Zeidler (1992)
problem solving and all thinking operations.

Defines it as a mode of thinking, involving imposing intellec-

Paul (1993)
tual standards upon what is received.

Author Summary

Sees critical thinking as, ‘the correct assessing of a statement’

Ennis (1993)
(p 179).

Defines it in terms of link causes and effects, inferring, dedu-

Assaid (1995)
cing, weigh up reasons and being open-minded.

‘The skilful and active interpretation and evaluation of obser-

Fisher and Scri- Figure 2. The Cognitive and Attitudinal
vations and communications, information and argumentation’
ven (1997)
(p 21).
From all the evidence, the operational description for critical thinking
Al-Masree Precise and accurate objective interpretation and judgment, being used here is conceptualised by asking three questions (How? What?
(2003) without bias or prejudice. Why?) of new information sources, the information itself and to the linking
process involved in understanding (Figure 3).
Defines it in terms of being able to evaluate information and
Ganem (2004)
verify opinions.

… a mental process that seeks to clarify as well as evaluate the

Kong (2005)
action and activity that one encounters in life.’ (p 7).

‘Seeing both sides of an issue, being open to new evidence that

Willingham disconfirms your ideas, reasoning dispassionately, demanding
(2007) that claims be backed evidence, deducing and inferring conclu-
sions from available facts, solving problems ….’ (p 8).

‘…. gives reasoned consideration to evidence, context, concep-

Facione (2009)
tualizations, methods and criteria.’ (p 18).
Figure 3. Model of critical thinking
At the Delphi Conference, the panel defined critical thinking, ‘to be There are three parts to the model:
purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, The source of the information: Who is the source, how was it communicated,
analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as the explanation of the why was it communicated and what was communicated? Is the source reliable,
evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual does the author have some agenda, is there bias? In simple terms, is the source
considerations upon which that judgment is based’ (Facione,1990). While of the information valid and reliable?
this is comprehensive, it may, however, be very difficult to operationalise,
making assessment problematic. This illustrates the problem with so much of The actual information itself: The content of the information offered needs
the literature on critical thinking: it offers little to assist in its measurement. to be evaluated for its accuracy, its completeness and whether it is relevant,
Saadah (2003) brings much together in describing a set of features important, useful and consistent? The information needs to be evaluated and
characterising critical thinking and not shared by other types of thinking. assumptions challenged.
The most prominent of these characteristics are: How the new information relates to what is already known: The way the
• Willingness to search for evidence. new information relates to ideas already held. Is the information consistent
with previous knowledge or does it contradict or undermine what is already
• Taking into account all viewpoints. known?
• Scepticism and open-mindedness, seeking evidence and focussing on Critical thinking is not the same as understanding but involves
accuracy and clarity. understanding. It is not the same as knowing but involves knowing.
• The use of procedures to direct questions and specify assumptions. Critical Thinking and Science Education
• Arriving at conclusions by scrutinising the logical relationships between In many countries, education in the sciences at school level has already
data and available information. moved well beyond the transmission of information. Attitudes, skills and

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE EDUCATION - Nº 1, Vol. 15, pp. 30-36, 2014, ISSN 0124-5481, www.accefyn.org.co/rec 31
Critical thinking. Can it be measured?

