Assessing higher education students’ critical thinking with the PENCRISAL test - Portuguese short version: a psychometric study

The development of critical thinking in higher education is fundamental, preparing students to think well, find explanations, make decisions and solve problems. Given the importance of its promotion, its assessment is crucial, since the two are inseparable. Moreover, the number of instruments that are validated to assess critical thinking in the Portuguese language and culture are scarce. We present the validation psychometric study of the PENCRISAL test (short version) to the Portuguese language, a critical thinking assessment test for higher education students, designed and validated in Spain (full and short version), which presents adequate reliability and validity psychometric characteristics to assess key-dimensions of critical thinking. A sample of 225 Portuguese higher education students from three universities (two public and one private) performed a reduced version of the PANCRISAL test. The results obtained allowed replicating the Spanish reduced version in Portugal (only changing one of the six items), and the confirmatory factorial analysis permits to identify two factors intercorrelated, legitimizing the combination of the six items in a global score. This short version can be used as a screening test, and its potential is pointed out to assess students critical thinking to support teaching and research in higher education.

[1]  Margarita R. Pino Juste,et al.  Propiedades Psicométricas de la Versión Española del Teamwork Skills Questionnaire (TSQ) , 2022, Revista Iberoamericana de Diagnóstico y Evaluación - e Avaliação Psicológica.

[2]  D. Dunn,et al.  Critical Thinking: A Model of Intelligence for Solving Real-World Problems , 2021, Journal of Intelligence.

[3]  A. Franco,et al.  "A AÇÃO É FILHA DO PENSAMENTO": A RELEVÂNCIA DO PENSAMENTO CRÍTICO NA RESPOSTA AOS DESAFIOS DO QUOTIDIANO PARA A PROMOÇÃO DO BEM-ESTAR PESSOAL E SOCIAL , 2020 .

[4]  Elizabeth Hauke.  Understanding the world today: the roles of knowledge and knowing in higher education , 2019, Teaching in Higher Education.

[5]  Mário R. Simões,et al.  Estudo de Validação do Inventário de Personalidade Narcísica – 13 numa Amostra Escolar de Jovens Portugueses , 2019, Revista Iberoamericana de Diagnóstico y Evaluación – e Avaliação Psicológica.

[6]  R. Vieira,et al.  Educating for critical thinking in university: The criticality of critical thinking in education and everyday life , 2018 .

[7]  L. Almeida,et al.  Translation, adaptation, and validation of the Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment to Portugal: effect of disciplinary area and academic level on critical thinking , 2018 .

[8]  Leandro S. Almeida,et al.  Creative and critical thinking: Independent or overlapping components? , 2018 .

[9]  R. M. Vieira,et al.  O pensamento crítico: As mudanças necessárias no contexto universitário , 2017 .

[10]  Leandro S. Almeida,et al.  Do Critical Thinkers Drink Too Much Alcohol, Forget to Do Class Assignments, or Cheat on Exams? Using a Critical Thinking Measure to Predict College Students’ Real-World Outcomes , 2017, Psychological Studies.

[11]  L. Almeida,et al.  Assessment of Undergraduates’ Real-World Outcomes of Critical Thinking in Everyday Situations , 2017, Psychological reports.

[12]  D. Dunn.  The Oxford Handbook of Undergraduate Psychology Education , 2015 .

[13]  L. Almeida,et al.  Real-World Outcomes and Critical Thinking: Differential Analysis by Academic Major and Gender , 2015 .

[14]  D. Halpern,et al.  Teaching Critical Thinking to Promote Learning , 2015 .

[15]  C. Saiz,et al.  Propiedades psicométricas de la adaptación peruana de la prueba de pensamiento crítico PENCRISAL , 2014 .

[16]  Bb Engbers,et al.  Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment , 2013 .

[17]  C. Sánchez,et al.  Validación y propiedades psicométricas de la prueba de pensamiento crítico pencrisal , 2013 .

[18]  Juliane Callegaro Borsa,et al.  Adaptação e Validação de Instrumentos Psicológicos entre Culturas: Algumas Considerações , 2012 .

[19]  Huy P Phan.  Critical thinking as a self-regulatory process component in teaching and learning. , 2010, Psicothema.

[20]  Krishna Regmi,et al.  Understanding the Processes of Translation and Transliteration in Qualitative Research , 2010 .

[21]  D. Kaplan.  Structural Equation Modeling: Foundations and Extensions , 2000 .

[22]  R. MacCallum,et al.  Power analysis and determination of sample size for covariance structure modeling. , 1996 .

[23]  Elisabete Ribeiro,et al.  Adaptação Portuguesa do Self-Directed Search-CE: Um Estudo de Validação , 2022, Revista Iberoamericana de Diagnóstico y Evaluación - e Avaliação Psicológica.

[24]  C. Saiz,et al.  ¿Puede ser evaluado el pensamiento crítico de forma breve? , 2021, Psico-USF.

[25]  L. S. Almeida,et al.  Definição e medida do pensamento crítico , 2017 .

[26]  C. Sánchez.  Pensamiento crítico y cambio , 2017 .

[27]  Juliane Freud,et al.  Thought And Knowledge An Introduction To Critical Thinking , 2016 .

[28]  Martin Davies,et al.  A Model of Critical Thinking in Higher Education , 2015 .

[29]  Denise F. Polit PhD Faan,et al.  Essentials of Nursing Research: Appraising Evidence for Nursing Practice , 2009 .

[30]  C. Saiz.  Evaluación en pensamiento crítico : una propuesta para diferenciar formas de pensar , 2008 .

[31]  P. Bentler,et al.  Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis : Conventional criteria versus new alternatives , 1999 .