Critical Thinking Performance Assessment in an Undergraduate Physical Chemistry Laboratory Course: Developing a Contextual Critical Thinking Coding Manual

Critical thinking (CT) performance assessment in authentic settings remains challenging. One reason is that the CT focus might shift depending on the context. This article describes the inductive and deductive processes of developing a contextual CT coding manual (CCTCM) and presents an exemplary analysis to demonstrate its application in assessing CT performance in an undergraduate physical chemistry laboratory course. Students’ verbal interactions during the course were used as the primary data for assessment. The CCTCM we developed comprises two components: the contextual profile of the physical chemistry laboratory and an operationalized set of CT skills. The tool enabled a contextualized analysis of CT performance. It produced data that reflected ongoing learning, accommodated quantitative analyses of small samples, and could inform curriculum design by identifying commonly applied or underused CT skills. Moreover, it allowed for monitoring individual CT performance and understanding CT skill interconnections. The CCTCM operates independently of teaching methods or students’ problem familiarity, thus preserving intuitive behaviors.