thinking have emerged as key aspects (Albaz, 2001; Nahid, 2003). There
Facets of Criti-
are many (eg. Zaitoon, 2004) who have argued cogently for the need to Task Method
develop critical thinking in the sciences. However, how to do this is rarely cal Thinking
communicated; how to measure what has been achieved is almost never 8 Asking what of Is the information com- Evaluate information for its
addressed. information itself plete, relevant, impor- completeness, its balance,
Much in the science education literature is still at a level of aspiration tant? its relevance or its impor-
and there is a lack of evidence on how to achieve progress. How to make tance.
progress is much more demanding and, indeed, the work of Kirschner et
al. (2006) undermines many of the assertions made about ways to improve 9 Asking what of What is involved in the What is needed to bring
science understanding. This may be highly relevant to critical thinking also. information linked linking process? two or more sets of infor-
to past knowledge mation together to make a
Measuring Critical Thinking coherent whole?
To measure critical thinking, a test was developed. It was designed so
that success in the questions was considered to depend on one or more of Test items were then developed and then analysed to see what facets
the facets of critical thinking, as shown in table 2. Critical thinking has of critical thinking were being tested. A draft test was then produced and
been conceptualised in terms of asking three questions (how, what, why?) considered by various subject experts. In the light of their feedback, it was
of information, its source, and how it fits in with previous knowledge. This modified and reduced in length. The test was translated into Arabic and the
gives rise to nine facets of critical thinking (table 2). translation checked. A feature of the test is that the questions use a wide
variety of formats, as it is well established that different formats can generate
Table 2 The nine aspects of critical thinking different outcomes (Danili and Reid, 2005).
At this stage, the test was piloted with 20 students (ages 13-15). One of
Category Facets of Critical Thinking the aims of the pilot study was to determine the time required for completion
of the test. A further aim was to ensure that the questions were neither too
1 Asking how of information source difficult nor too easy for the purpose. In addition, it was important to determine
whether the tests were comprehensible and unambiguous for the students in
2 Asking how of information itself order to avoid any misunderstandings. Informal discussion with the students
supported the validity of the test. Minor modifications were then incorporated.
3 Asking how of information linked to past knowledge
Measurements Made
4 Asking why of information source To gain some further insights on validity, the outcomes from the new
test were related to measured working memory capacity and school science
5 Asking why of information itself marks. The aim here is to show that the new test is not simply being controlled
by limited working memory capacity and is not simply measuring science
6 Asking why of information linked to past knowledge knowledge.
7 Asking what of information source
A sample of 240 school students (aged approximately 13-15) was selected
randomly, involving girls’ and boys schools’ (education is gender-separated
8 Asking what of information itself in Saudi Arabia), involving a cross-section of the typical school population
at these ages (table 4).
9 Asking what of information linked to past knowledge
Table 4 Sample Chosen
The nine facets were then interpreted into types of questions that might Years Age Girl Boy Total
be asked of the students. These are shown in table 3. 1 13 40 40 80
2 14 40 40 80
Table 3 Framework for test
3 15 40 40 80
Facets of Criti- Total 120 120 240
Task Method
cal Thinking
Critical thinking has to take place in the working memory (see: Reid,
1 Asking how of Evaluate reliability/vali- Students were given some 2009a,b) and it is possible that the new test of critical thinking may simply be
information source dity of source. statements or information giving some measure of the variable capacity of working memory. Thus, care
and asked to evaluate the was taken in its design to avoid questions where excessive working memory
reliability of the source. demands were being made. However, it was important to measure the capacity
2 Asking how of How did the information Evaluate how I obtained of working memory for each student to check if these measurements related
information itself reach me? this information. in any way to those obtained from the critical thinking test.
3 Asking how of How does the informa- Students were given more
In the same way, it is possible that the new test of critical thinking may
information linked tion link to previous than one set of information,
be just a measure of knowledge or understanding. Therefore, there is a need
to past knowledge
to check if the scores from the critical thinking test were related in any way
knowledge or link within and asked how they link
to science performance. Working memory capacity was measured using the
itself; consistency? together.
established figural intersection test (Chen and Whitehead, 2009) while the
4 Asking why of Why was this informa- Students were given some normal school science exam marks for one semester were taken.
information source tion provided? statements and asked to
speculate on why it was Reliability and Validity of Measurements
provided and whether it is The most fundamental problem is test validity. Was the test measuring
valid. what it was intended to measure? The only attempts to assess critical thinking
found used survey types of methodologies and these merely determine what
5 Asking why of Why is the information Why was the information
respondents think they are doing. That is very different from the actual
information itself given in this way? presented in a specific
demonstration of a cognitive skill. This issue is discussed by Reid (2012).
way? The test items were reviewed critically by several academics and practicing
6 Asking why of Why should certain Why is important or neces- teachers, all with considerable experience in science education at school
information linked elements be linked to- sary bring together certain level. Discussions with the pilot group offered insights that suggested that
to past knowledge gether? elements of information? the items were valid. However, validity was approached in a different way.
7 Asking what of What is the source; is Who or what is the source? Content validity and construct validity were the focus (Oppenheim, 1992).
information source it reliable; is there an Does that alter our view of The former refers to the items in a test covering the issues, knowledge or skills
agenda? how we treat the informa- to be measured in a balanced way while the latter indicates the possibility of
tion? relating the outcomes of the measurement to a set of theoretical assumptions
concerning an abstract concept.

