Assessing Critical Thinking Skills in Data Literacy: A Digital Performance Assessment

This study developed and piloted a performance assessment for measuring critical thinking skills in data literacy. The new assessment measures three aspects of critical thinking in data literacy: (1) Analysing and evaluating the relevance and credibility of information from different sources; (2) Interpreting information, extracting relevant claims and supporting evidence; (3) Synthesizing claims, evidence, and making informed decisions. The pilot study involved 170 undergraduate students who completed the assessment. Among them, forty students completed the assessment on a lab computer equipped with an eye tracker, and their eye-tracking data was analysed. The results of the study provide preliminary validity evidence for the interpretation of this new performance assessment and help to identify several areas for future research.