[Development of a critical thinking disposition scale for nursing students].
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to develop a critical thinking disposition scale for nursing students.


METHODS
The developmental process was construction of a conceptual framework, development of preliminary items, verification of content validity, development of secondary items, verification of construct validity and extraction of final items. The conceptual framework and first preliminary 60 items were obtained through a review of relevant literature and the development of critical disposition scales by 10 researchers who had been studying critical thinking for one year. These items were reviewed by five specialists for content validity and finally 55 items were chosen. The data was collected from October 1 to 15, 2004 and was analyzed using factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha with the SPSS program. The subjects were composed of 560 Bachelor of Science nursing students from 8 nursing schools.


RESULTS
There were 35 final items which were sorted into 8 factors. The factors were identified as 'intellectual integrity(6 items)', 'creativity(4 items)', 'challenge(6 items)', 'open-mindedness(3 items)', 'prudence(4 items)', 'objectivity(4 items)', 'truth seeking(3 items)' and 'inquisitiveness(5 items)'. The cumulative percent of variance was 55.107%. The reliability of the scale, Cronbach's alpha was .892 and the factors' ranged from .562-.836.


CONCLUSIONS
The result of this study could be used for measuring critical thinking dispositions of nursing students. However, for further validity and reliability, repeated research is necessary.
Kwon
In Soo
IS
College of Nursing, Geongsang National University, Korea.
Lee
Ga Eon
GE
Kim
Gyung Duck
GD
Kim
Young Hee
YH
Park
Kyung Min
KM
Park
Hyun Sook
HS
Sohn
Sue Kyung
SK
Lee
Woo Sook
WS
Jang
Keum Seong
KS
Chung
Bok Yae
BY
D000328:Adult; D003625:Data Collection; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D012107:Research Design; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D013850:Thinking