32 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE EDUCATION - Nº 1, Vol. 15, pp. 30-36, 2014, ISSN 0124-5481, www.accefyn.org.co/rec
 Critical thinking. Can it be measured?

The outcomes for the test were related to measured working memory
capacity and the performance in science examinations, working with three
age groups. Together, these offer a picture of test validity (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Approaches to test validity

Experimental
In this study, three measurements were made. Table 5 summarises the way Figure 5. Critical Thinking Score Distributions
validity was approached.
By looking at the three age groups, the following data were obtained
(table 7).
Table 5 Validity of the Tests Used
Measure- Table 6 Comparison between the 3 years in critical thinking test
Test Used Evidence of Validity
ment
Standard
Well-established test of assured N Mean (%) t-test p Comparison
Working Figural Intersection Deviation (%)
validity (Johnstone and Elbanna,
Memory Test Test
1986, 1989) Year 1 80 35.0 Means 13.2 Standard 1.4 n.s Year 1 - Year 2
Construct validity from test speci- rise deviation
Critical Year 2 80 41.0 11.7 0.9 n.s Year 2 - Year 3
New Test fications related to construct analy- with reduces
Thinking Test age with age 2.2 < 0.05 Year 1 - Year 3
sis, analysed by ‘experts’ Year 3 80 42.7 11.0

As valid and reliable as any school The data show that skills in critical thinking grow slightly but significantly
School Marks As used in schools
marks can be with age. However, the drop off in standard deviations was unexpected. There
may be three possible reasons why the critical thinking skill may grow with
Reliability was ensured by the use of large samples, and good test age (Hindal et al., 2009):
conditions (students were assured of no hidden agendas) (Reid, 2003). Genetic development: like working memory capacity, the skill may simply
develop with age.
The Figural Intersection Test Learning experiences: these may encourage increased levels of critical
The figure intersection test (FIT), developed by Pascual-Leone (1970), thinking.
measures the capacity of the working memory. The test involves the subjects Choice: the learners may find this kind of thinking helpful and choose
having to find an overlapping area of a group of shapes which make up a to use it more.
pattern. The size of the subject’s working memory is measured by the number The reduction of standard deviation with age means that there are fewer
of shapes of which he or she can find the intersection. For example, if the students with relatively low or high scores as they become older.
working memory space of the subject is six, this signifies that this subject A possible explanation for the observed trends can be offered in the
can find the intersection of up to 6 shapes, but cannot find the intersection following thought sequence:
for more than 6. The test is described in Jung and Reid (2009) and there are It is known that working memory capacity grows biologically with age;
several versions of it. Here, a 20-item test was employed, reflecting the age Critical thinking must take place within the working memory;
of the students involved. Therefore, critical thinking skills will grow with age;
The education system in Saudi Arabia tends only to reward recall;
The Critical Thinking Test Therefore, students are increasingly ‘forced’ to conform and not challenge
The final version, in English, of the critical thinking test is now shown in new knowledge;
full in the appendix. It was set in ‘friendly’ language to reduce any stress on Therefore, the spread of critical thinking skills narrows with age as this
the respondents. The eight questions were scored as follows, simply based effect increases.
on ease of marking, and scaled in various ways:
Working Memory Capacity Analyses
(a) Each question was scored to be marked out of 1, assuming that each The data from the measured working memory capacity is correlated with
question is of equal demand level and makes an equal contribution the science marks (table 7).
to the underlying construct of critical thinking. The final score is out
of 8. Table 7. Working Memory and Science Marks
(b) By weighting each question on the basis of a subjective judgement about
its relative value in terms of its demand level and contribution to the Pearson Correlation
underlying construct of critical thinking and then adding up the scores Year Working Memory Capacity
to give a total, the final score is now out of 23. 1 0.46 p < 0.001
It was found that the same patterns of outcomes were obtained irrespective Science Marks 2 0.49 p < 0.001
of the way the critical thinking test was scored. Therefore, only the score out 3 0.30 p < 0.001
of 8, being more straightforward, will be discussed in this paper.
Critical Thinking Scores As expected, the capacity of working memory correlates very significantly
A distribution closely approximating to normal was obtained for the entire with performance in the science examination. The results are typical. For
example, Reid (2009a) quotes results from many experiments in many
population of 240 (Figure 5). countries which show Pearson correlation values ranging up to 0.69. The work

