Critical Thinking and Its Relevant Factors among Undergraduates

Hou Yongmei(Department of Psychology, School of Humanity and Administration, Guangdong Medical University)

Abstract

To explore the present status of Critical thinking and its relevant factors among undergraduates.A stratified random sampling was used to select 1013 undergraduates from 7 full-time colleges in Guangdong province. They were investigated with California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory-Chinese Version (CTDI-CV) and a Self-Compiled Personal General Information Questionnaire. ⑴ The total score of CTDI-CV was (254.16±38.80). The undergraduates in the four levels of critical thinking of comprehensive strong, relatively strong, contradictory scope and serious opposition accounted for 1.78%, 5.31%, 87.4% and 5.51% of this group, respectively. (2) Multiple stepwise linear regression showed that the total score of CTDI-CV was positively correlated with the following 10 factors such as grade, family economic status, part-time experience, the teaching method used most commonly, like reading logic books, like reading reviews or essays, father’s warmth, mother’s warmth, openness and responsibility (β=.142 to .701，all P<.05). The following 5 factors such as father’s negation, father’s overprotection, mother’s negation, mother’s overprotection and neuroticism were negatively correlated with the total score of CTDI-CV (β=-.381 to -. 616, all P < 0.05). The overall level of critical thinking among undergraduates is relatively low. College Students' critical thinking may be related to many factors such as family rearing, school education and personal characteristics.

Keywords

Undergraduates; Critical thinking; Related factors; Multiple stepwise linear regression

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26549/jetm.v5i2.7000