Critical Thinking at Entry to University:Rasch Modeling of a Generalized Version of the Critical Thinking Scale of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire in a Multi-program Context

Critical thinking is an important outcome of higher education, which has been shown to be shaped by higher education, and to influence other outcomes, such as students’ academic achievements. Many definitions and instruments for the measurement of critical thinking exist. One such instrument is the critical thinking scale from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). This has previously been reduced to a content valid three-item scale measuring course specific critical thinking, which has been shown to fit the Rasch model for ordinal polytomous items, both in Danish and in Spanish, but only for psychology students. In the current study, we broaden the scope and test the fit to the Rasch model and the psychometric properties of a generalized form of the critical thinking scale with a sample of university students spanning five different degree programs in five different faculties (N = 584). Results showed fit to the Rasch model, as no evidence against any of the assumptions of the Rasch model was detected, including local response dependence, differential item functioning, invariance, global homogeneity and fit of individual items.