Incorporating perspective analysis into critical thinking performance assessments

The International Performance Assessments of Learning (iPAL) project developed a framework for the construction of performance assessments for testing critical thinking, which proposes structuring them around a problem situation that sets an authentic (i.e., real-life-like) problem-solving task for the test-taker. Its critical thinking construct - which reflects the dominant conception of critical thinking - focuses on assessment and use of information, of arguments, and of consequences, and on communication. However, it fails to acknowledge that perspectives on a problem situation are systemically articulated in networks and derive from worldviews, which should also be critically examined.

We aim to elaborate on the iPAL framework and enhance its critical thinking construct, incorporating a new facet of perspective analysis. We also intend to show what design considerations the construction of a performance assessment appropriate for this task entails.

Based on Werner Ulrich's Critical Systems Heuristics, which provides a systemic way of analysing perspectives about a problem situation, we argue the need to introduce perspective analysis in the critical thinking construct, and we discuss the considerations necessary for designing critical thinking performance assessments that test perspective analysis skills: about the kind of problem situation the test-taker will face and about the expectations she may have about her task or role in that problem situation. We illustrate how performance assessments of this kind can be constructed by means of an example of an actual test.