AN ANNOTATED LIST OF CRITICAL THINKING TESTS
Prepared by Robert H. Ennis, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois,
11/99
1. GENERAL CRITICAL THINKING TESTS, COVERING MORE THAN ONE ASPECT OF CRITICAL THINKING (AND THUS COMPREHENSIVE TO SOME DEGREE)
Assessment of Reasoning and Communication (Reasoning Subtest (offered in conjunction with Writing and Speaking Subtests)), (1986). College Outcome Measures Program, The American College Testing Program (ACT), PO Box 168, Iowa City, IA 52243. Aimed at students finishing college, but probably usable with other levels as well. Open-ended, requiring student to produce three short essays and three short speeches. Locally gradable, requiring graders to make judgments about pertinence, relevance, plausibility, reasonableness, and realism of student responses; graded on the basis of the number of responses judged successful (from 0 to 4). Gradable on request by ACT experts. Yields total subtest score plus part scores in social reasoning, scientific reasoning, and artistic reasoning.
The California Critical Thinking Skills Test: College Level (1990), by Peter Facione. The California Academic Press, 217 LaCruz Ave, Millbrae, CA 94030. Aimed at college students, but probably usable with advanced and gifted high school students. Multiple-choice, incorporating interpretation, argument analysis and appraisal, deduction, mind bender puzzles, and induction (including rudimentary statistical inference).
The California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory (1992) by Peter Facione and N. C. Facione. California Academic Press, 217 LaCruz Ave., Millbrae, CA 94030. A multiple-choice attempt to assess critical thinking dispositions. Probably useful for self-appraisal and anonymous information for use in research.
Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level X (1985), by Robert H. Ennis and Jason Millman. Critical Thinking Press and Software (formerly Midwest Publications), PO Box 448, Pacific Grove, CA 93950. Aimed at Grades 4-14. Multiple-choice, sections on induction, credibility, observation, deduction, and assumption identification.
Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level Z (1985), by Robert H. Ennis and Jason Millman. Critical Thinking Press and Software (formerly Midwest Publications), PO Box 448, Pacific Grove, CA 93950. Aimed at college students and adults, but usable with advanced or gifted high school students. Multiple-choice, sections on induction, credibility, prediction and experimental planning, fallacies (especially equivocation), deduction, definition, and assumption identification.
Critical Thinking (1996). Author unlisted, but Alec Fisher has been instrumental in the development of this test. Local Examinations Syndicate, University of Cambridge, Syndicate Building, 1 Hills Road, Cambridge CB1 2EU, United Kingdom. Aimed at post-secondary students. Two parts: a half-hour, 15-item, multiple-choice test of argument assessment; and a one-hour essay test calling for critical evaluation of an argument and for further argumentation.
Critical Thinking Interview (1998), by Gail Hughes and Associates. Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. Available from Gail Hughes, 141 Warwick St. S.E., Mpls., MN 55414( e-mail: hughe038@tc.umn.edu). Aimed at college students and adults. About one half hour for a one-to-one interview. People being tested are interviewed about an issue of their choice, and rated on a combination of their displayed knowledge and reasoning. Emphasis is on clarity, context, focus, credibility, sources, familiarity with the topic, assumption identification, and appropriate use of such reasoning strategies as generalization, reasoning to the best explanation, deduction, values reasoning, and reasoning by analogy.
Critical Thinking Test (1989). ACT CAAP Operations (85), PO Box 1688, Iowa City, IA 52243. One of a series of College Assessment of Academic Proficiency tests done by ACT, and aimed at students at the end of their second year in college, though probably usable at other levels. Multiple-choice items based on passages to be read. Calls for such things as identifying conclusions, inconsistency, and loose implications; judging direction of support, strength of reasons, and representativeness of data; making predictions; noticing other alternatives; and hypothesizing about what a person thinks.
The Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test (1985), by Robert H. Ennis and Eric Weir. Critical Thinking Press and Software (formerly Midwest Publications), PO Box 448, Pacific Grove CA 93950. Aimed at grades 7 through college. Also intended to be used as a teaching material. Incorporates getting the point, seeing the reasons and assumptions, stating one's point, offering good reasons, seeing other possibilities (including other possible explanations), and responding to and avoiding equivocation, irrelevance, circularity, reversal of an if-then (or other conditional) relationship, overgeneralization, credibility problems, and the use of emotive language to persuade.
ICAT Critical Thinking Essay Test (1996). Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique, Sonoma State University, 1801 East Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park CA 94928-3609. Provides eight criteria (to be shown to students in advance and also used for grading by specially trained graders). Students respond to an editorial (selected by test administrator) and write an essay summarizing the editorial, identify its focus, and comment on its strengths, and weaknesses.
New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills (1983), by Virginia Shipman. Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children, Test Division, Montclair State College, Upper Montclair, NJ 08043. Aimed at grades 4 though college. Multiple-choice, incorporates the syllogism (heavily represented), assumption identification, induction, good reasons, and kind and degree.
