Critical thinking skills of engineering and human sciences students

Aims. The extreme purpose of educational system, is training thinkful people and critical thinking is one of the characterized way of thinking. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the critical thinking skills in engineering and human sciences students of Shiraz University in 2008.Methods. This is a descriptive study performed by randomized sampling on 200 people of the goal society. The instrument of collecting data for this study was the form of California critical thinking skills. The method of analyzing data included two descriptive and analytical parts and unidirectional variance analysis used.Results.The mean of evaluating was 22.88 in engineering and 20.13 in human sciences group. The mean of analysis was 30.73 in engineering and 24.49 in human sciences group and the mean of deduction was 25.71 in engineering and 21.39 in human sciences group.Conclusion. Critical thinking skills were low in both groups but higher in engineering group. In spite of differences, it is recommended to use templates and educational methods to improve these skills in educational courses.