Joseph, Your observations are very thought provoking and valid. Thank you for sharing your insights. I would venture to say that there are many kinds of training and education. Some have specific and direct objectives of Critical Thinking and others are are less direct, while others are designed for providing information and reflection. The role of assessment is to determine if the objectives have been attained. However, critical thinking may not be one of the objects within a specific. The objectives for any one course may include only some of the components of critical thinking that will later be used in the overall process. Dr. S. David Vaillancourt