Examples of Client Uses

Browse a sampling of how Insight Assessment clients are using our measurement tools to meet their assessment goals–and why good reasoning skills are important in everyone’s life.

Assessing College Readiness

College readiness How can colleges make sure new students have the skills to succeed in their coursework? It’s important to identify applicants who are eager and ready to learn and succeed. Critical thinking skills are among the most important college readiness skills and behaviors. Strong critical thinking skills and positive critical thinking habits of mind are vital to success in every academic discipline and major field study. Strong critical thinking skills and the motivation to learn predict student success and retention. Assessing college readiness skills Students must be both able and willing to apply their critical thinking skills in decision…

7 Critical Thinking Habits of Mind (Mindset)

Determining Students’ Willingness to Think

The CCTST is often used to measure college students’ ability to apply their critical thinking skills. The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory CCTDI is specifically designed to measure the disposition to engage problems and make decisions using critical thinking. There are seven scales on the CCTDI: Truthseeking, Open-mindedness, Analyticity, Systematicity, Confidence in Reasoning, Inquisitiveness and Maturity of Judgment. Each scale score describes an aspect of the overall disposition toward using one’s critical thinking to form judgments about what to believe or what to do. People may be positively, ambivalently, or negatively disposed on each of seven aspects of the overall disposition toward critical thinking. In educational settings…

Identify Employees With Strong Problem Solving Skills

It costs businesses money when problems are solved based on poor reasoning skills; it also costs businesses money when staff choose not to apply their reasoning skills to problem-solving. If your staff includes individuals and teams who have strong reasoning skills, operations run more efficiently—and productively. It’s essential that you hire and promote your best thinkers. Insight Assessment offers world-class tools specifically designed to provide employers with the metrics they need to hire strong thinkers, to create teams of people able to learn their jobs quickly and to build staff competence.INSIGHT Business assessments objectively measure essential business thinking skills (such…

CCTST Family of Tests measures critical thinking skills

Improve Their Interpretive Skills

Bible Colleges uses the critical thinking test CCTST to help students improve their interpretive skills and to assist them to be more effective community members. Graduates of faith-based colleges should be able to analyze and interpret sacred texts, to see the moral implications of religious teachings, to guide others in the evaluation of courses of action, to provide the faithful with uplifting explanations, and to reflect thoughtfully when confronted with doubts and challenges. Analytical and Interpretation skills are used when determining the precise meaning of a sentence, passage, text, idea, assertion, sign, signal, chart, etc. in a given context and…

Measure Analytical and Interpretive Skills

Analytical and Interpretive skills are used to closely examine ideas, to identify assumptions, reasons and claims, and to gather detailed information from charts, graphs, diagrams, paragraphs, etc. They are often used when determining the precise meaning of a sentence, passage, text, idea, assertion, sign, signal, chart, etc. in a given context and for a given purpose.The following Insight Assessment test instruments measure Analysis and Interpretation skills:BCTSTCCTSTHSRTTERThe following INSIGHT test instruments include measurements of analysis and interpretation skills as they are applied in the workplace.INSIGHT ExecutiveINSIGHT Business ProfessionalINSIGHT Health ProfessionalINSIGHT Law ProfessionalINSIGHT Business StaffINSIGHT Health StaffINSIGHT Support

Measure Inference Skills

Inference skills enable us to draw conclusions from reasons and evidence. We use inference when we offer thoughtful suggestions and hypotheses. Inference skills indicate the necessary or the very probable consequences of a given set of facts and conditions. Conclusions, hypotheses, recommendations or decisions that are based on faulty analyses, misinformation, bad data or biased evaluations can turn out to be mistaken, even if they have been reached using excellent inference skills. To see a list of the Insight Assessment critical thinking skills tests that measure Inference In addition Insight Business Executive measures inference as the risk and uncertainty scale Insight…

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them - Albert Einstein

Measure Intellectual Curiosity

Insight Assessment tools are used to measure Inquisitiveness, which is intellectual curiosity. Inquisitiveness is the tendency to want to know things, even if they are not immediately or obviously useful at the moment. It is being curious and eager to acquire new knowledge and to learn the explanations for things even when the applications of that new learning is not immediately apparent. The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and INSIGHT Health Professional provide objective measurements of Inquisitiveness, Truthseeking, Open-mindedness, Analyticity, Systematicity, Confidence in Reasoning and Maturity of Judgment.

Measuring Willingness to Learn

A willingness to learn is essential for positions where specific knowledge must be gained on the job.The Insight Assessment mindset scale, Desire to Learn, addresses the appreciation of continuous development and the need to retool in light of changing work responsibilities. As the workplace grows or changes, one can either aid in the transition or resist the personal impact of change, which inhibits institutional benefit. Higher scores indicate someone who is eager to learn new processes, new systems and new procedures.The Desire to Learn Scale is measured by the following INSIGHT test instruments:INSIGHT Business StaffINSIGHT SupportINSIGHT Health StaffThe Business Attribute Inventory…

Critical thinking data has value across the entire campus

Education Uses of Critical Thinking Skills Tests

Results from Insight Assessment’s academically focused test instruments are being used in educational programs to: measure the effectiveness of curricular programs, instructional approaches or educational materials; obtain objective data in individual admission decisions, placement or advising; respond to accreditation mandates to demonstrate the attainment of competent reasoning skills in program graduates; gather data as a component of an educational research project. assess the critical thinking skills of newly admitted students to help identify which of them requires focused training in reasoning skills; assess the development of critical thinking skills as a competency of instructional staff members and classroom aides to…

