Introduction & Objectives: Instruction is one of the most effective factors contributing to learning. As a result  instruction methods in use are worthy of some notice and contemporary instructors lay great emphasis on thinking-based methods of education. There is evidence that collaborative learning is more effective than individual learning, whereby, learners could achieve higher levels of thinking and that they could remember the information and details for longer periods of time. Therefore, this research was undergone with the purpose of making a comparitive analysis of the effect of individual learning and collaborative learning on the critical thinking of students.

Materials & Methods: This research is a quasiexperimental study, the specimens of which were 38 freshmen of the nursing and midwifery college. To measure the degree of learning of each student, a progress test was administered after teaching a topic to the students and then randomly assigning them into two groups of collaborative learners and individual learners. The analysis of data was done by spss, a software, and by the application of an independent T-test.

Results: This study revealed a significant statistical difference between the average marks of these two groups. Further, a noticeable statistical  difference was also observed in the higher levels of the cognitive domain of these two groups of learners. However, the difference in average of these two groups in lower levels of cognitive domain was not found to be statistically significant.

Conclusion: Based on the results of this research, it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between collaborative learning and individual learning, and that the prior one is much more effective on the level of the critical thinking of students than the latter one.