Alexander Bevier
Pronouns: He/Him
Research Mentor(s): Blake Ebright
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Combined Program in Education & Psychology / LSA
Program: UROP
Session: Session 4 (1:40pm – 2:30pm)
Authors: Alex BeVier, Anna Choi, Blake Ebright, Kai Cortina
Abstract
Employers expect applicants to have critical thinking skills after college and colleges promise to develop critical thinking skills in their students. To measure the development of critical thinking skills in college, we use a performance assessment (PA) task. PA tasks ask participants to roleplay complex decision-making in a way that reflects how critical thinking might be used in the real world. We test the sample by administering a short essay question with accompanying curated sources (a PA task). An important part of our definition of critical thinking includes source analysis. Strong critical thinkers evaluate the relevance and trustworthiness of the curated sources we provide. We administered PA tasks to n = 137 undergraduate student participants and asked participants what the most helpful sources were in informing their decisions. Participants’ source evaluation scores tend to be linked with their likelihood to select a quality document as influential in their decision-making, but not with demographic variables. The conclusions of this study help colleges understand where their students’ critical thinking skills stand and where they could improve.
