Abstract
The purposes of the present study were to examine the extent to which university students show critical thinking abilities and attitudes in reading non-academic materials, and to explore the possible correlation with academic level (freshman vs. senior) and major (scientific vs. non-scientific). 80 university students read 3 materials containing fallacious before-and-after arguments, and were asked to provide their comments and/or opinions. The data were used to determine their critical thinking attitudes. The students then commented again on the same materials after being instructed to point out any logical problems with them; the results were analyzed to infer their critical thinking abilities. The results showed that (1) 88 of the 240 answers (36.7%) were categorized as displaying critical thinking abilities; (2) in the condition with no instruction to think critically, only a few (22.7%) of the 88 responses showed ciritical thinking attitudes; and (3) no consistent effects of academic level or major were discovered. The results suggest that the majority of the students did not read these non-academic materials from a logical point of view, but rather read them from a viewpoint of plausibility, or of what the students believed. These results should be considered by educators whose goal is to develop university students' critical thinking abilities and attitudes.
