Tracking Change in Critical-Thinking Skills

Abstract

Background and Purpose. Critical thinking, knowledge, skill, and self-reflection are the hallmarks of clinical reasoning in physical therapy. Teaching and measuring a highly complex entity such as clinical reasoning is a challenging task and often requires multiple pedagogies and assessments. Knowledge and skill are frequently assessed by educators, but critical thinking and skills of reflection are not. Previous studies have used standardized tests to assess clinical reasoning skills of physical therapist students. These studies report conflicting findings potentially due to the fact that neither test was designed to test critical thinking of allied health practitioners. The Health Sciences Reasoning Test (HSRT) was designed specifically for health science students with questions written in a health care context. Participants. In 2008, 63 students, 37 from a public East Coast university and 26 from a private Midwest university were recruited to complete the HSRT. Method. The students completed the HSRT at 3 points in their education: upon entry to the program, prior to final affiliations, and again just prior to graduation. Outcomes. Analysis indicated a statistically significant change for the total score as well as the deductive and analysis subscales. Post-hoc analysis indicated these differences occurred between times 1 and 2 for the total score as well as both subscales. There was a significant difference between the 2 schools after adjusting for variance in initial test scores. The Midwest school’s mean score (24.85) was greater than the east coast school’s (22.42), and this difference was significant F1 = 12.65; P < .05. Conclusion. The HSRT was able to detect change in critical thinking scores. This finding, coupled with those of a previous study in which the HSRT was able to detect differences between experts and novices, indicate the HSRT may have validity and therefore may be a useful tool for assessing the critical thinking skills of physical therapist students.