This white paper supplies an overview of empirical research on efforts to improve critical thinking in educational and employment settings. The unifying factor in these papers is the data provided by scholars measuring critical thinking using instruments developed and validated by the Insight Development research team, often in collaboration with international scholar colleagues and professional sector experts.

Findings are organized under four broad questions:

• College students: How do the critical thinking skills of today’s students compare with skills
  demonstrated in earlier decades?
• Professional Programs: How helpful is an assessment of critical thinking for graduate and professional
  program admissions and for prediction of transition to the workplace?
• Advancements in the assessment of K-12 students’ critical thinking: What do the data tell us about the relationship between critical thinking and optimal childhood development?
• The value of a critical thinking assessment in the workplace: What is the business advantage of testing and training for critical thinking?

Read the white paper, “What the Critical Thinking Data Tell Us About Our Reasoning,” to discover the data and insights our senior researchers share about each of these questions.