Research Of High School Students' Critical Thinking

Research on critical thinking was arose in China in the early 21 st century,and education community has attached significant importance to critical thinking,but the evaluation method on critical thinking of high school students is of a relatively weak discipline.Therefore,research on critical thinking awaits reinforcements.Based on theoretical studies,this article combed and responded systematically to the questions such as what is the definition of critical thinking,what are the thought structures of critical thinking,how to evaluate on critical thinking and what are the contributory factors to critical thinking.Combined with bi-dimensional theory model,evaluation tool on critical thinking tendency was defined.Afterwards,evaluation tool was remedied and established by Delphi method,and was used to study the current critical thinking situation of high school students in China.Through the research,several points are presented as below:Firstly,Chinese version of < The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory >(CTDI-CV)was employed,which consisted of 70 questions covering 7dimensions including pursuing for truth,open mind,analytical skills,systematic thinking,confidence,desire for answers and maturity.This packet is of high validity,the results of which represent the critical thinking of Chinese middle school students objectively.Secondly,certain interesting patterns were shown in the results.The critical thinking skill of Chinese high school students was at a moderate level,no positive posture was discovered.Regarding to gender difference,the critical thinking tendency of high school students in China differs at limited scale.Significant differences werefound in critical thinking tendency of middle school students in different regions of China,higher level of critical thinking was founded among students in urban area than those in rural area.High school students in honor classes scored much higher in critical thinking tendency inquiry form than others who are not in honor classes.Thirdly,predictions on creativity skills and academic performance can be made based on critical thinking level,which shows that critical thinking enhanced the development of students' creativity skills.Meanwhile,strong correlation was found between critical thinking and academic performance.In this regard,following policies are recommended.Teachers should not only acquire professional knowledge on teaching critical thinking considering their own standpoints,but also enhance their abilities on teaching critical thinking,and reform traditional technique on curricular knowledge teaching as well as upgrading teaching evaluation methods.To improve the critical thinking level of students,courses on critical thinking should be set up in accordance with the student developing characteristics.Scholars should take responsibilities to research and study in the field of critical thinking.On the other hand,they should dedicate to the development on critical thinking,striving for a more suitable critical thinking assessment packet tailored for China.