THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF BACCALAUREATE NURSING STUDENTS AND ABILITY TO THINK CRITICALLY (CRITICAL THINKING).
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 161
Subjects: Education, Higher.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Developmental.
Description: The need for critical thinking as a fundamental educational ideal (Popper, 1965) and an expected behavior of nursing practice is essential for professional competence and autonomy. The increasing complexity of nursing practice has led nurse educators to be concerned about the proficiency of nurses to think critically (Jones & Brown, 1991). Researchers and theorists supported this concern of educators when they reported that anywhere from 40% to 80% of college and university students were performing at the Piagetian concrete level of cognitive development (Arons & Karpus, 1976; Jones & Brown, 1991; National League for Nursing, 1972, 1978; Pond & Popper, 1965; Siegel, 1980; Skinner, 1976).

Although the need to advance critical thinking has been identified, no research has empirically tested whether cognitive development is its antecedent. The purposes of this study were to explore the relationship between cognitive development and critical thinking, and the demographic variables: age, educational level, and educational background.

The methodology included the administration of two tests to measure the Piagetian-based cognitive developmental stage (Arlin Test of Formal Reasoning) and critical thinking capacity (Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal) of the participants. The tests were administered to 140 baccalaureate junior and senior nursing students from three universities in the metropolitan New York City area. A demographic questionnaire was also filled out by the subjects.

Pearson product moment correlations and MANOVA were used to relate the variables. The data strongly suggest that cognitive development significantly covaries with critical thinking. Descriptive univariate statistics were utilized to describe and summarize the findings of the demographic data. No significant differences were found between the educational levels, so data were pooled for some statistical tests.

The results of this study have important implications. The data identification of cognitive development as an antecedent to critical thinking may guide nurse educators in the development of curricula that will prepare nurses to be brokers and managers of knowledge. Questions have been raised for further research as to how educational background affects reasoning processes; how culture affects cognitive development; and how will the suggestion that critical thinking is dependent on cognitive development affect teaching strategies.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1259.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1995.

School code: 0055.