title: Writing context-dependent item sets that reflect critical thinking learning outcomes.
abstract: Faculty in a medical-surgical nursing course developed learning outcomes to foster critical thinking skills involved in clinical reasoning. To facilitate students' abilities to make effective clinical judgments, direct teaching of thinking skills was incorporated into nursing content instruction. This instructional design challenged faculty to develop test items that would permit direct observation of students' thought processes. The author describes how context-dependent item sets were developed to meet this evaluation need.
authors.affiliation: Nursing Department, Purdue University North Central, Westville, IN 46391, USA. wmingsu@pnc.edu
authors.forename: Whei Ming
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Su
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D003479:Curriculum; D003625:Data Collection; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education; D007600:Judgment; D008128:Logic; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000592:standards; D009736:Nursing Process / Q000592:standards; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D013527:Perioperative Nursing / Q000193:education; D011588:Psychology, Educational; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D013663:Teaching; D013850:Thinking; D014163:Transfer, Psychology; D014956:Writing