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Critical thinking and learning styles of students in a problem-based, master's entry-level physical therapy program

The purpose of this study was to compare critical thinking ability and critical thinking disposition of physical therapy students in year 1 and year 2 of an entry-level Master's program, and determine the association between critical thinking and preferred learning styles. Fifty year 1 and 44 year 2 students were tested for critical thinking ability on the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST), critical thinking disposition on the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI), and learning style on the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI). Repeat testing of the critical thinking tests was done 8 months later. Two-way repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare students between years and times. Associations between variables were determined by means of Pearson's or Spearman's correlations. The mean scores of the CCTST (year 1: 20.7 ± 3.96, year 2: 20.2 ± 3.08) and total CCTDI (year 1: 314.6 ± 22.57, year 2: 315.2 ± 23.37) were not significantly different between years, and did not change over time. The ANOVA revealed significant effects for three subscales of the CCTDI: truth-seeking—year 2 greater than year 1, self-confidence—significant time effect, and systematicity—significant year × group interaction effect. None of the CCTDI scores was significantly correlated with CCTST. Critical thinking scores were not different among the four LSI categories. LSI scores did not predict change in critical thinking. Master's entry-level physical therapy students did not have major changes in their critical thinking ability or disposition during the program.