The BCTST is an objective
measure of the application of higher order reasoning skills
to critical thinking problems set in business contexts.
The skills required for success on the BCTST are analysis,
inference, evaluation, induction, and deduction.
Each BCTST test item invites the test-taker to make a reasoned
judgment, that is to apply the above mentioned critical
thinking and reasoning skills to a business related problem,
and thereby to select the best response from among those choices
provided.
Score Reporting: The BCTST
can be used by educational and business organizations as a measure
of higher level reasoning and critical thinking skills. There
are 35 items on the BCTST. The client receives scoring information
reported as an Total score and sub-scores for the five
skills for each test-taker. Percentile norms for a given group
of test-takers are also reported to the client. The client determines
whether or not the individual test-takers in the client's group
will receive information about their individual test results.
If this option is selected, the individual test-takers in the
client's group receive their individual total and sub-scale scores
along with a description of each of those skills.
Click
here to view.
Business Functions: The specific business functions (e.g.
management, finance, information technology, customer services,
sales, etc.) for which strengths in the skills of analysis, inference,
evaluation, inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning would
be relevant are to be determined by the specific business client.
They may include duties which would require the employee to make
well-reasoned judgments based on the analysis of business information
and relevant business context variables, draw well reasoned inferences
with regard to the logical or inferentially predictable consequences
of such data and variables, or evaluate the logical strength of
the arguments and reasons presented by others or the logical strength
of the objections to arguments others might voice.
Validity:
The
BCTST is based on the concept of critical thinking articulated by
business leaders, policy-makers, employers, and academics in a study
conducted at Penn State University, sponsored by US Department of
Education. This concept was first presented in the Expert Consensus
Statement on College Level Critical Thinking (1990) known as The
Delphi Report.
Scores
Reported: The BCTST Total Score describes overall skill in critical
thinking, that is in making reflective, reasoned judgments about what
to believe or what to do. Sub-scales describe essential specific critical
thinking skills.
Total:
Overall critical thinking skill and norm-group percentile.
Sub-scale scores by the classical categories of Inductive Reasoning
and Deductive Reasoning
Sub-scale scores by the contemporary categories of Analysis,
Inference, and Evaluation
Click
here for a description of BCTST scales scores
and the ranges indicating strong or weak performance.
Testing
Modalities: Secure
on-line e-testing and traditional paper-and-pencil
testing
Purposes:
The BCTST is designed for learning outcomes assessment, professional
development, training, program evaluation, accreditation preparation,
research, and as an element in application, admissions, and personnel
evaluation processes.
Test
Format: The BCTST is designed as a 35-item multiple choice format
test. Items present necessary informational content in text-based
and diagrammatic formats. Questions invite test takers to draw inferences,
to make interpretations, to analyze information, to evaluate claims
and reasons, and to judge the quality of arguments.
Time:
If timed, 50 minutes. Or, at the option of the client, the BCTST may
be given untimed.
Content
Knowledge:Test items are set in business professional and workplace
contexts. Items supply the business problem context and data to which
the test-taker applies his or her critical thinking skills. Success
on this testing tool depends on the test-taker's reasoning skills
and the person's capacity to apply them correctly o that problem content
in order to form a reasoned judgment leading to the selection of the
best answer from among those provided. This test is not designed as
a measure of memorized information.
Reliability:
The BCTST was developed based on eight years of research, field
testing of questions, and examination of contextual elements in business
settings and business professional preparation programs. Consistent
with Insight Assessments other nationally and internationally used
reasoning and critical thinking assessment tools, the BCTST is a reliable
measure of these skills in the target population of practicing professionals
and professional preparation students age 18 and older.
For
Use by: Businesses and business professional preparation programs
at the post-secondary through graduate level.
Development: Development of the BCTST began in 1998, and continued
for eight years with the cooperation of working professionals, business
school colleagues, and employers and educators throughout the United
States and around the world. Norms for several significant groups
of test takers are now being developed and will be continuously updated
as additional samples from businesses and educational institutions
with comparable characteristics are gathered. Separate norms are planned
for associate degree, baccalaureate degree, and MBA programs. Contact
Insight Assessment to propose the development of a consortium of like
featured organizations and to participate in this national and international
process.
Scores
on Business Critical Thinking Skills Test
Analysis
Scale : One uses one's analytical skills when determining the
precise meaning of a sentence or an array of data presented in the
form of a graph or chart. Precision is the key to analysis. Analysis
is critical to knowing exactly what a policy statement says, making
accurate measurements, determining what assumptions a person must
be making, or differentiating between what a person claims and the
reasons he or she presents for making that claim. It would be unwise
to build further judgments, such as inferences and evaluations, upon
the results of potentially poor analyses. There are 10 items on the
Analysis Scale of the BCTST. A score of 8 or higher on this scale
is a strong score. A score of 3 or lower indicates weak analytical
skills.
