Critical thinking encompasses a complex interplay of cognitive skills, knowledge, and dispositions. In this systematic-narrative review, we analyze performance-based assessments of critical thinking in higher education. The aim is to explore how prior peer-reviewed empirical studies conceptualize and assess critical thinking, the methods and frameworks employed, and the specific aspects measured. A total of 28 articles from 2013 to 2023 were included in the analysis. The findings indicate that the majority of studies utilized open-ended performance tasks to measure critical thinking, while selected-response tasks were less common. There was no consistent theoretical framework referenced across the studies. Most studies defined critical thinking as a skill or a set of skills, with some also emphasizing the importance of disposition. The skill-based perspective was also emphasized in the measured aspects, with evaluation and inference as the most frequently assessed skills. None of the reviewed studies explicitly expressed dispositions in their targets of assessment. The results revealed misalignment between the definition of critical thinking and performance-based assessments of critical thinking. Future directions for these assessments are discussed.