According to previous studies, there is still controversy over whether critical thinking ability and disposition are correlated, and academic achievement and personality can be used as predictors of critical thinking. We presume that critical thinking ability and disposition are not correlated and academic achievement and personality function to them differently.
As the subjects a total of 113 students entering the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in USA were recruited to participate as a formal cohort in the baseline measurement of academic achievement, individual personality factors, critical thinking ability and disposition.
Based on the results of this study, four conclusions can be made:
(1)Critical thinking ability was not related to a disposition toward critical thinking. (2) Academic achievement scores were not related to a disposition toward critical thinking. On the other hand, SAT scores were significantly related to the total WGCTA score. (3) Personality scales were not as much related to critical thinking ability as to critical thinking disposition, and some related personality sub-scales were different between critical thinking ability and disposition.(4) A subsequent study about Korean gifted students will help to generalize the results of this study and to find implications for their education