Critical thinking is a learning outcome highly valued by higher education institutions and the workforce. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) has designed a next generation assessment, the HEIghten™ critical thinking assessment, to measure students' critical thinking skills in analytical and synthetic dimensions. This paper introduces the…

Background: Medical errors caused by breakdowns in teamwork and interprofessional communication contribute to many deaths in the United States each year. Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS®) is an evidence-based teamwork system developed to improve communication and teamwork skills among health care…

The Dutch version of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Belgium Form (CAAS-Belgium) consists of four scales, each with six items, which measure concern, control, curiosity, and confidence as psychosocial resources for managing occupational transitions, developmental tasks, and work traumas. A pilot survey was administered to 700 high school,…

The Student Response to Faculty Instruction (SRFI) is an instrument designed to measure the student perspective on courses in higher education. The SRFI was derived from decades of empirical studies of student evaluations of teaching. This article describes the development of the SRFI and its psychometric attributes demonstrated in two pilot study…

A way to assess knowledge acquired through simulation-based learning (intuitive knowledge) is presented. A "WHAT-IF" test item format is developed, and two pilot studies involving 74 college students responding to WHAT-IF items are described. The tests did tap improvement in learning, although test validity was only partially supportive.…

A multilevel variance component analysis from the pilot year of pretesting an instrument--the GENED--designed to present information about general education outcomes is presented, using data from about 11,000 college students. The analysis addresses the discriminant validity of the subtests and statistical issues in test construction. (SLD)

Criterion 20 of the National League for Nursing's accreditation process requires documentation of critical thinking (CT) as an outcome of nursing education. This raises two questions: What is meant by CT? and How can it be measured? Building on a consensus construct of CT as articulated in the American Philosophical Association 1990 Delphi Report,…

The role of self-regulated learning in successful academic performance at the college level was studied. Using a literature review, items were developed for a self-regulated learning questionnaire, which was written as a Likert scale and pilot tested with a small group. Subjects for the study were 39 male and 121 female education majors at a…

Some issues involved in the measurement of student motivation and learning strategies are explored, focusing on a self-report instrument, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The MSLQ, designed to assess the motivational orientation and learning strategy use of college students and based on a social-cognitive view, has been…

Because there are few instruments designed to measure the specific behaviors and characteristics instructors expect of college students and how well the majority of their students meet those expectations, an original survey instrument has been created to address that need. Focus group interviews were held, and as a result of those interviews, an…