Inference
Scale: One relies on inference skills whenever drawing conclusions
based on reasons and evidence. Inference skills are important for
both inductive and deductive reasoning. Inferences can be skillfully
drawn from information, data, beliefs, opinions, facts, conjectures,
principles, and assumptions. Successful business decisions rely on
accurate information and strength in inference skills. However, skillful
inference alone does not guarantee that the conclusion will be true.
If you reason to any conclusions based on mistaken beliefs or faulty
information, then you are most likely going to have reached a mistaken
or faulty conclusion, even if you applied your inference skills well.
For example, we know that Chicago is in Illinois. But suppose we were
so confused that we thought that Illinois was in Mexico, and not in
the United States. We might then infer that Chicago is in Mexico.
Good use of inference skills, but based on mistaken beliefs –
the result is, as you would expect, not true. There are 15 items in
the Inference Score. Scores of 12 or higher indicate strong skills
in inference. Scores of 5 or lower indicate weak inference skills.
Evaluation Scale: Evaluative reasoning skills are used to judge
the strength of the reasons a person uses when they try to defend
a claim they are making. We evaluate explanation, analyses, options,
beliefs, ideas and arguments all the time. For example, suppose someone
makes a claim that we should close one of our company offices, and
the reason that they give is that sales in that office have dropped
10% over the past year. Before we decide to close the office, we would
want to evaluate whether the change in sales was sufficient reason
alone to close the office. We would want to know a lot more about
the situation. The question is, how well we do it. There are 10 items
on the Evaluation Scale. A score of 8 or higher indicates strong evaluative
reasoning skills; a score of 3 or lower indicates weak evaluative
reasoning skills.
Inductive Reasoning Scale: Inductive reasoning is drawing warranted
inferences regarding what is most likely true or most likely not true,
given certain information. Induction is the kind of reasoning used
in deciding which of several promising options would be the most reasonable
to select in a given situation. Using induction we infer that the
evidence at hand means that a given conclusion is probably true. For
example, if we know that the vast majority of people who smoke, as
compared to those who do not smoke, suffer serious health problems,
we might reasonably conclude by inductive reasoning that smoking is
probably hazardous to one’s health. Induction shows that some
ideas, inferences, explanations, or hypotheses are more likely to
be true than others. Inferential statistics, such as t-tests, are
fundamentally inductive, for they give us high levels of confidence
that an observed relationship has not occurred by chance. When we
base our predictions about how things will happen in the future on
our past experiences we are using inductive reasoning. As long as
there is even the most remote or obscure possibility that although
all the reasons for a claim could be true, the claim itself might
still be false, we are in the realm of inductive reasoning. Since
this is a vitally important reasoning skill for persons making judgments
and decisions in business or professional contexts, the BCTST includes
20 items which target inductive reasoning. A score of 16 or higher
on the Induction Scale indicates strong inductive reasoning skills.
A score of 6 or lower indicates weak skills in inductive reasoning.
Deductive
Reasoning Scale: Deductive reasoning happens when we infer that
it is impossible that the conclusion we are considering can be false,
given that all the premises of our argument are true. For example,
if we know for a fact that San Diego is west of Denver, and we know
that Denver is west of Detroit and New York, then we can infer with
deductive certainty that San Diego is west of New York even if we
have never visited these cities or seen them on a map. Information
systems, financial systems, and business functions which require the
exact reading of numerical data generally rely to a greater or lesser
extent on deduction. Algebra and geometry are exercises in deductive
reasoning. Activities which require following contract provisions,
protocols, rules, or laws with precision, leaving no room for independent
interpretation of gray areas, call on our deductive reasoning skills.
For example, suppose it is true that when a payment has not been received
from any client within 30 days from the billing date of an invoice,
that invoice should be treated as past due and sent to collections.
And suppose that it is also true that we have not received payment
from our client XYZ Company on an invoice issued more than 30 days
ago. Then it follows deductively that the invoice for XYZ Company
is past due and must be sent to collections. Because of the importance
of deductive reasoning to business and professional judgments, there
are 15 items on the BCTST which are characteristic of deductive reasoning.
A score of 12 or higher on the Deduction Scale indicates strong deductive
reasoning skills; a score of 5 or lower indicates weak deductive reasoning
skills.
Scale
Total Score:
The total score on the BCTST is the number correct out of the 35 items.
This score is an indication of overall strength or weakness in critical
thinking skills. This score integrates induction, deduction, analysis,
inference, and evaluative reasoning.
If test-takers
wish to learn more about critical thinking and reasoning skills, they
are invited to download free the latest update of the essay "Critical
Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts."
|
