Introduction: In order to improve nurses' critical performance and the quality of nursing care, nursing education must not only provide nursing students with specialized knowledge, but also develop their critical thinking skills. For nurses and nursing students to be efficient, they must be capable of critical thinking. The present study aimed to examine nursing students' disposition toward critical thinking and its relationship with their academic performance.

Methods: This was a descriptive correlational study conducted in 2014. The sample consisted of 120 nursing students from the Nursing Faculty of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Through convenience sampling, the researchers selected the subjects from among the first-, second-, third-, and fourth-year students in the second semester. The data collection instrument was a two-part questionnaire: part one consisted of questions related to demographics, and part two was Ricketts' Critical Thinking Disposition Questionnaire. With a minimum score of 33 and a maximum of 165. The students’ academic performance was measured on the basis of their total average grades. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics in SPSS 16.

Results: The results showed that the mean and standard deviation of the nursing students' disposition toward critical thinking was 116.4 ± 10.09. Furthermore, the results of Pearson's correlation test showed that there was no significant correlation between the scores of subjects' disposition toward critical thinking and their total average grades (P = 0.85, r = 0.02). In addition, there was no significant correlation in disposition toward critical thinking scores with age, gender and years of academic study (P > 0.05).

Conclusions: With regards to the score, it can be concluded that the disposition of students to critical thinking was significant. Accordingly, and due to the disposition of students, it is required to include techniques and methods for improving this kind of thinking in their trainings, which is essential for providing quality care.