Cultivating Critical Thinking: Design and Evaluation of Training Modules for College Students

Developing critical thinking skills is an important goal of higher education, as it can lead to better academic outcomes, improved problem-solving abilities, and greater success in the workforce. In this research project, we designed multiple critical thinking training modules to assess and support the development of critical thinking skills and collected empirical evidence from 84 college students with various backgrounds. Our pilot results showed that the tasks demonstrated acceptable reliability for assessing students’ critical thinking skills, students’ GPAs were significantly correlated with their critical thinking task scores, and students performed better on the second set of Research module tasks than on the first set. Students’ survey responses highlighted overall positive perceptions on the critical thinking training modules. Students viewed the modules as a useful tool for developing critical thinking skills, recognizing their relevance to academic work and appreciating their engaging content and appropriate difficulty level. Students also valued the feedback provided within the modules, which they perceived as constructive and helpful for supporting their understanding and performance. This research has implications on designing tools that support the development and assessment of critical thinking skills in higher education. Suggested citation: Song, Y., Bridgeman, B., Yang, Z., & Li, C. (in press). Cultivating critical thinking: Design and evaluation of training modules for college students. ETS Research Report Series. https://doi.org/10.64634/emhbze14.