Predictors of Critical Thinking Skills of Incoming Business Students

ABSTRACT Educators recognize the importance of critical thinking. Students discover that studying topics such as business requires a strategy more extensive than rote memory. Using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST), this research uses the hypothesis that the total critical thinking score and its components such as inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, evaluation, analysis, and inference are affected by college classification, high school GPA, high school rank, SAT verbal scores, SAT mathematical scores, gender, race and major. INTRODUCTION The promotion of critical thinking ranks among the primary goals for educators today (Elder, 2004). As reported in a review of literature by the Office of Outcomes Assessment of the University of Maryland in 2006, critical thinking as an outcome of postsecondary education was made explicit by several recent national reports (Association of American Colleges and Universities, 1985; National Education Goals Panel, 1991; National Institute of Education Study Group, 1984). As such, the topic of critical thinking is of interest to educators. Various definitions of critical thinking have been offered. They all share a common set of meanings. Critical thinking refers to the use of cognitive skills or strategies and involves solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions. According to the manual for the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) developed by Peter and Noreen Faci one, an important consensus with regard to the concept of critical thinking was announced in 1990 by a panel of theoreticians drawn from throughout the United States and Canada representing several academic fields. These experts characterized critical thinking as the process of purposeful, self-regulatory judgment (Faci one, 1990). Critical thinking, so defined, is the cognitive engine which drives problem-solving and decision-making. At the core of critical thinking are the cognitive skills of reasoning, evaluation, analysis and inference. RELATED LITERATURE Previous studies have used the CCTST to measure critical thinking (Williams, 2003; Zettergren, 2004; Colucciello, 2005; Yang, 2008). Scores are included on the following skills: inductive and deductive reasoning, evaluation, analysis and inference. Inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning were scored on the CCTST. Induction is usually described as moving from the specific to the general while deduction begins with the general and ends with the specific. In the case of a strong inductive argument it is unlikely or improbable that the conclusion would actually be false and all the premises true, but it is logically possible that it might. Arguments based on experience or observations are expressed inductively since inductive reasoning is based on making a conclusion based on a set of empirical data. If it is observed that something is true many times, concluding that it will be true in all instances is a use of inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning allows proof the hypothesis is true. For valid deductive arguments, it is not logically possible for the conclusion to be false and all the premises true. For example, deductive reasoning begins with a general rule, which is known to be true. From that general rule a conclusion is made about something specific. The evaluation score on the CCTST measures the results of an individual's reasoning. The justification of that reasoning in terms of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological and contextual considerations is also measured. Evaluation involves examining, appraising and judging something carefully. It is the process of examining a system or system component to determine the extent to which specified properties are present. Evaluation is the systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of something or someone. The CCTST score on Analysis measures the ability to identify the intended and actual inferential relationships intended to express beliefs, judgments, experiences, reasons, information or opinions. …

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