The identification and description of critical thinking behaviors in the practice of clinical laboratory science, Part 1: Design, implementation, evaluation, and results of a national survey.

The ability to think critically has been identified as a pivotal attribute of health care professionals. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe critical thinking (CT) behaviors and observable events resulting from CT, important in the practice of clinical laboratory science. Medical, educational, and psychological literature related to the many behaviors characterized under the CT rubric has been focused by an operationalized definition positing CT to be a metaprocess that facilitates learning by interlinking the more basic processes associated with different learning orientations: behaviorist, cognitivist, humanist, and situated/contextual learning. A total of 65 CT behaviors were identified through a process including discovery (expert interviews, a focus group with practitioners) and refinement (literature comparisons, expert rankings/reviews, pilot survey). CT behaviors were characterized further through a national survey of practitioners (n = 1,571, > 50% of time in bench work). Using a 6-point scale, practitioners ranked the importance of the CT behaviors. Important CT behaviors were characterized as being not only cognitive in nature, but also behavioral, affective, and situated/contextual. These findings suggest a stronger relationship between CT behaviors and all aspects of practice than previously reported. Given that these behaviors span all learning domains, findings support the metaprocess view of CT. Implications are that CT behaviors cannot be learned or taught, apart from a discipline-related practice setting. This study contributes to learning theory related to transfer and how learning occurs and to literature describing survey methodology. It also provides a basis for measurement of CT in practice settings.