Thesis title:                           The Development of a Critical Thinking Test for Mathayom Suksa III Students in
                                School under the Office of Chanthaburi Educational Service Area 2

Researcher:          Miss Sarinee Kaisangkatee;  ID: 2472500364;

Degree:  Master  of  Education (Educational Administration);

Thesis advisors:   (1) Dr.Vandee  Sangprateeptong, Associate Professor;  (2) Dr. Ratchaneekool  Pinyopanuwat, Associate Professor;  Academic year:  2007

Abstract

                         The objectives of this study were (1) to develop a critical thinking test for Mathayom Suksa III students in schools under the Office of  Chanthaburi Educational Service Area 2; and (2) to verify the critical thinking  test for Mathayom Suksa III students in schools under the Office of Chanthaburi Educational Service Area 2.

                        The sample consisted of  800  Mathayom Suksa III students in  schools under the Office of Chanthaburi Educational Service Area 2, obtained by multi-stage sampling. The employed research instrument was a critical thinking  test  comprising  48 items for Mattayom Suksa III students. Content validity of the developed test was verified by the item-objective congruency (IOC) index. Each item’ s difficulty level and discriminating power were verified with the difficulty index and discriminating index. Its construct validity was verified by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Its reliability was verified  by  calculation of  Kuder- Richardson 20 (K-R 20) formula.

                        Research findings were as follows: (1) The developed a critical thinking test contained 48 items for assessment of six factors each of which required 8 items. The six factors under assessment were interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation. (2) Content validity of the test as shown by the IOC index ranged from .71 to 1.00. Its difficulty indices were in the range of .37 to .75 and its discriminating indices were in the range of .23 to .78 Its construct validity was at the good level as shown by all six  factors being significant at the .05 level with the chi-square goodness of  fit  test  at 7.48; p = .35, df =7, GFI = 1.00, AGFI = .99 and CFI = 1.00. Reliability  indices  of the test were as follow: .68 for interpretation, .70 for analysis, .70 for evaluation, .74 for inference, .73 for explanation, .75 for self- regulation, and .94 for the whole test. As for the test norm, the normalized T-scores were in the range of  T12 to T74

Keywords: Test development, Critical thinking test,  Mathayom Suksa