Evaluación de destrezas de pensamiento crítico: validación de instrumentos libres de cultura

It is a commonplace that critical thinking is an important part of the teaching and learning of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Nevertheless, critical thinking research has devoted more attention to design teaching programs than to the equally necessary task of evaluating the effects of these programs so that the empirical evaluation studies are much more the exception than the rule in this area. This study presents the pilot validation of two assessment tools on critical thinking skills using two natural groups of elementary and secondary students, who participate in a thinking-based learning program. The tools are designed to fit the skills developed in the program and the students’ age, and combine some items drawn from published critical thinking tests and some newly designed figurative items, which are independent of school culture and knowledge. The results show a positive relationship between the assessment test scores and the external and independent validation criteria (students’ school grades and thinking program marks). An extremely relevant correlation for one of the tools, acceptable reliability indices for the scales and better reliability and validity indices of the newly designed figurative items than the classical verbal items are the main contributions of the study. Finally, the future decision making to improve the tools, the development of research on free-culture customized tests, as initiated with this study, and the contributions of this pilot study for are discussed.