The role of critical thinking attitude, cognitive ways of learning, and probing in prediction of academic achievement

The main purpose of this study was to determine share of critical thinking attitude and cognitive ways of learning in prediction of students'' academic achievement. The statistical population of this study was all students at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (Isfahan، Iran). Stratified random sampling was used to select 165 students from a total number of 5739 students، including 2063 males and 3676 females were thus studies. These students completed the California critical thinking test، Kolb''s learning styles inventory using inductive probing (in order to measure cognitive ways of learning). The findings indicated that critical thinking attitude (β = 0. 123) and reflective observation (β = -0. 146) explained 5% of the students'' academic achievement. There was a significant correlation between active experimentation and academic achievement in the field of science (P ≤ 0. 05). In addition، there were differences in academic achievements and critical thinking attitude between various learning styles (P ≤ 0. 05). The convergent style had a relationship with the highest academic achievement in the field of science and with the highest critical thinking attitude. There was a negative relationship between critical thinking and reflective observation (P ≤ 0. 05). A positive relationship was observed between virtual conceptualization and critical thinking..