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE EDUCATION - Nº 1, Vol. 15, pp. 30-36, 2014, ISSN 0124-5481, www.accefyn.org.co/rec 33
Critical thinking. Can it be measured?
of Hindal et al. (2009, 2013) shows that the effect is true for all subjects but
the correlations tend to be higher for science-mathematics subjects, reflecting
their conceptual nature which places more demand on working memory. In
their seminal study, Johnstone and Elbanna (1986, 1989) have shown that the
capacity of working memory controls the performance.
The measured working memory capacities were then correlated with the
scores from the critical thinking test (table 8).
Table 8 Working Memory Capacity and Critical Thinking
Pearson Correlation
Year Critical Thinking
1 0.03
Working Memory Capacity 2 -0.07
3 -0.13
Johnstone (1997) has established that working memory capacity controls
thinking, understanding and problem solving. Hence, working memory
capacity will also control success in critical thinking. All the correlation
coefficients in table 10 are non-significant, showing that the capacity of
working memory does not relate to performance in the critical thinking test.
As thinking has to take place in the working memory, this means that the
demand level (Johnstone, 1997) or cognitive load (Kirschner et al., 2006) of
the questions in the test falls well below the limitations of working memory
capacity for this student group. In simple terms, the test is NOT a measure
of working memory capacity, although critical thinking itself must occur
within the working memory.
It was also found that working memory capacity grew with age (from a
mean of 4.0 to a mean of 5.2: F = 17.5, p << 0.001), confirming previous
studies (Miller, 1956), and that working memory capacity was gender-
unrelated (again confirming previous studies).
Critical Thinking and Science Marks
Table 9 shows the relationship between the critical thinking test sores (or any combination of) three main reasons (genetic development; learning
and the science scores.
Table 9 Critical Thinking and Science Scores
Pearson Correlation
Sample Year Critical Thinking p examinations, confirming previous studies.
80 1 0.53 < 0.001
Science Marks 80 2 0.21 n.s.
80 3 0.01 n.s.
For two year groups, the correlation values are not significant. However, for
year 1, highly significant correlations are found. However, there is a pattern:
the correlation falls with age.
Possible explanations for this pattern of results can be presented:
The curriculum for each year group varied, with different emphases on
different disciplines within the sciences;
However, the values of the correlation coefficients fall with age, Abdul Jalil, R. (2006). Impact of reformulated strategy lesson plan in the development
suggesting that critical thinking is increasingly less important with age in of planning skills to teach critical thinking in geography lessons and the critical
the examinations employed;
As the school examinations tend to focus almost entirely on recall, it Banha University, 16, (65), 1-37.
seems that this emphasis may be de-emphasising critical thinking skills, Albaz, K. S. (2001). The Effect of the Use in Chemistry Teaching of Marzano’s Model
the effect growing with age.
CONCLUSIONS
A new test of critical thinking has been described. It was used with a large
number of students, from 3 year groups in Saudi Arabia, in the age range 13-15.
Data from three measurements have been considered for each age group.
The overall aim has been to explore the test of critical thinking to see if there
is any evidence that it measures critical thinking rather than simply being a
test of understanding or recall. In addition, is performance in the new test
being controlled by working memory capacity?
The relationships which have been found between the various measurements
are summarised in Figure 6.
The school tests in Saudi Arabia are designed to measure recall. Thus,
the test devised to measure critical thinking does not seem to measure recall
(at least for two age groups) nor does it relate to working memory capacity.
The working memory is where critical thinking must take place but the data
show that the size of the working memory is not influencing the performance
in the test of critical thinking.
34 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE EDUCATION - Nº 1, Vol. 15, pp. 30-36, 2014, ISSN 0124-5481, www.accefyn.org.co/rec
Figure 6. Relationships between Measurements
The test of critical thinking was constructed on the basis of a careful
analysis of the nature of critical thinking. The outcomes from this experiment
support its validity, although there can never be certainty in that critical
thinking does not appear to have been measured by a test before in any
research.
The first aim in this study has been to develop an operational description for
critical thinking. The literature on critical thinking has offered fairly complex
descriptions which are not easy to translate into any form of assessment. This
study offers an operational description. The second aim has been to develop
a test for critical thinking, based on that operational description, and gain
evidence of its validity. The findings from the study are encouraging.
There are numerous other important findings:
Critical thinking skills increase with age. This may be attributed to one of
experience, and; choice (Hindal et al., 2009).
Unexpectedly, the standard deviations from data from the critical thinking
tests fell with age. This shows that the pupils are tending towards an ‘average’
position with age, at least in Saudi Arabia.
Working memory is significantly correlated with performance in science
The most important goal is to be able to develop ways by which skills
in critical thinking can be encouraged and developed as an integral part
of learning in the sciences. This paper has taken the first step by offering
an operational description of critical thinking skills and a test to measure
the presence of such skills. The next stage is to develop new teaching and
learning approaches that seek to develop critical thinking skills and use the
test to examine whether the skills have, in fact been enhanced. This will be
the focus of a following study.
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Ennis, R.H. (1993). Critical Thinking Assessment. Theory into Practice, 32(3), 179-186. Zeidler, D., Lederman, N. and Taylor, S. (1992). Fallacies and Student Discourse:
Facione, P. (1990). The Delphi Report. Critical Thinking: A Statement of Expert Conceptualizing the Role of Critical Thinking in Science Education. Science
Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction. Millbrae, Education, 76(4), 437-450.
CA: The California Academic Press.
Received 17-07- 2013/ Approved 03-11-2013
