Differences between African American and Caucasian Students on Critical Thinking and Learning Style.

Abstract

The purpose was to investigate whether there were significant differences between African American and Caucasian students on critical thinking and learning style. Fifty-two Caucasian and 51 African American students responded to Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal and the Inventory of Learning Processes (a learning style inventory). Analyses of variance showed that Caucasian students had significantly higher mean scores than the African American students on four subtest scores of the critical thinking: Inference, Deductions, Interpretation, and Evaluation of Arguments, and the Total Critical Thinking score. There were no significant differences between the two groups on the learning style inventory scales. One of the primary goals in education is to assist students in developing effective critical thinking skills (McMillan, 1987; Paul, 1993; National Institute of Education, 1984). Critical thinking can be defined in many ways including appraising, reasoning, and judging the problems and issues one experiences in everyday life. Research studies show that critical thinking skills can be taught (Gadzella, Hartsoe, & Harper, 1989; McKeachie, Pintrich, & Lin, 1985) and critical thinking skills and some learning style strategies (Gadzella, Ginther, & Bryant, 1997) are some of the best predictors of academic achievement. A review of literature did not reveal much with reference to the comparison between African American and Caucasian students on critical thinking skills and learning processes. The question raised is whether all students are taught and whether the students profit from instructions on critical thinking and ways to improve their learning strategies. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether there were significant differences between African American and Caucasian students on their critical thinking skills and learning style strategies. Method Subjects: The subjects were 51 African American and 52 Caucasian (randomly selected from a larger group) students, enrolled in undergraduate psychology courses at a southwestern state university. In the African American group, there were 16 men, 34 women, and one did not report the gender; of which 9 were freshmen, 2 sophomores, 15 juniors, 24 seniors, and one did not report the college status. Their ages ranged from 18 to 42 years (M = 238; SD = 5.79). In the Caucasian group, there were 17 men, 34 women, and one did not report the gender; of which 14 were freshmen, 5 sophomores, 19 juniors, 12 seniors, and two did not report their college status. Their ages ranged from 18 to 52 years (M = 24.2; SD = 6.84). Instruments: Two inventories were used to collect the data. The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, (WGCTA), (Watson & Glaser, 1980a) has 80 items, from which five subtests (16 items each) are derived: Inference, Recognition of Assumptions, Deduction, Interpretation, and Evaluation of Arguments. The Total Critical Thinking score is the summation of the five subtest scores. According to McMillan (1987) this inventory is the most frequently used at post-secondary level on critical thinking. Reliabilities of the WGCTA are reported in the manual (Watson & Glaser, 1980b). The split-half reliability correlated for 10 norm groups ranged from .69 to .85, test-retest reliability for 96 students' responses was .73, and the alternate-form reliability from 228 students' responses to the Forms A and B of the WGCTA was .75. The Inventory of Learning Processes, (ILP), (Schmeck, Ribich, & Ramanaiah, 1977) is a self-report, paper and pencil learning style questionnaire. It has 62 items from which four scale-scores are derived. The Deep Processing scale assesses how a person-critically evaluates and conceptually organizes material. The Elaborative Processing scale assesses whether information is transferred into ones terminology. The Fact Retention scale assesses whether one processes new material regardless of the strategies used. …