Measuring critical thinking: one step forward, one step back.

When critical thinking was identified as an explicit program outcome by the National League for Nursing in 1991, nursing programs were thrust into frenzied activity defining critical thinking and selecting instruments to evaluate it. This drove research on the measurement of critical thinking among nursing programs and the concomitant search for reliable and valid methodologies to systematically assess changes in critical thinking in their students. Although the ultimate goal of this process was curricular improvement, nearly 15 years later, faculty struggle to make sense of the data they have.