Facione, P. (2009). Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts. Available from
http://www.inisightassessment.com/pdf_files/what&why2006.pdf. Retrieved
December, 2009. Updated 2011, available from http://www.student.uwa.edu. APPENDIX
au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/1922502/Critical-Thinking-What-it-is-and-
why-it-counts.pdf Retrieved 7th January, 2012. Critical Thinking Test Used
Fisher, A. (2005). Critical Thinking: An Introduction. 7th edition. Cambridge: (Translated for the Arabic)
Cambridge University Press. (1) Abdullah was talking to Khalid about global warming. Abdullah said that it was
Fisher, A. and Scriven, M. (1997). Critical Thinking: Its Definition and Assessment. happening very fast as the ice-cap at the North pole was melting rapidly. Khalid
Edgepress and Centre for Research in Critical Thinking, University of East Anglia. was not so sure. He remembered that some countries in the Middle East had faced
Ghanem, M. M. (2004). Children’s Thinking. Oman: House of Culture. frost and snow for the first time in living memory.
Hindal, H., Reid, N. and Badgaish, M. (2009). Working Memory, Performance and How can we be sure if global warming really is happening?
Learner Characteristics, Research in Science and Technological Education, (A) Believe Abdullah as he talks sense
27(2),187-204. (B) Read scientific books
Hindal, H., Reid, N. and Whitehead, R. (2013) A Fresh look at High Ability, International
(C) Talk to experts like university professors
Journal of Instruction. 6(1), 59-76.
Johnstone, A. H. and El-Banna, H. (1986). Capacities, Demands and Processes: a (D) Collect as much information as possible about global warming
Predictive Model for Science Education, Education in Chemistry, 23(3), 80-84. (E) Assume global warming is true and act accordingly
Johnstone, A.H. and El-Banna, H. (1989). Understanding Learning Difficulties - A (F) Look at information which has already been gathered through research
Predictive Research Model, Studies in Higher Education, 14(2), 159-168. (G) Accept what the majority of people believe is true about global warming
Johnstone, A.H. (1997). Chemistry Teaching. Science or Alchemy? Journal of Chemical
Education, 74(3),262-268. Arrange these suggested answers in order of their importance by placing
Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J. and Clark, R. E. (2006). Why Minimal Guidance During the letters A, B, C...etc. in the boxes below.
Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, The letter which comes first is the most important and the letter which
Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential and Inquiry-Based Teaching. Educational comes last is the least important for you.
Psychologist, 41(2), 75-86.
Kong, S. L. (2005). Critical Thinking Dispositions of Pre-service Teachers in Singapore:
most important least important
A Preliminary Investigation. Available from https://www.aare.edu.au/01pap/
kon01173.htm. Accessed 15th June, 2011
(2) This report appeared in a well known paper:
Lipman, M. (1988). Critical thinking what can it be? Educational Leadership. 46(1),
38-43. “Two workmen were suffocated in a tragic industrial accident when they
McPeck, J.E. (1990). Teaching Critical Thinking: Dialogue and Dialectic. New were overcome by fumes in a large tank where electrical-welding was taking
York: Routledge.
place. Afterwards, a detective said that, “burning argon gas in the welders
torch apparently used up all the oxygen in the tank”.
Miller, G. (1956). The magical number seven, Plus or minus two: Some limits on our
Look at the report.
capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81-87. Explain what is correct in the report and explain what is not correct in
Nahid, A.M (2003). Effectiveness of the generative model in the teaching of science the report.
to modify alternative conceptions about natural phenomena, Journal of Science
Education, 6(3), Egyptian Assembly for Scientific Education, Ein Shams What is correct:
University, Cairo, pp 45-105.
Norris, S. P. (1985). Synthesis of research on critical thinking. Educational Leadership. What is not correct:
42, 40-45.
Norris, S.P and Ennis, R. H. (1989). Evaluating Critical Thinking. Pacific Grove, CA:
Foundation for Critical Thinking. (3) The biology teacher is warning her students about the dangers of smoking
Oppenheim, A. N. (1992). Questionnaire design, interview and attitude measurement. cigarettes. She states that smoking will increase the chances of dying
London & New York, Continuum. from lung cancer very greatly.
Pascual-Leone, J. (1970). A Mathematical Model for the Transition Rule in Piaget’s Manal did not believe that. She told the teacher: ‘My grandmother is 79
Developmental Stages, Acta Psychologica, 32, 302-345. and has smoked for at least 60 years.’
Paul, R. W. (1990). Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Survive in a Who is right - the teacher or Manal? ....................................................................
Rapidly Changing World. Rohnert Park, CA: Center for Critical Thinking and Explain your reasoning: ..................................................................……………
Moral Critique. …………………...........................................................................................
Paul, R. W. (1993). The logic of creative and critical thinking. American Behavioral .......................................................................................................................
Scientist, 37(1), 21-39.
(4) Here is a set of numbers: 8 18 32 50
Reid, N. (2009a). The Concept of Working Memory, Research in Science and Two students are trying to work out the first number in the sequence:
Technological Education, 27(2), 131-138. ? 8 18 32 50
Reid, N. (2009b). Working Memory and Science Education, Research in Science and Mohammad suggests that it should be 4 as everything must divide by 2.
Technological Education, 27(2), 245-250. Faisal thinks it must be 0 as this keeps the gaps about right.
Reid, N. (2011). Attitude Research in science education, in I.M. Saleh and M.S. Explain why both are wrong.
Khine, eds., Attitude Research in Science Education, pages 3-44, Charlotte NC: ……………………………………………………………………………
Information Age Publishing Inc. …………………………
Saadah, G. (2003). Teaching Thinking Skills with 100 Practical Examples. Amman, (5) Some liquid nitrogen (at a temperature of -196°C) was poured
Jordan: Dar Al Shorok. over a balloon.
Willingham, D. T (2007). Critical Thinking: Why Is It So Hard to Teach? Available The balloon shrank in size very rapidly and then returned to its original
from http://www.readingfirst.virginia.edu/index.php/elibrary/critical_thinking_ size after several minutes. The table offers some explanations of what
why_is_it_so_hard_to_teach/ Accessed 6th July, 2011. was happening.

