Critical thinking is an academically coveted skill important to all areas of education (Halpern, 1998). The ability to think critically requires an individual to question and possibly reject accepted ideals and authorities. A strong self-concept may play an important role in this process. The present study hypothesized a positive relationship between total self-concept and critical thinking ability. An additional purpose of this study was to explore whether self-concept accounted for more of the variance in critical thinking than other correlates of the ability, such as metacognition (Halpern, 1998; Magno, 2010) and openness to experience (Clifford, Boufal, & Kurtz, 2004). The hypothesis was supported; total self-concept significantly and positively correlated with the total score of critical thinking. Regression analyses revealed self-concept was a better predictor of critical thinking, accounting for 19.2% more variance in critical thinking than metacognition and openness to experience. Overall, the results suggest that nourishing students\u27 self-concept may support their ability to think critically
