Influences of critical thinking dispositions on critical thinking skills of undergraduate students at a Malaysian Public University

 

Ibrahim Nazem Ghadi¹, Kamariah Abu Bakar^2*  and Baboucarr Njie¹

 

Research Article | Published February 2015

Journal of Educational Research and Reviews, Vol. 3(2), pp. 23-31

 

 

¹Faculty of Educational Studies, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia.

²Institute of Mathematical Research, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia.

 

*Corresponding author. Email: kamarab@gmail.com. 

 

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Nurturing critical thinking in students is an aspiration of many professionals in higher education. It is also a quality that is often highly sought after by employers of university graduates. This study outaimed to find out the influences of critical thinking dispositions on critical thinking skills of the undergraduate students of the University of Putra Malaysia. The predictive relationships of student characteristics and perceptions towards critical thinking dispositions was examined by constructing a questionnaire to measure the critical thinking skills. In addition another instrument calledSurvey questionnaires on Critical Thinking Disposition CTD as well as Critical Thinking Skills were used to gather data.The respondents were drawn from undergraduate students at Universiti Putra Malaysia. The data were analyzed using multiple regression and the reliability of the instruments were checked by utilising alphacronbach, Kuder-Richardson 20 (KR-20). The results demonstrated that the undergraduate students were weak in systematicity, inquisitiveness and maturity, average in analyticity, open mind and truth seeking, and strong in self-confidence.