Magna 20-Minute Mentor | How Can I Assess Critical Thinking with Objective Items?

In this video from the Magna 20-Minute Mentor series, Dr. Linda B. Nilson suggests some ways that objective tests can be used to assess certain types of critical thinking (CT). Dr. Nilson begins by describing the importance of establishing clear learning outcomes that determine exactly what types of critical thinking you want to assess. She emphasizes that learning outcomes must be observable performance behaviors that demonstrate how a student can manifest their knowledge. However, objective tests will not do well in assessing certain CT skills such as creativity, organization or communication skills.

Dr. Nilson explains critical thinking activities apply to materials where a claim (interpretation, theory) is disputable or questionable - not a fact or definition. CT always involves analysis and evaluation, as well as other higher order forms of cognition such as interpretation, problem solving, and synthesis. She then proceeds to give examples of how to employ various forms of objective test items such as matching, multiple choice, and true/false questions to assess/evaluate CT skills.

Dr. Nilson states that fill-in-the-blank test questions are not very suitable for assessing critical thinking, because they tend to focus on the memorization of one particular answer. However, matching and multiple-choice tests can be applied to many CT outcomes that focus on concepts, cause and effects, hypothetical problems and new examples in a content area. She also feels that multiple true/false tests that are constructed with a question and are followed by a series of T/F response choices can be effective for assessing critical thinking. These types of questions create more decision points for students and work best when they are based on a new concept for students to analyze and interpret. At the end of the video, Dr. Nilson provides references for many examples of CT skills and questions for different types of subject-matter.

This video addresses the LCCC Faculty Competency Domain for Competency-Based Design and can be accessed by completing this one-time registration to view all the videos in this professional development series.