A Study of the Critical Thinking Skills of Seventh Graders

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of Critical Thinking (CT). Today's educational environment claims to value CT and yet we are daily remained that many people seem to lack the ability to think critically. This study seeks to answer the question; are we rewarding and encouraging CT in our young adolescent students? What follows is a quantitative study of the current state of CT skills in seventh grade students, and whether there is a link between student achievement in social studies, and their demonstrated level of CT. This study employs a modified version of the Cornell critical thinking test level X to measure CT skills. What we find in this study is that there is no statistically significant (p > .05) correlation between participant’s social studies class scores and their CT scores.