(240) Thinking Again About Critical Thinking

Objective : Instruments for measuring critical thinking (CT) in pharmacy students have been described and compared with success in various aspects of pharmacy education. However, comparisons of CT ability with performance in CT-specific courses are not well-explored.

Methods: Ten campus-based courses mapped to the ACPE 2016 Problem-Solving Outcome were selected to compare with student CT subscores on the Educational Testing Service Proficiency Profile. Using Pearson correlation, CT subscores were compared with 1) overall average grade for all courses, 2) individual course grades, and 3) average grades of discipline-grouped courses (math, science, administrative, and clinical). Correlations of groups of students who passed or failed were compared for significance using Fisher’s transformation.

Results: Pharmacotherapy I and Pharmaceutical Care Lab V, both in the clinical group, had a moderately positive correlation with the CT subscores (r=.37, p<.001; and r=.3, p=.002, respectively). Comparison with overall course grades (r=.25, p=.011) and average grades from the clinical group (r=.27, p=.006) showed a statistically significant but weak correlation. Correlations with the remaining courses and disciplines were not statistically significant. The comparison of overall course grade correlations between students in the pass/fail groups was not statistically significant (z=.28, ns).

Conclusions: Two of the ten critical-thinking courses were in the clinical group of courses and had moderately positive correlations with student CT subscores. While other courses in the clinical group were similarly designed, they achieved disparate correlation coefficients. The results of this study bring to question how critical thinking skills are applied or assessed within the curriculum or if course grades accurately reflect these skills.