Success shown with upward arrow with background of students jumping in celebration

Critical Thinking for Elected Representatives

After the election the American people are calling upon their elected representatives in Washington and in State capitols to focus on how they can think together to find the solutions we need to move forward. Through the use of purposeful reflective judgment we will be striving to agree on goals that are derived from our core values (controlling debt, being fiscally accountable, supporting the life and work of America’s people, protecting and enriching the future of our children). If we dig around our own views as the only way to achieve those values and goals, we will find the negotiation…

INSIGHT Scenario: Motivation and Work Ethic

The owner of a large chain of restaurant is tired of hiring people who do not show initiative and do only the bare minimum. Too many workers don’t show pride in their job and feel no loyalty to their employer beyond their paycheck. The owner knows that if she hires too many people who think that way, she will be out of business soon. In a competitive market, she needs her staff to give more energy and thought to their work and responsibilities. She wants to hire people who are not content to just get by. This business owner is…

INSIGHT Scenario: Build a Positive Work Culture

A large retail company invested money and employee hours to develop and implement a new business strategy with the goal of improving customer service. All staff sat through rigorous training and had ample opportunities to ask questions. The strategy didn’t improve the customer service metrics. The lack of ACTUAL staff development led to this failure. Was it the plan, was it the implementation or was it the staff? It could be a combination of all three. But we have all seen a motivated instructor make difficult or arduous material interesting. More importantly we have also seen an employee who is…

INSIGHT Scenario: Hiring for Workplace Safety

A manufacturing firm is opening a new facility in a new state. Management has chartered HR to quickly build a dependable staff with a strong work ethic and commitment to work place safety. They want to hire smart to make sure their training dollars aren’t wasted on people who can’t learn or who will make costly mistakes. How can they assemble a safe and effective team? INSIGHT Solution:To reduce their exposure to safety risks, this firm decides to require prescreened candidates to take the online INSIGHT Business Assessments. Final hiring decisions include objective measures of the reasoning skills and the…

INSIGHT: Vision and Leadership

Build a business leadership team with the clear vision of what is coming and the insight to guide your company to reach its goals Vision and decision strength start at the top. Successful businesses continuously assess the quality of leadership and analyze past decisions and actions. To excel, leadership teams need to select individuals with strength in decision skills and the mindset to use those skills individually and as a member of the team. The result is a chief executive officer with more confidence in all parts of the organization, a business culture with strong values and performance, and a competitive…

Reduce Risk, Prevent Loss and Limit Liability

Prescreening tools to reduce risk Employees who are weak in workplace thinking skills are the greatest cause of lost opportunity. Errors in judgment often result in serious liability costs. Employee theft reduces profits. Together these two factors make the difference between a profitable business and one that fails. To reduce risk, businesses need motivated and committed employees who have the thinking skills needed to make evidence-based judgments and a strong work ethic. Dependability, regard for safety, commitment, flexibility, desire to learn are characteristics of productive employees. You can reduce loss and liability by prescreening employees; all INSIGHT Business assessments provide…

INSIGHT: Assessing Readiness for Training

Studies of effective teaching and learning in programs designed to assist workplace reentry or transition demonstrate the need for a match between the training level and the worker. If the training is too challenging, some candidates will hide their failures until errors become apparent. Assessing whether the candidate has the thinking skills to benefit from the planned training program or the readiness to enter internships or workplace environments assists your company educators to scaffold employee development programs and improve their effectiveness. INSIGHT Business assessments provide an objective way for employers to measure the thinking skills of current and prospective hires and…

INSIGHT: Optimizing Training Resources

Strong critical thinking skills are essential for business success. Companies regularly prescreen candidates to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their thinking skills. Once hired, professionals must maintain their expertise. Training resources are scarce and often must be effectively directed only to those who require additional support. .. A threshold can be set to highlight acceptable strength in critical thinking for your program or industry, allowing your training centers to focus resources on those who would best benefit from attending training programs aimed at growing their critical thinking skills. INSIGHT Business Professional and INSIGHT Executive assessments deliver individual reports that…

INSIGHT : You Can Hire the Best Thinkers

The job market is heating up. Job reports show the economy is growing, hiring is increasing and the unemployment rate is falling. More employers are planning to hire or contract for new employees this year. How will this impact your plans for growth? You face increased competition for qualified employees making it more challenging to make sure that each person you hire is the right person for the right job. You need to hire strategically, making sure that you are building a talent pool with the motivation and potential to grow in their responsibilities.You will still be inundated with resumes and…

Good Thinking Drives Quality Improvements

The quality of products and services ultimately depends on the mindset and decision making skills of employees. Widespread process improvements follow when businesses commit to increasing the strength of the decision making in their organization: Fewer mistakes are made when employees approach problems and decisions with the ability to analyze problems, evaluate options, anticipate consequences and apply numerical data. Efficiency and productivity improve when employees can anticipate risks, reducing errors. Analytical approaches can lead to product and systemic improvements Innovation increases when employees have the mindset to persist until they find solutions Minimum thinking standards can be set for future…