Critical-thinking types among nursing and management undergraduates

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) is a well-established measure of critical thinking.
• A short version, Form S, was developed for quicker administration.
• Understanding critical thinking typologies is crucial for effective educational interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify distinct typologies of critical thinking among undergraduate students in professional schools.
• To explore the utility of the WGCTA Form S in differentiating critical thinking profiles.
• To inform the development of targeted critical thinking education and training programs.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a two-stage clustering procedure on scores from the five sub-tests of the WGCTA Form S.
• Employed discriminant analysis to assess classification accuracy of identified clusters.
• Samples included 233 nursing and 131 management undergraduates.

Main Results:

• Four distinct clusters representing critical thinking types were identified in both nursing and management samples.
• Discriminant analysis achieved 96% correct classification of participants based on cluster membership and sub-test scores.
• The WGCTA Form S effectively differentiated critical thinking profiles within the studied populations.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully identified and validated critical thinking typologies using the WGCTA Form S.
• Results have significant implications for customizing critical thinking instruction in higher education.
• Further research is recommended to explore these typologies across diverse academic and professional fields.