| Problem: Many college students struggle to succeed academically, drop out of school, and under perform, thus posing financial, social, economic, personal, and emotional problems. This problem is cause for much concern among parents, educators, and governmental leaders. Researchers have found that low cognitive functioning, poor perceptions of academic control, lack of motivation, and poor dispositions to critical thinking contributed to poor academic achievement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between sub-scale scores of critical thinking, critical thinking dispositions, academic motivation, perceptions of academic control, and three measures of academic achievement.;Research Design: An empirical, quantitative, correlational, cross-sectional survey design was used to analyze the data in this quantitative study. Data were obtained from 225 undergraduate students completing a bachelor's degree in the field of education. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences Software (SPSS) was used to analyze the data, organize the results, and provide descriptive statistics and canonical correlations to answer nine research questions and hypotheses.;Results: There were nine major findings in this study. Five statistically significant correlations were identified: (a) Critical thinking and critical thinking disposition (Wilks's lambda =.728, F (35, 898.44) = 2.00, p = .001; Rc = .417, Rc2 = .174, and RI = .061); (b) critical thinking and perceptions of academic control (Wilks's lambda = .859 criterion, F [20,717] =1.67, p = .033; and the canonical correlation (Rc = .289, Rc2 = .084, and RI = .017); (c) perceptions of academic control and critical thinking disposition (Wilks's [lambda] = .826, F [28, 773] = 1.49, p = .048; Rc = .357 Rc 2 = .127, and RI = .048); (d) perceptions of academic control and academic motivation (Wilks's lambda = .753 criterion, F [16, 657] = 3.99, p = .000; Rc = .448, Rc2 = .200, and RI = .068); (e) academic motivation and critical thinking disposition (Wilks's lambda =.705 criterion, F [28, 786] = 2.77, p = .000; Rc = .400, Rc 2 = .160, and RI = .016). Dispositions to think critically were affected positively by self-efficacy and self-concept. Identified regulation and intrinsic motivation were positively related to self-efficacy. Critical thinking, critical thinking dispositions, perceptions of academic control, and academic motivation were not correlated with academic achievement.;Conclusions: Overall, the study found that it was important for students preparing to be teachers to develop positive critical thinking, critical thinking dispositions, perceptions of academic control, and academic motivation. In addition, the findings revealed key cognitive, perceptual, motivational, and attitudinal skills the students used. Another important finding was the positive correlation of self-efficacy with critical thinking dispositions, intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, and critical thinking. The study also recommends that these institutions should actively engage in research aimed at examining critical thinking dispositions, perceptions of academic control, and academic motivation. The institutions should seek to grow instruments to measure critical thinking, critical thinking dispositions, perceptions of academic control, and academic motivation. Teachers, parents, employers, and students should not rely on grades as the only measures of academic achievement. Specific attention should be given to the design of a standardized instrument that will add to the existing measures for assessing academic achievement in the Caribbean at the tertiary level.;Most important, the study bridges two bodies of critical thinking literature and subscribes to the notion that critical thinking is a set of skills measured by a test score, with the theory that critical thinking is a cognitive, psychosocial process. Finally, the study contains suggestions for research, curriculum improvement, and pedagogy. |
