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Various definitions focused on distinguishing between the critical thinking as a skill and the critical thinker. This is due to the fact that somebody might hold a skill without using it and therefore it is important to decide whether the evaluation focuses on the skill itself or the thinker. The relationship between critical thinking abilities and the thinker is investigated.

For Siegel (1988), critical thinkers recognise the value of critical thinking. He mainly connected critical thinking with reasoning. He explicitly said that critical thinkers should be able to ‘assess reasons and their ability to warrant beliefs, claims and actions properly’ (p. 34). He also attempted to distinguish a critical thinker from a rational person (Siegel, 1988). Siegel did not connect critical thinkers solely to their ability to reason. He also argued that critical thinkers have the skills and the attitudes, character traits and habits of mind. He named this ‘critical attitude’ or ‘critical spirit’ (Siegel, 1988, p.39) and included characteristics such as inclination to seek the truth and not only the skill of reasoning.

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The most interesting element of this critical attitude is probably the disposition of the critical thinkers to use their judgment even when this judgment contradicts their self-interest. The ideas of Siegel could also be the basis for a different type of assessment of critical thinking. It could be argued that if the views of Siegel are accepted, then critical thinking assessment would involve both assessing pieces of reasoning and the critical attitude of the person.

Ennis (1985) accepted that critical thinking involved both dispositions and abilities. Norris and Ennis (1989, p.9) agreed that the abilities are not adequate for critical thinking. People need both the abilities and the tendencies to use them. Thus, Ennis accepted the inclusion of critical thinking dispositions and he categorised them into three categories (Ennis, 1996; 2011). According to these the critical thinker should:

 Care that their beliefs are true, and that their decisions justified; that is, care to "get it right" to the extent possible, or at least care to do the best they can  Represent a position honestly and clearly. This referred to their own positions

and the position of others.

 Care about the dignity and worth of every person.

He revisited this definition in several publications and in the most revised definition of critical thinking dispositions he included the following critical thinking dispositions (Ennis, 2015; 2015b, p.32):

1. Seek and offer clear statements of the thesis or question

2. Seek and offer clear reasons, and be clear about their relationships with each other and the conclusion

3. Try to be well informed

4. Use credible sources and observations, and usually mention them 5. Take into account the total situation

6. Keep in mind the basic concern in the context 7. Be alert for alternatives

8. Be open-minded

a. Seriously consider other points of view

b. Withhold judgment when the evidence and reasons are insufficient 9. Take a position and change a position when the evidence

and reasons are sufficient

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11. Seek the truth when it makes sense to do so, and more broadly, try to "get it right" to the extent possible or feasible

12. Employ their critical thinking abilities

The ‘critical spirit’ (Norris & Ennis, 1989, p. 11) motivates critical thinkers to use their abilities. This is what Ennis focused more when he started discussing the nature of critical thinking. In his publication, A Definition of Critical Thinking in 1964 he included only nine skills as major aspects of critical thinking. These skills focus on judgments that the critical thinker should be able to do. According to Ennis a critical thinker should be able to judge whether (Ennis, 1964, p.599):

1. A statement follows from the premises. 2. Something is an assumption.

3. An observation statement is reliable. 4. A simple generalization is warranted. 5. A hypothesis is warranted.

6. A theory is warranted.

7. An argument depends on an ambiguity. 8. A statement is overvague or overspecific. 9. An alleged authority is reliable.

Later, Ennis added more skills in his critical thinking definition (Ennis, 2011; 2015a). These were summarised under five broader categories:

 basic clarification, such as focus on the question

 basis for decisions, such as judge the credibility of a source  inference, such as deduction and value judgments

 advance clarification, such as assumption identification and define concepts  auxiliary abilities, such as rhetorical strategies

Ennis probably observed that these categories blur. Thus, metacognition and monitoring thinking were included in advanced clarification in his latest revision (Ennis, 2015a) while earlier were judged as auxiliary abilities (Ennis, 2011). Similarly, dealing with fallacies was presented in two different categories in different revisions of the critical thinking definition (Ennis, 2011; 2015a). Nevertheless, the exact categorisation of the skills is not the most important elements of these definitions. The

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most important element is the fact that Ennis operationalised the nature of critical thinking with skills that could be assessable.

Particularly, as it has been previously stated, Ennis started defining critical thinking by referring to skills instead of dispositions. Even though he discussed dispositions and he included them in his final definitions, he did not seem particularly keen on the inclusion of these dispositions in the critical thinking definition and even more in assessments of critical thinking.

In the Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education, Ennis (2015b, p.37) wrote about a personal communication he had with Stephen Norris. Norris accepted that dispositions might have been more important than the abilities since the abilities are important only if they are used. However, Ennis did not seem to agree with this position.

Ennis (1996) argued that the dispositions of people cannot be easily assessed. A good assessment of the dispositions would involve a one-to-one observation. This observation would be time-consuming and expensive since the observer would have to wait for an opportunity or context for the disposition to appear. Hence, Ennis presented this observation almost as an infeasible method of assessment. On the other hand, if the dispositions are evaluated with questionnaires or multiple-choice questions, Ennis (1996) reported that it is easy for the test takers to guess what the test maker would like them to answer.

Moreover, Ennis (1996) summarised some bias that might exist in critical thinking dispositions. They might involve gender bias, whilst other dispositions can be considered either good or bad. For example, the critical thinking disposition ‘caring

about others’ might lead to additional bias. Caring might result in unfairness and

unclear judgments and this is not acceptable in critical thinking. These arguments of Ennis are persuasive.

In addition to Ennis’ concerns about the assessment of critical thinking dispositions, Fisher and Scriven (1997) felt that the dispositions are not important for judging whether somebody has critical thinking abilities. Even though they mentioned dispositions, they distinguished critical thinking from the critical thinker. As a result, in their definition of critical thinking they did not include any attitudes for the critical thinker.

Consequently, critical thinking dispositions might not be assessed effectively, and it might be questionable to what extent critical thinking dispositions define critical

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thinking or critical thinker. Hence, critical thinking dispositions were not used in the measurement of critical thinking by this thesis. It was not feasible to assess critical thinking dispositions in an authentic way and a self-administrative questionnaire was not judged trustworthy. Furthermore, I argue that somebody might hold critical thinking dispositions and value critical thinking without having developed critical thinking skills.