How do you make a decision? Do you tend to seek more information or engage with others to discover more options?
The PIE Center’s new instrument seeks to measure how people think critically about their toughest decisions. PIE Center Director Tracy Irani and Associate Director Alexa Lamm spent years developing and testing the UF Critical Thinking Inventory and are excited to share it with a global audience online.
Check out the UFCTIThe UFCTI measures critical thinking styles on a continuum between engagement and seeking information. Engagers are confident communicators who look for opportunities to use their reasoning skills. They are confident in their ability to solve problems. Seekers have a high tendency for seeking information, are aware of their own biases and opinions, and are open to the opinions of others.
“By identifying your strengths and weaknesses, you allow yourself to engage or seek information pertaining to the situation you’re in,” Lamm said. “Ideally, the best thing to do is to be able to engage in both styles.”
Extensive work was involved in the creation of the UFCTI tool, including working with various populations, such as students, the general public and business professionals, to ensure it will work in multiple settings.
In order to use the UFCTI instrument, the administrator must be certified. A three-lesson online program teaches learners about critical thinking, the UFCTI, and how to interpret the results. The lessons are self-paced and include brief lectures and activities. Quisto Settle, a post-doctoral associate at the PIE Center, worked with UF Distance and Continuing Education to develop the online training program.
“The program is truly engaging and gives people information in a way that is far more interactive and beneficial beyond what they might get reading from a book or traveling somewhere to take the training in person,” Irani said.
After successfully completing certification, the instrument can be administered by purchasing codes that provide individual access. Codes can be purchased for groups with a minimum of 10 people. The tests are not administered online so there is no delay in receiving results.
“When you’re working in teams, you want to understand what the thinking styles are of the others you’re working with,” Irani said. “If you’re a leader, you might want to know who is on the team in terms of their critical thinking style so that you can put people in roles and on teams where they’re going to be the most successful and the most productive.”
