Critical thinking among pharmacy students: Do age, sex and academic variants matter?

Abstract

Background: Critical thinking (CT) is recognised as an essential component of higher education, and many academic institutions are working on improving their students’ CT skills. To date, the complex relationships between students’ ability to think critically and their age, sex, academic performance, major and prior experience taken all together have not been investigated.   Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed to assess CT among undergraduate students from different health and non-health-related majors.    Results: The results of this study show that the majority of students reported the ability to analyse data, employ formulas, and draw conclusions. However, integrating ideas from different disciplines and revising conclusions based on new findings remained most challenging for students. Moreover, age and academic performance were correlated with students’ CT, while no correlation was found for sex and prior degree variables.      Conclusion: This study contributes to a growing body of literature designed to improve CT among college and higher education students.