There is agreement that fostering K-12 students’ critical thinking is a worthwhile endeavor. However, many educators would agree that there are students in their class-rooms who are able to think well but often choose not to utilize those skills. Little is known about the critical thinking dispositions of elementary and secondary students. This article reports on the development of a new instrument, the California Measure of Mental Motivation (CM3). Results from four independent and diverse studies demonstrate the suitability of the CM3 as a tool to assess secondary students’ disposition toward critical thinking. Exploratory factor analysis, with oblique rotation, indicated four theoretically meaningful dimensions: Learning Orientation, Creative Problem Solving, Mental Focus, and Cognitive Integrity. The four factors demonstrated a satisfactory level of stability across study samples. Scales derived from these four factors correlated with known measures of student motivation and academic achievement.
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