This study aimed to verify the validity of a measurement tool for Vietnamese high school students’ systems thinking abilities. Two quantitative assessment tools, the Systems Thinking Measuring Instrument (Lee et al., 2013) and the Systems Thinking Scale (Dolansky et al., 2020), were used to measure students’ systems thinking after translation into Vietnamese. As a result, it was revealed that Cronbach-α for each tool (i.e., STMI and STS) was .917 and .950, respectively, indicating high reliability for both. To validate the construct validity of the translated questionnaire, exploratory factor analysis was performed using SPSS 26.0, and confirmatory factor analysis was performed using AMOS 21.0. For concurrent validity, correlation analysis using structural equation modeling was performed to validate the translated questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that 10 items from the STMI and 12 items from the STS loaded on the intended factors and appropriate factor loading values were obtained. For confirmatory factor analysis, a structural equation model organized with 10 items from the STMI and 12 items from the STS was used. The result of this showed that the convergent validity values of the model were all appropriate, and the model fit indices were analyzed to be χ 2 /df of 1.892, CFI of .928, TLI of .919, SRMR of .047, and RMSEA of .063, indicating that the model consisting of the 22 items of the two questionnaires was appropriate. Analysis of the concurrent validity of the two tools indicated a high correlation coefficient (.903) and high correlation (.571-.846) among the subfactors. In conclusion, both the STMI and STS are valid quantitative measures of systems thinking, and it can be inferred that the systems thinking of Vietnamese high-school students can be quantitatively measured using the 22 items identified in our analysis. Using the tool validated in this study with other tools (e.g., qualitative assessment) can help accurately measure Vietnamese high school students’ systems thinking abilities. Furthermore, these tools can be used to collect evidence and support effective education in ODA projects and volunteer programs.

The purpose of the study is to investigate whether critical thinking skills can be fostered through a college English course. Approximately eighty female Korean students taking a basic freshman mandatory reading course participated in the study. The researcher taught them critical reading skills along with other reading comprehension skills and provided them with Korean local context in the given topic. The students critically read two units of the required textbook and attended presentations of high school students with minority cultural backgrounds. The students submitted four online reports about multiculturalism, and they were analyzed using a thematic analysis. The results revealed that even students with relatively low English proficiency could enhance their critical thinking skills by practicing critical reading. Also, additional information about local contexts not only compensated for a culturally limited text but also facilitated the development of critical thinking. The findings indicate that teaching critical thinking is feasible in an English language course despite limited environments. Yet, more studies are required to generalize the findings.