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Author: Dr. Noreen Facione, RN, Ph.D., FAAN
nfacione@insightassessment.com


"The HSRT test directions are easy to read and comprehend. The test questions are certainly thought provoking. I like the mixture of clinical, ethical, and administrative dilemmas."
-- Dr. Michael McKenzie,
Associate Dean, College of Pharmacy, University of Florida.

 


click for info on this
new release

 


New research on teaching for critical thinking using a problem-based-learning pedagogy in medical education.
Click here for A. Tiwari et. al.
2006 abstract.

 

 

 



The Health Sciences Reasoning Test


Authors: Noreen C. Facione, Ph.D., FAAN
Peter A. Facione, Ph.D.
© 2006



Price information - HSRT


Assess health science
undergraduate and
graduate students'
critical thinking skills.

This tool sets critical thinking questions
in health sciences and
clinical practice contexts.


The HSRT does not presume specialized technical knowledge.

Deans and Directors: Contact IA at
650-697-5628 to preview the HSRT as experienced by students on-line.

Learn more about IA's secure and
cost-effective
e-testing system
.



 
Construct and Content Validity: The HSRT is based on the conceptualization of critical thinking articulated in the Expert Consensus Statement on College Level Critical Thinking (1990) known as The Delphi Report. This concept was supported by an independent replication research study of policy-makers, employers, and academics which was conducted at Penn State University, sponsored by US Department of Education.

Scores Reported: The HSRT Total Score targets the strength or weakness of one's skill in making reflective, reasoned judgments about what to believe or what to do. The HSRT generates several scores relating to critical thinking:

Overall critical thinking skills total score 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 detailed HSRT scale descriptions.

Intended Subjects: The HSRT is designed for undergraduate and graduate professional school students in nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry, occupational therapy, social work, physical therapy, medical technology, and the health sciences

Purposes: The HSRT 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 HSRT is designed as a 33-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 draw warranted inferences, to identify claims and reasons, and to evaluate the quality of arguments.

Time: If timed, test session is one standard class period of 45-50 minutes. Or test can be given untimed.

Content Knowledge:Test items are set in clinical and professional practice contexts and supply the necessary content for applying one's thinking skills. Students are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged based on specific subject-matter factual content knowledge or specialized experience. Success on this testing tool depends on the correct application of their thinking skills, not on memorized information.


Development: Development of the HSRT began in 2000, and continued for five years with the cooperation of nursing and health sciences colleagues throughout the United States and around the world. Test validation and refinement included samples from Australia and Singapore. Norms for several significant groups of test takers will be developed and continuously updated as additional samples from associate degree, baccalaureate degree, and masters degree students are gathered. Contact IA to participate in this national and international process.

 

Scores on Health Sciences Reasoning Test

Scale Inductive Reasoning: Inductive reasoning happens when we decide 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. Scientific reasoning aims to show that some ideas more likely to be true than others. Scientists use inductive methods, such as experimentation; and they use inductive tools, such as statistics. 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 and obscure possibility that even though all the reasons for a claim could be true and yet the claim itself might still be false, we are in the realm of inductive reasoning.

Scale Deductive Reasoning: Deductive reasoning happens when we decide that, no matter what, it is impossible that the conclusion we are considering is 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. Mathematics uses deductive reasoning. Algebra and geometry are exercises in deductive reasoning. Playing a game can also be an exercise in deductive reasoning, and so can filling out an income tax return. For both games and tax returns are things that require us to apply strict rules and laws. For example, “if the batter swings and misses three pitches, the batter is out, and Johnnie just did that, so Johnnie is out” is a deductive inference. One of the ways that we know that little children can reason deductively is to observe that they can play games that require following rules, even playground rules.

Scale Analysis: We are using our analytical skills when we pull apart arguments and points of view to show why a person thinks what he or she thinks. In effect we are separating the premises and the assumptions a person is using from the claim or the conclusion that the person is reaching. For example, suppose someone proposes that that we should go to war because the enemy is building up weapons of mass destruction to use against us. An analysis of this person’s position would reveal that the person is making assumptions about what the enemy is doing (“building up weapons” ) and about what the enemy is intending (“to use against us”).

Scale Inference: We use your inference skills whenever we draw conclusions based on reasons and evidence. We might be using our deductive reasoning inference skills or our inductive reasoning inference skills. We can apply your inference skills to all sorts of things including beliefs, opinions, facts, conjectures, principles, and assumptions. We can even apply our inference skills to mistakes. If we reason to any conclusions based on things that we know are mistaken, then we are most likely going to have reached a faulty conclusion, even if we applied your 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 we would expect, not a true statement. It is important to keep separate what we know to be true and what conclusions we infer based on what we know.

Scale Evaluation: We are using our evaluation skills when we decide how strong or how weak a person’s arguments are, or when we determine the believability of a given statement. For example, what do we think about the idea that the sun goes around the earth? Well, if we were standing all day in an open field you might observe that the sun rose in the east and set in the west. This would seem to support the idea that the sun goes around the earth. On the other hand, if we knew that the earth was spinning on its axis and that the solar system includes our planet in orbit around the sun, then we would evaluate the idea that the sun goes around the earth as naive and mistaken. It is just not logical to hold that belief any longer, not given what we know about our planet and our solar system. We evaluate ideas and arguments all the time. The question is, how well we do it. The idea that we are safe drivers when we are under the influence of drugs or alcohol is not believable. Unfortunately, the drugs or alcohol inhibits our critical thinking by, among other things, weakening our skill at making good evaluations. It is just at that time that a person is likely to make a mistake and think that he or she can drive safely.

Scale Total Score: The total score indicates one's overall reasoning or critical thinking skill level. The total is the sum of the scores in analysis, inference, and evaluation, which are core skills in critical thinking. We use these skills in both inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. The total can also be calculated by summing the induction and deduction scores. To learn more about critical thinking, reasoning skills and dispositions, and the relationship between our intuitive decision-making and our reflective decision-making, download free the 2006 update of "Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts."

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