Sunipa Ghosh Dastidar and Rajesh Kumar Saha
Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata
Pages: 119-130
The purpose of this research was to design and validate a test aimed at assessing the
critical thinking abilities of students at the secondary level. The construction of the
Ghosh & Saha Critical Thinking Test (GSCTT) was carried out in two distinct phases.
In the initial phase, a set of 60 items was given to 90 students of class IX. Subsequently
based on the outcomes of this initial phase, a final test was developed and then applied
to a new group of 230 ninth-grade students to assess its validity and reliability. The test
consists of 30 items and five dimensions assessing critical thinking skills: Interpretation,
Analysis, Evaluation, Inference and Explanation. The test’s validity was established
through construct validity, content validity, and face validity. To test construct validity,
item analysis and distractor analysis was performed. For establishing the content
validity of the Test, content validity index was calculated. Face validity was established
with students’ opinion. The Cronbach’s α and Kuder-Richardson 20 were computed to
measure the internal consistency. Cronbach’s α for the whole test was .94 and KR-20
reliability coefficient for the whole test was .94. Due to its high reliability and validity,
the Ghosh and Saha Critical Thinking Test (GSCTT) could become a preferred instrument
for evaluating the critical thinking skills of secondary school students.