Development of the Measurement Scale on Critical Thinking Skills for Upper Elementary School Students under Phitsanulok Primary Educational Service Area Office

Abstract

          This study aimed 1) to develop and verify the quality of the measurement scale on critical thinking skills for upper elementary school students and 2) to create a norm of the measurement scale on critical thinking skills. The sample in this study included 395 grade 4-6 students under Phitsanulok Primary Educational Service Area Office, obtained by multi-stage sampling of the population of 20,150 people. The research instrument was the measurement scale on critical thinking skills based on Dressel and Mayhew's concept, totaling 42 items. Statistics for data analysis included mean, coefficient of distribution, skewness, kurtosis, percentile, normally distributed standardized scores, and confirmatory factor analysis.
          The findings revealed that 1) the measurement scale on critical thinking skills for upper elementary school students consisted of 5 components: the ability to define problems, the ability to choose information related to solutions to problems, the ability to organize information, the ability to create hypotheses, and the ability to draw logical conclusions. The IOC value was between 0.60-1.00. The difficulty was between 0.17 to 0.40. The index of discrimination was between 0.23 and 0.54. The analysis result of the reliability was 0.899 at a high level with structural conformity. 2) The determination of local norms of the measurement scale was divided into 4 levels: a high level of critical thinking with a score of 33 or more (≥T57), a relatively high level of critical thinking with a score between 27-32 (T50 – T56), a moderate level of critical thinking with a score between 22-26 (T46 – T49), and a low level of critical thinking with a score less than 22 (< T46).