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."
