Relationship between cultural value and critical thinking dispositions and their difference among nursing students in Thailand and United States

Developing strong critical thinking dispositions is important to the development of effective critical thinking skills. However, increasing cultural diversity in the classroom and clinical settings may challenge the development of critical thinking dispositions among nursing students. This study aimed to compare and investigate the relationship between, cultural values and critical thinking dispositions among nursing students in Thailand and the United States. The sample comprised 200 nursing students from two distinct accredited nursing programs. The World Value Survey Longitudinal Data files (1981-2014) were used as the source of the cultural values data. The critical thinking dispositions data were gathered using the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory and analyzed utilizing descriptive statistics and Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficients. The results showed no statistically significant relationship between cultural values and critical thinking dispositions. However, nursing students in the United States had a significantly higher mean score on the total cultural values and subscale of autonomy, secular, and emancipative values than nursing students in Thailand. In addition, nursing students in the United States had a significantly higher mean score than nursing students in Thailand on the total critical thinking dispositions and subscale scores of truth-seeking, open-mindedness, analyticity, systematicity, confidence in reasoning, and maturity of judgment. These results suggest nurse educators from these two countries, especially Thailand, could develop teaching strategies that enhance the development of students’ critical thinking, especially in areas where specific scales on the critical thinking dispositions support the need for improvement to increase patient safety and healthcare quality.