Ross Test of Higher Cognitive Processes (1976), by John D. Ross and Catherine M. Ross. Academic Therapy Publications, 20 Commercial Blvd., Novato, CA 94947. Aimed at grades 4-6. Multiple-choice, sections on verbal analogies, deduction, assumption identification, word relationships, sentence sequencing, interpreting answers to questions, information sufficiency and relevance in mathematics problems, and analysis of attributes of complex stick figures.
Tasks in Critical Thinking (1993). Educational Testing Service, PO Box 6000, Princeton, NJ 08541. A variety of more or less authentic tasks calling for critical thinking. Requires specially trained graders.
Test of Enquiry Skills (1979), by Barry J. Fraser. Australian Council for Educational Research Limited, Frederick Street, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia. Aimed at Australian grades 7-10. Multiple-choice, sections on using reference materials (library usage, index, and table of contents); interpreting and processing information (scales, averages, percentages, proportions, charts and tables, and graphs); and (subject-specific) thinking in science (comprehension of science reading, design of experiments, conclusions, and generalizations).
The Test of Everyday Reasoning (1998) by Peter Facione. California Academic Press, 217 La Cruz Ave., Millbrae, CA 94030. Derived from The California Critical Thinking Skills Test (listed above), with choices of justifications added. Multiple choice.
Test of Inference Ability in Reading Comprehension (1987), by Linda M Phillips and Cynthia Patterson. Institute for Educational Research and Development, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, A1B 3X8. Aimed at grades 6-8. Tests for ability to infer information and interpretations from short passages. Multiple choice version (by both authors) and constructed response version (by Phillips only).
Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (1980), by Goodwin Watson
and Edward Maynard Glaser. The Psychological Corporation, 555 Academic
Court, San Antonio TX 78204. Aimed at grade 9 through adulthood.
Multiple-choice, sections on induction, assumption identification, deduction,
judging whether a conclusion follows beyond a reasonable doubt, and argument
evaluation.
2. GENERAL CRITICAL THINKING TESTS COVERING ONLY ONE ASPECT OF CRITICAL THINKING
Cornell Class Reasoning Test (1964), by Robert H Ennis, William L. Gardiner, Richard Morrow, Dieter Paulus, and Lucille Ringel. Illinois Critical Thinking Project, University of Illinois, 1310 S. 6th Street, Champaign, IL 61820. Aimed at grades 4-14. Multiple-choice, tests for a variety of forms of (deductive) class reasoning.
Cornell Conditional Reasoning Test (1964), by Robert H. Ennis, William Gardiner, John Guzzetta, Richard Morrow, Dieter Paulus, and Lucille Ringel. Illinois Critical Thinking Project, University of Illinois, 1310 S. 6th Street, Champaign, IL 61820. Aimed at grades 4-14. Multiple-choice, tests for a variety of forms of (deductive) conditional reasoning.
Test on Appraising Observations (1983), by Stephen P. Norris and Ruth
King. Institute for Educational Research and Development, Memorial
University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, A1B 3X8.
Aimed at grades 7-14. Multiple-choice, tests for ability to judge
the credibility of statements of observation. Multiple choice and
constructed response versions.
3. SUBJECT-SPECIFIC CRITICAL THINKING TESTS
Science Reasoning (1989). ACT CAAP Operations (85), PO Box 1688,
Iowa City, IA 52243. One of a series of College Assessment of Academic
Proficiency tests done by ACT, and aimed at students at the end of their
second year in college, though probably usable at other levels. Multiple-choice
items based on passages, diagrams, and tables. Although not deep
in its requirement of science knowledge, this test expects some familiarity
with scientific vocabulary and concepts. Asks students to read with
comprehension, identify conclusions, interpret data, evaluate experiments,
draw probable conclusions from data, and hypothesize best explanations.
Uses natural science content..
Notes:
1. Because I am the co-author of some of these tests, I
have a conflict of interest in making this list. See Judith A. Arter
and Jennifer R. Salmon's Assessing Higher Order Thinking Skills (Portland,
OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 1987) for another listing
and discussion; and see Stephen P. Norris and Robert H. Ennis' Evaluating
critical thinking (Pacific Grove, CA: Midwest Publications, 1989) for an
extended discussion of assesing critical thinking.
2. If you know of any other published and available critical thinking tests, please let me know. Postal address: 495 East Lake Rd. Sanibel, FL 33957; e-mail: rhennis@uiuc.edu
3. A number of widely available standardized tests incorporate
critical thinking, although critical thinking, I believe, is not their
primary focus. This set includes ACT (American College Test), AP
(Advanced Placement), GRE (Graduate Record Examination), Iowa Test of Educational
Development, LSAT (Law School Admissions Test), and MCAT (Medical College
Admissions Test).