The Assessment of Critical Thinking Critically Assessed in Higher Education: A Validation Study of the CCTT and the HCTA

Table 2

Descriptive statistics for the HCTA (𝑁=155).

Scale	Max value	November				May				𝑡	df	𝑃
Subscale		M	SD	Min	Max	M	SD	Min	Max
Total	195	116.08	10.11	84	140	120.32	10.88	92	147	5.144	154	.000
Constructed-response items (C)	95	49.99	6.68	31	66	52.81	7.40	37	68	4.885	154	.000
Forced-choice items (F)	99	66.09	5.33	52	77	67.52	5.73	53	83	3.058	154	.003
Hypothesis testing	45	26.35	4.14	16	38	27.43	3.83	17	36	2.990	154	.003
Hypothesis testing-C	18	9.49	2.42	3	16	10.54	2.44	3	16	4.607	154	.000
Hypothesis testing-F	27	16.86	2.75	9	23	16.90	2.66	11	23	0.130	154	.897
Verbal reasoning	22	11.26	2.49	5	18	11.52	2.53	4	18	1.177	154	.241
Verbal reasoning-C	15	7.06	2.32	2	14	7.20	2.25	2	13	0.668	154	.505
Verbal reasoning-F	7	4.20	0.86	2	6	4.32	0.94	1	7	1.364	154	.174
Argument analysis	42	25.10	4.45	14	35	26.88	4.30	13	36	4.360	154	.000
Argument analysis-C	23	12.10	2.94	5	19	12.81	3.17	4	20	−0.621	154	.535
Argument analysis-F	19	12.99	2.42	6	18	14.08	2.20	7	19	4.609	154	.000
Likelihood and uncertainty	24	13.96	2.99	4	21	14.75	3.10	6	21	3.115	154	.002
Likelihood and uncertainty-C	17	9.30	2.50	1	15	9.88	2.77	2	15	2.488	154	.014
Likelihood and uncertainty-F	7	4.66	1.08	2	7	4.87	0.90	2	7	2.237	154	.027
Decision making and problem solving skills	61	39.41	4.18	26	49	39.74	4.27	30	51	0.838	154	.403
Decision making and problem solving skills-C	22	12.04	2.81	6	18	12.39	2.70	6	20	1.295	154	.197
Decision making and problem solving skills-F	39	27.37	2.54	20	33	27.35	3.01	20	34	−0.072	154	.943