Reliability of the Critical Thinking in Communication Science and Disorders: A Content-Specific Critical Thinking...

Area of Science:

• Speech and Hearing Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Educational Assessment

Background:

• Critical thinking (CT) is essential for communication sciences and disorders (CSD) professionals to ensure unbiased clinical decision-making.
• A content-specific assessment is needed to measure CT skills in CSD students.
• The Critical Thinking in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CTCSD) assessment was developed to address this need.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the reliability of the current version of the CTCSD assessment.
• To evaluate the psychometric properties of a new CT assessment tool for CSD graduate students.

Main Methods:

• 150 CSD graduate students completed the online CTCSD assessment twice (beginning and end of semester).
• Responses were scored by two independent raters.
• Reliability was assessed using intra-subject, internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha, Guttman's Lambda 6), and inter-rater (Cohen's Kappa) measures.

Main Results:

• Students across three programs scored similarly on the CTCSD.
• High reliability was demonstrated across intra-subject, internal consistency, and inter-rater analyses.
• The CTCSD shows strong psychometric properties.

Conclusions:

• The CTCSD assessment is reliable for measuring critical thinking skills in CSD graduate students.
• Combined with existing validity data, the CTCSD is a psychometrically sound instrument.
• The CTCSD can inform curriculum development and targeted feedback for CSD students.