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE EDUCATION - Nº 1, Vol. 15, pp. 30-36, 2014, ISSN 0124-5481, www.accefyn.org.co/rec 35
Critical thinking. Can it be measured?

The value of the Riyal has collapsed over the eight month period.
The Riyal is always worth less in the summer months.
Saudi Arabia is much wealthier than Britain.
The value of the Riyal will grow in September.
A person will obtain roughly 5.7 Riyals for every pound, on average.
(7) Statistics taken from official records for 2006 in Saudi Arabia showing
the rates of infant mortality from birth to the age of ten were published
in a newspaper.
Age Boys Girls Total
Complete the table:
Under 1 year 17 25 42
Is explanation 1 year 6 2 8
Reason for Balloon to shrink Explain why
reasonable ? 2 years 4 0 4
The air molecules inside the 3 years 10 3 13
balloon get smaller as it gets 4 years 6 4 10
colder
5- 10 years 5 6 11
The air molecules inside the Total 48 40 88
balloon get closer together as it
gets cooler
The newspaper report made three comments.
The air molecules escape from Write down what you think of what they said.
inside the balloon
Newspaper Comments What you think of the newspaper comment
Everything gets smaller as it
gets cooler Most of the deaths oc-
cur under age 1 and this
The rubber of the balloon
was caused by neglect;
becomes less flexible as it gets
cooler Under age 10, boys tend
to die more than girls;
(6) Look at the following graph which shows how the value of the UK pound
has changed over the first eight months of 2009. In January 2009, one Child nurses are not
UK Pound would give just over 5.4 Saudi Riyals. doing their work as well
today.

