The California Critical Thinking Instruments for Benchmarking, Program Assessment, and Directing Curricular Change

Within the pharmacy profession, educators and professional organizations suggest that pharmacy students should be taught critical thinking (CT) skills and how to use them.1,2 Furthermore, pharmacy programs should be assessed on their implementation of curricula that foster the development of critical thinking. Pharmacy has often tried to assess students’ critical thinking skills by observing students in clinical settings, using examination questions that require higher-order thinking in didactic coursework, and evaluating students’ written patient assessments and care plans.3 To date, little quantitative measurement and assessment of critical thinking development by pharmacy programs has been published. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s (AACP’s) Commission to Implement Change in Pharmaceutical Education spoke directly on critical thinking in “Background Paper II.”1 “Although critical thinking is a universally desired educational outcome, professionals particularly need a repertoire of thinking strategies that will enable them to acquire, evaluate, and synthesize information and knowledge.” Similarly, the Accreditation Council for Pharmaceutical Education (ACPE) endorses critical thinking in pharmacy curricula through accreditation standards 12 and 13 and guidelines 12.1, 12.2, and 13.1. Specifically, these guidelines and standards direct colleges and schools of pharmacy to “foster the development and maturation of critical thinking and problem solving skills,” have “teaching strategies to ensure the adeptness of critical thinking and problem solving,” and ensure their assessments “measure ... the abilities to ... use data in the critical thinking and problem solving processes.”2 The pharmacy profession has placed an increased emphasis on critical thinking by pharmacy students as the profession transitions to a patient care role. The fact that the assessment of critical thinking is now part of the accreditation process at colleges and schools of pharmacy only adds to ongoing interest. Thus, there is clearly a need for a more quantitative approach to evaluating pharmacy student progress through a curriculum that includes critical thinking outcomes. To that end, this study was undertaken to analyze critical thinking measures used for evaluating pharmacy students and identify potential areas for curricular reform to enhance critical thinking in our graduates. Specific objectives were to (1) measure baseline critical thinking skills of pharmacy students to determine areas of weakness in incoming stuAmerican Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 2004; 68 (4) Article 101.