Description of the Questionnaire

The California Measure of Mental Motivation (CM3 – Levels II & III) is a psychometric tool designed to assess an individual’s disposition to use critical thinking. It evaluates a person’s tendency to learn, to investigate, to observe, and to solve problems in an active and responsible way. The tool is an adaptation of the original CM3 questionnaire for the Greek educational context and is aimed at middle and high school students. Its development followed international standards and research data, ensuring both its validity and reliability.

Data Analysis and Use

The pilot study of the questionnaire was conducted on a sample of 350 students aged 11 to 13 years old, of which 310 were school students and 40 were university students from the Department of Primary Education at the University of Athens. Gender distribution was balanced, with 166 male and 184 female participants. Data was collected from various geographical regions of Greece including Attica, Crete, Rhodes, Laconia, and Ioannina. The average score for the “rational thinking” category was 31.46. For “engagement in the learning process” the average was 25.09, for “organization” 36.35, and for “focus of attention” 32.91. Regarding the specific interacting factors of the desire to learn, the average score was 31.75. For “information seeking” the score was 42.91, for “persistent problem solving” it was 41.62. For the disposition toward originality the average was 32.67, and for “challenge-seeking” 42.43. The scores for acceptance of complexity and diversity were 37.92 and 24.57, respectively.

Use of Data

The questionnaire evaluates four main areas of disposition: engagement in the learning process, organization, focus of attention, and information gathering. It also examines interacting factors such as willingness to learn, persistence in problem solving, originality, and challenge-seeking. The interpretation of results allows for the assessment of how internally motivated an individual is to apply critical thinking in personal, academic, or social contexts.

Purpose

The primary aim of the questionnaire is to measure the degree to which an individual is predisposed to use critical thinking. It also examines a person’s inclination for learning, creativity, originality, and persistence in problem solving. The tool is primarily targeted at student populations and aims to provide a psychometric evaluation of critical disposition, which is considered a core skill for academic and social development.

Scoring

The tool provides results on a scale from 6 to 50 for each category. The scale is interpreted as follows: 0–9 indicates a highly negative disposition, 10–19 a negative disposition, 20–30 an ambivalent disposition, 31–40 a positive disposition, and 41–50 a highly positive disposition. The validity of the tool is based on the principles of The Delphi Report, and its internal consistency (measured by Cronbach’s alpha) in the Greek version is 0.73.

Bibliography

Facione, P. A., & Facione, N. C. (1992). Test Manual: The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory. Millbrae, CA: Insight Assessment.
Giancarlo, C. A. F., & Facione, P. A. (1998). Test Manual: The California Measure of Mental Motivation. Millbrae, CA: Insight Assessment.
American Philosophical Association (1990). Critical Thinking: a Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction. “The Delphi Report”. Washington, DC: ERIC.