Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills among Students with Learning Difficulties

The study aimed to assess the development of students' critical thinking skills by Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies) teachers at public secondary schools of Dinalupihan District, Division of Bataan during the School Year 2015-2016. Included in the study are the profiles of the respondents in terms of age, sex, highest educational attainment, length of service, and relevant seminars and trainings attended; the methods utilized in developing critical thinking skills such as asking questions, analyzing situations, interpretation of data, and panel discussion; the difficulties encountered in developing the critical thinking skills of the students; and the measures to develop the students' critical thinking skills. The study used the descriptive method of research with the utilization of survey questionnaire and unstructured interview as the main data gathering instruments. The data gathered were organized, tallied, tabulated and subjected to statistical tools such as frequency counts, percentage, ranking, and mean. From the gathered data, the following conclusions were withdrawn: majority of teacher-respondents were within the 45 to 47 years age bracket and with a mean age of 37.25 years old, females, graduates of Baccalaureate Degree with Master's Degree units, have rendered service from 1 to 9 years, and have attended 1-3 seminars and training relative to critical thinking; teachers always developed the critical thinking skills of the students in terms of asking questions, analyzing situations, interpretation of data, and panel discussion, especially the analysis of data; sometimes encountered difficulties in developing students' critical thinking skills; and always chose their best options and took necessary measures in developing students' critical thinking skills.

Problems of Education in the 21st Century, 2024

The present study examined critical thinking (CT) and its importance in Saudi secondary education. The sample included upper-secondary students and teachers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital and largest city. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to study students' CT skill development, barriers to growth, instructors' views on CT advancement, and students' views on their CT skills. The study examines secondary school students' critical thinking development and impediments. It also examined teachers' perceptions of their students' progress in CT. The research collected quantitative data from 374 questionnaires and qualitative data from eight interviews. SPSS performed regression analysis on survey quantitative data. A thematic analysis was employed to evaluate qualitative interview data. The quantitative findings from the surveys revealed uneven CT skills. The findings also showed that gender, Grade Point Average (GPA) and family background affect CT. The qualitative findings from the interviews with the teachers stressed the importance of collaborative programming and active student engagement in classroom activities to foster CT. Bullying and peer pressure hindered autonomous and CT, making it difficult for instructors to motivate and support students. The findings emphasised the importance of teachers in creating a safe learning environment and encouraging analytical thinking. Recommendations for improving CT in Saudi secondary education were proposed addressing several critical aspects of CT advancement, including curriculum development, teacher training, parental involvement, government-led extracurricular learning, teacher-student interactions, and gender equality in CT advancement. This study could help Saudi students develop CT skills to meet the challenges of the modern world.

The purposes of this study were to construct a training programme based on the CoRT programme and to measure its effects in enhancing critical thinking (CT) and improving motivation to learn for sixth grade student with Learning Difficulties (LDs) in mathematics in Jordan. The pre-test-post-test control-group design, which is a popular approach to the quasi-experimental statistical research, was used in the study, in which the independent variable was the modified CoRT programme (MCoRTP) exposed to the experimental group, while the control group was not given any training. There were two dependent variables in this study, namely, the level of students’ CT skills and their motivation to learn (MTL). Two instruments were used, a critical thinking test (CTT), which assessed the students’ level of critical thinking, and a questionnaire for assessing the level of their MTL. These instruments were applied to the sample of the study as both pre-test and post-test. The sample consisted of 93 sixth-grade students from schools in First Amman Educational Directorate in Jordan. The participants of the sample were distributed into two groups. After that, one group was randomly chosen to be the experimental group, and the other one to be the control group. A total of 43 (male=21, female=22) students received the MCoRTP, while 50 (male=25, female=25) did not receive any training. All the students had LDs in mathematics only and were enrolled at learning resources rooms in regular schools. This study used quantitative method. The collected data analyses were carried out using analysis of covariance (1 and 2 way ANCOVA) to measure the effects of the training programme in enhancing the level of CT and improving the level of MTL. Results showed that the training programme had a very large -sized effect on the participants' CT and MTL. Gender was found to be of significant effect on the participants' CT and MTL in the post-test, when the effect of the pre-test results of the CTT and questionnaire of the MTL of the students is controlled. However, the interaction between gender and group significant differences were found favouring to the male students in the post-test of the CTT , when the effect of the pre-test results of the CTT of the students is controlled. While the pre-test was controlled, the score of female students exceeded the male students in the post-test of the MTL.

IRJMETS Publication, 2021

The present study is to find out the relationship between the critical thinking and academic achievement among secondary school students in Thanjavur educational district of Tamil Nadu state. The descriptive survey method adopted and the population for the present study is ninth standard students studying in high school and higher secondary schools at Thanjavur educational district. The investigator has used simple random sampling technique for selecting the sample from the population. The sample consists of 232 secondary school students from 10 schools from the Thanjavur educational district. Some significant findings are drawn in this study. The study also reveals that there is a significant correlation between critical thinking and academic achievement among secondary school students.

