Critical Thinking Skills During a Physical Therapist Professional Education Program

Background and Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine if critical-thinking skills changed as a result of completing a 27-month, traditional physical therapist (PT) education curriculum at the postbaccalaureate level. Subjects. Forty-two students in graduating classes between 1998 and 2001 who completed the 27-month, master's degree PT professional education program agreed to participate. Subjects were 69% women and 31% men, with a mean age at admission to the program of 26.52 years and a range of 22-38 years. Methods. The California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST), a standardized examination consisting of 34 items in a multiple-choice format that is content neutral and designed for adults, was administered during the first week in the PT education program and again during the last week of the program. The number of correct responses formed the composite score on the test and on each of the three subscales. Each item on the test was categorized into one of three subscales defined as “analysis,” “inference,” and “evaluation.” A paired t test investigated the differences between pretest and posttest scores on the CCTST composite score and three subscale scores. Results. The mean score for the pretest CCTST cumulative of 19.32 was compared to the mean posttest of 20.61. T test results of the pretest and posttest CCTST showed no significant differences at the 0.05 level between the cumulative or sub-scale scores. Discussion and Conclusion. Critical-thinking abilities of PT professional students as measured by the CCTST did not change as a result of participation in a master's degree PT education program. Use of a different instrument or larger sample may provide further information about the critical-thinking skills of PT students. Development of critical-thinking skills appears to be an important goal of professional physical therapist education programs; however, meaningful measurement of changes in critical-thinking skills during the educational process remains difficult.