Author ORCID Identifier
Date of Award
12-16-2024
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Educational Psychology and Special Education
First Advisor
Daphne Greenberg, PhD
Second Advisor
Hongli Li, PhD
Third Advisor
Therese Pigott, PhD
Fourth Advisor
Ann Cale Kruger, PhD
Abstract
For the past 20 years, the diversity of students attending U.S. postsecondary institutions has increased (Irwin et al., 2021; NCES, 2021a; NCES, 2021b). With this increased diversity, there is an increased need to ensure that assessments and measures are accessible and generalizable for all students. To this end, the current study aimed to collect further evidence of the validity and reliability of a measure of critical thinking disposition (CTDS, Sosu, 2013) with a diverse sample of postsecondary undergraduate students. Prior studies have collected psychometric evidence of the CTDS outside of the U.S. (Sosu, 2013), and/or have excluded specific racial groups (Yockey, 2016). The current study evaluated psychometric evidence of the CTDS with a sample of 317 U.S. postsecondary, undergraduate students diverse in race/ethnicity, gender, and academic classification. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to investigate the model fit of the CTDS with scores from the current study sample, which showed that currently defined measurement models do not fit the data based on the current sample. This indicates that the CTDS is not an appropriate measure for use with the current sample and similar samples. The reliability of scores, as well as their relationship with a social and emotional learning scale (SELS, Coryn et al., 2009), was also assessed and compared with results from prior studies. While the correlation coefficients and reliability estimates were comparable to those from prior studies, findings could not be substantiated since the CTDS cannot be validly used with the current sample. The findings shed light on the validity, reliability, and generalizability of the use of the CTDS with diverse student groups.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/38002279
Recommended Citation
Middlebrook, Kamal, "Exploring Psychometric Evidence of the Critical Thinking Disposition Scale with a Diverse Sample of U.S. Undergraduate Students." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2024.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/38002279
File Upload Confirmation
1