(8) You may never have seen sodium fluoride.

It is a white solid which looks very like salt.
Experiments have shown that:
(a) Sodium fluoride contains the elements sodium and fluorine only.
(b) A solution of sodium fluoride in pure water conducts electricity well.
(c) When electricity is passed through the sodium fluoride solution in water,
hydrogen and oxygen are always obtained.

Look at these statements, which of the following is true? (Tick one box
next to the true statement)

1) Sodium fluoride contains hydrogen and oxygen

2) Water contains hydrogen and oxygen only
Which of the following statements can be deduced correctly from this graph? 3) Hydrogen and oxygen are everywhere
Tick as many as you wish 4) Water contains hydrogen and oxygen
A visitor from Britain would get more Riyals for the pound in August
than in January. Explain why you chose that answer: …………………………………………...
……………………………………………………………...........................

2d INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF SCIENCE EDUCATION, 15 YEARS OF THE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE EDUCATION .

Foz do Iguaçu, Parana State, Brazil at 27-30 August 2014

The Congress is organized by the Federal University of Latin-American Integration, UNILA, Foundation the Technological Park of ITAIPU,
FPTI and the Journal of Science Education, JSE

email: congresso.icse2014@unila.edu.br
Web page : congresso.unila.edu.br/icse2014

http://www.accefyn.org.co/rec

36 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE EDUCATION - Nº 1, Vol. 15, pp. 30-36, 2014, ISSN 0124-5481, www.accefyn.org.co/rec

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