Developing And Validating Critical Thinking Disposition Measures And Characteristics Of Critical Thinking Disposition

In the current, the economy in our country is experiencing a period of development and transform. In the future, we need to develop more talented person accommodate the need of the era, accompanying as a consequence,our country’s higher education must also develop more comprehensive and brilliant talents with innovative mind. Critical thinking as a concept is known widespread, educational world attaching great importance to the critical thinking, the critical thinking is often seen as an indispensable part in the process of learning, critical thinking and Problem solving ability Known as The two main skills of thinking. How to improve the students’ critical thinking which has been included in the main goal of the educational reform in the western developed country. compared with western developed countries, our country’s higher education did not pay attention to the cultivation of students’ critical thinking, Compared with the western countries, it causes our country college students’ critical thinking ability slightly insufficient. Because of the needs of the times, so it is urgent to strengthen the research of critical thinking.Critical thinking is a kind of rational thinking, Chinese and western philosophers emphasized and advocated since ancient times. In today’s society, critical thinking is an important part of innovation thinking, so students strengthen their critical thinking which is not only beneficial to help us become all-round development people, but also has important theoretical and practical significance to improve the innovative ability of the whole society. In our country, the traditional cultural emphasis on obedience to authority and respect for teachers since qin and han, which is ought to be the title meanings of a state of ceremonies. But if we excessive emphasis on it, it may inhibits people’s independent thinking. Compared to the western countries, traditional Chinese culture also lack in analyze empirically and logical reasoning, these adverse to the formation of critical thinking. In the contemporary, China’s education more emphasis on the cultivation of imparting knowledge not thinking, these may lead to a big gap between our country and other developed countries in the education of critical thinking, and this gap will undoubtedly makes more difficulties to economic transition in our country. Just like the economic transition in our country, our country’s higher education should be draw lessons from other countries’ advanced education idea and experience in the new period. How to cultivate students’ critical thinking, how to cultivating creative talents, how to realize the China’s higher education transition, these will bring an important task to China’s higher education.Critical thinking is a multidimensional, interdisciplinary concept, thus different disciplines from different Angle of view for critical thinking has its particular point of view. Scholars from pedagogy, psychology, philosophy whom Propose different hypothesis about critical thinking and has been conduct their own research. Researchers determine various definitions of critical thinking from different perspectives, Johnson Summaried the past philosophers’ definition of critical thinking, he found that there are some similarities, and he define his own concept. American scholars also invited experts from diverse disciplines involved in the Delphy plan to reach consensus on critical thinking. This paper reference the above research to give a operational definition for college students’ critical thinking disposition:ideal critical thinking have such a thinking habit or qualities, including general suspicion spirit, open attitude, honest and objective explore, cautious action after the rational consideration, persevere self-examination and self-correction.This research puts forward the theory of college students’critical thinking disposition mainly on the basis of literature review, interview and open questionnaire investigation.457 copies of valid questionnaires was carried on the item analysis and exploratory factor analysis, it is concluded that the formal questionnaire included 22 titles and four factors:1) widespread doubt; 2) self-reflection; 3) open-minded; 4) carefully thinking.In the reliability test, including the internal consistency and retest reliability test; In validity test, including the content validity, structure validity and bid validity test, the result shows that it satisfy various indicators of good reliability and validity. It prove that college students’critical thinking disposition questionnaire has good reliability and validity which can be used as a measuring tool of college students’ critical thinking disposition. This data have carried on the descriptive analysis and have checked the differences between gender, grade, subjects and family location. In the end, the results are as follows:(1)The self-made college students’critical thinking disposition inventory consists of 22 item. The scale is organized into four dimensions. The widespread suspicion is the attitude on knowledge take universal doubt and reflection, which is also mean courageously challenge authority; self-reflection is reveal our own mistakes or deficiencies and self-correcting; Open mindedness means to consider different beliefs and maintaining a strong interest to the world. Carefully thinking means that Prior to make the decisions, we need objectively thinking problemthe and Constantly Searching for evidence.(2) The college students’ critical thinking disposition questionnaire has good reliability and validity, and can be used as a measuring tool of college students’ critical thinking disposition.(3) The college students’ critical thinking disposition overall level in the medium. In critical thinking disposition scale, the individual in the self-reflection dimension scored the highest, followed by careful thinking, widespread doubt, open minded. In the open-minded dimension, boys scored higher than girls, the boys’ critical thinking disposition is also significantly higher than girls. There was no significant difference between college students from the town and college students from the rural areas. Science students is significantly higher than Liberal arts students in the open-minded and careful thinking dimension, science students is also significantly higher than Liberal arts students in the total scale. In the total scale, the difference between the grade is significant, namely with the increase of grade, the critical thinking of college students tend to be improved.