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2012

study is descriptive and done with the survey model. In order to measure the critical thinking skills of the students a 5 point Likert-type questionnaire composed of 21 questions is developed by the researcher. The sample of the study is 722 high school students from four different school types in the education year 2010-2011 from Hakkari. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient of the questionnaire is determined to be 0.87. Based on the F-test, t-test and the mean value the significance level is 0.05 and the results are evaluated with respect to this value. The results of the survey reveal that the critical thinking skills of the students vary between the school types namely,

English Language, Literature & Culture, 2019

The present study investigated the level of preparatory school learners' critical thinking proficiency and its relation with their academic achievement. To the researchers' best knowledge, there is hardly any documented study exploring the relationship between these constructs among preparatory learners. To attain the purpose of the study, 108 grade 12 preparatory school learners from two sections (53 social science and 55 natural science majors: 56 male and 52 female students) were selected using a simple random sampling technique from Woldia Preparatory School. Data was collected through a critical thinking proficiency test adapted from "Cornell Class-Reasoning Test, Form X" (CCTT) and learners' previous semester cumulative average. The data was analyzed statistically, employing Descriptive Statistics, Independent-Samples T Test, Pearson product-moment correlation, and linear regression. The results from the descriptive analysis showed that the critical thinking proficiency of preparatory school learners was weak, namely, most students lack critical thinking proficiency at this level. Moreover, the level of critical thinking didn't vary significantly across majors and gender according to the independentsamples t test analysis. However, results from Pearson product-moment correlation indicated a fairly strong and positive correlation between critical thinking proficiency and academic achievement. The linear regression results also revealed that critical thinking proficiency act as the best predictor of academic achievement. The discussion and implications of the research are further presented with reference to the finding.

International Journal of Instruction, 2019

The purpose of this study is to develop instruments of critical thinking skills that meet the validity, reliability, and criteria for good items. This research includes development research which consists of the design and implementation stages. The analysis in the study used quantitative analysis with the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) Technique. The results showed that the value of t value> 1.96 (α <0.05) which means that each significant item measures critical thinking skills. The value of person reliability of 0.75 and item reliability of 0.94 means the consistency of the answers from the good subject. The quality of the items was analyzed using the QUEST program, indicating that the index estimates of the difficulty of the items ranged from-1.65 to 1.55 means that there is no problem that is too difficult or too easy, and is classified as a good item. MNSQ's INFIT value ranges from 0.86-1.14 which means that the items match the Rasch model. Outfit value for each item ranged from-1.2-1.7 (t ≤ 2.00) which means that all items were received.

Critical Thinking has been one of the tools used in our daily life's to solve some problems because it involves logical reasoning, interpreting, analysing and evaluating information to enable one take reliable and valid decisions. The purpose of the study is to examined the impact of Critical thinking on Performance in Mathematics among Senior Secondary School Students in Lagos State. The study would benefit students and teachers by promoting creativity in solving mathematical problems. Quasi-experimental designs was adopted for the study. Multi-stage sampling were applied to generate a sample of 195 students for the study. Mathematics performance test and Watson-glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal were used for the study. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested using Analysis of covariance. The study revealed that there was a significant difference in Mathematics performance test scores among the experimental groups. The study also found out that there was no significance gender difference in Mathematics performance test . Critical Thinking Skills was also an effective means of enhancing students' understanding of Mathematics concepts. It therefore recommended that in teaching Mathematics in secondary schools, Critical thinking skills should be infuse in the curriculum of teachers education so as to improve students' performance in Mathematics.

The study considered critical thinking skills as predictors of students' achievement in Mathematics in the Cape Coast Metropolis. The population for this study consisted of all form two Senior High School students in the Cape Coast Metropolis. The design used for the study was expost-facto design. The research participants were two hundred and eight (208) Senior High School students. They were selected using simple random sampling technique for the three out of ten and proportionate sampling for the Senior High School students. Forty Mathematics multiple test items with four options were used for the data collection. Face and content validity of the Mathematics test items were established. The reliability coefficient of the mathematics instrument using KR20 was 0. 76. The data collected were analysed using standard multiple regression. Results showed that critical thinking skills (application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation) contribute significantly to students' achievement in Mathematics. But more significant among them was application while the evaluation was the least. Based on the findings the following recommendation was made, teachers should be encouraged to incorporate critical thinking skills during teaching and learning more especially the higher thinking skills.

Proceedings of the International Conference of Science and Technology for the Internet of Things, 2019

The purpose of this study was to describe the development stages of mathematical test instruments to measure critical thinking skills and produce valid, practical and effective mathematical test instruments to measure critical thinking skills. The developmental model used in this study was a model developed by Borg & Gall as the major developmental model, modified by Dick & Carey model and Kemp model. Furthermore, the developmental model is called RRD (Real Research and Development). The research subjects were students of the XII IPA class of six public high schools in Pacitan. Research data was collected through tests and interviews. The data was analyzed using content analysis and descriptive analysis techniques. This research produced a mathematical test instrument to measure critical thinking skills. The results of the analysis show that the product meets the validity, practicality, and effectiveness criteria.