Chinese and United States undergraduates' critical thinking skills: Academic and dispositional predictors

Abstract

The present study explored the relationships between critical thinking performance and various possible correlates in two groups of students from different cultural backgrounds. The Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment was administered to 142 Chinese (Hong Kong) and 153 US undergraduates. Consistent with the assertion that the Chinese educational tradition emphasizes effort and academic performance may more realistically reflect student diligence, GPA was found to be unrelated with critical thinking abilities among Chinese students. US students critical thinking performance was also better predicted by SAT scores than GPA. Gender, subject major, and dispositional factors of openness and conscientiousness were found to be variably related to critical thinking skills in the two groups