Problem Description

Critical thinking is widely recognized as an essential competence in both academic and professional contexts, yet measuring it reliably remains a major challenge. Traditional assessments, such as the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test, offer validated approaches but often rely on artificial scenarios. In contrast, real-world problem-solving contexts, especially in areas like sustainability strategy, demand the integration of complex information from diverse sources. Despite this, few validated assessments capture how individuals apply critical thinking in authentic, interdisciplinary tasks.

To address this gap, a new performance-based critical thinking task was developed  using the IPAL Framework in cooperation with SAP SE within the project of Human-centered AI for Sustainable Business.

In this task, participants review heterogeneous documents and develop sustainability initiatives based on the provided information. However, before this task can be used in research or practice, its validity must be tested against established critical thinking assessments.

Research Question

To what extent does a sustainability-focused critical thinking performance task correlate with participants’ results on the validated Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test?

Goal of Thesis

The goal of this bachelor thesis is to empirically validate the newly developed sustainability strategy task by comparing participant performance to the established Ennis-Weir test. This includes:

• Designing and conducting an empirical study.
• Collecting data from participants completing both tasks.
• Analyzing correlations, score patterns, and indicators of convergent validity.
• Evaluating whether the sustainability task can serve as a reliable and valid critical thinking assessment in real-life, sustainability-related contexts.

The outcome of the thesis will be a well-grounded recommendation on the task’s suitability as a valid critical thinking instrument.

Requirements for Completing This Thesis

Students interested in pursuing this topic should ideally meet the following requirements:

• Interest in educational assessment, critical thinking, or sustainability topics. 
• Basic knowledge of empirical research methods (quantitative or mixed methods).
• Willingness to design and run a small-scale experiment (e.g., with friends, peers, or in a university lab setting).
• Ability to conduct data analysis, including scoring the Ennis-Weir test and applying statistical methods (e.g., correlation analysis).
• Strong skills in scientific writing and the ability to independently engage with academic literature.

Starting Literature

• Ennis, R. H., & Weir, E. E. (1985). The ennis-weir critical thinking essay test: An instrument for teaching and testing. Midwest Publications: Ennis-Weir_Merged-2.pdf 
• Braun, H. I., Shavelson, R. J., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., & Borowiec, K. (2020). Performance Assessment of Critical Thinking: Conceptualization, Design, and Implementation. Frontiers in Education, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00156