Quantifying critical thinking: Development and validation of the Physics Lab Inventory of Critical thinking (PLIC)

TL;DR

This paper introduces the Physics Lab Inventory of Critical thinking (PLIC), a validated assessment tool designed to measure students' critical thinking skills in physics labs, emphasizing data and evidence evaluation.

Contribution

The paper presents the development and validation of a new standardized assessment instrument for measuring critical thinking in physics laboratory education.

Findings

PLIC is valid and reliable for assessing critical thinking.

The assessment was tested on 5584 students across 29 institutions.

PLIC effectively measures students' ability to use data and evidence in physics experiments.

Abstract

Introductory physics lab instruction is undergoing a transformation, with increasing emphasis on developing experimentation and critical thinking skills. These changes present a need for standardized assessment instruments to determine the degree to which students develop these skills through instructional labs. In this article, we present the development and validation of the Physics Lab Inventory of Critical thinking (PLIC). We define critical thinking as the ability to use data and evidence to decide what to trust and what to do. The PLIC is a 10-question, closed-response assessment that probes student critical thinking skills in the context of physics experimentation. Using interviews and data from 5584 students at 29 institutions, we demonstrate, through qualitative and quantitative means, the validity and reliability of the instrument at measuring student critical thinking skills. This establishes a valuable new assessment instrument for instructional labs.