Intervening Factors among Grade 10 Students’ Level of Critical Thinking Skills


Bachelor Thesis, 2016

31 Pages, Grade: 1.0


Excerpt


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Dedication

Abstract

Introduction

Methodology

Results

Discussion

Bibliography

A. Questionnaires

B. Computations

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The researchers would like to extend their deepest gratitude to all individuals who helped them to finish this challenging task. With grateful and loving heart, the researchers would like to acknowledge the following:

To the researchers’ supportive and responsible parents who willingly and unconditionally lend their helping hands and assist with all the researchers’ needs;

To the researchers’ gorgeous adviser, MS. MARY JANE S. CARANDANG, who taught and enlightened the researchers’ mind about the subject at hand;

To the researchers’ energetic and supportive grammarian, MRS. LORELYN N. SALTOC, who patiently edited the whole manuscript and who gave witty pieces of advice;

To the best mathematician and statistician in town, MR. VICTOR M. DISILIO, who shared his knowledge in computing and interpreting the data collected;

To the researchers’ oral committee, DR. AMELITA O. BALAGTAS, MA’AM CRYSTAL B. QUINTANA, MA’AM LORELYN N. SALTOC, AND MR. JONATHAN D. VILLARUZ, who shared their expertise and advice to improve the quality of this research paper;

To the researchers’ second mother, MRS. EDITHA C. MAGPANTAY, who provided technical support to the researchers and for her unending support and encouragement;

To researchers’ friends who gave them inspiration and advice to finish this thesis;

And above all, to the ALMIGHTY GOD who gave them strength and knowledge to cope with everyday’s challenges and who continuously shower HIS blessings to fill the researchers’ needs.

THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU! MORE POWER!

DEDICATION

This undergraduate thesis is humbly dedicated to all the people who shared their expertise and unending support to help the researchers in finishing and completing all the requirements in the course MATH RESEARCH (MAT 116) AND SCIENCE RESEARCH.

With all grace and enthusiasm, the researchers would like to dedicate this thesis to the following:

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LIST OFFIGURE AND TABLES

Figure 1: Distribution of the Number of Respondents according to the Level of Critical Thinking Skills

Table 1: Non-Science Norms of CEU-Lopez Critical Thinking Test

Table 2: Range of the Mean score and Verbal Description

Table 3: Average Mean Score of the Grade 10 Students’ Level of Critical Thinking Skills

Table 4: Mean Distribution of the Student Factors that Intervene the Level of Critical Thinking Skills of Grade 10 Students

Table 5: Mean Distribution of the Teacher Factors that Intervene the Level of Critical Thinking Skills of Grade 10 Students

Intervening Factors among Grade 10 Students’ Level of Critical Thinking Skills in Mathematics and Science at Manuel S Enverga University Foundation-Candelaria, Inc.

ABSTRACT

This descriptive type of research renders to assess and identify the factors that intervene with the level of critical thinking skills of Grade 10 students of Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation-Candelaria, Inc. The researchers identified two general factors namely the student-factor and teacher-factor. Student-factors include two sub-factors such as their attitude towards the subject and their learning strategies and styles. Meanwhile, teaching strategies and styles, art of questioning, and instructional materials are included in the teacher-factors. There are one hundred eighty seven (187) respondents statistically drawn via systematic stratified random sampling. To answer the following problems, the researchers used an adapted test questionnaire known as THE CEU-LOPEZ CRITICAL THINKING TEST by Dr. Marcos Y. Lopez (2012) and the researcher-made four-point Likert scale questionnaire. The results revealed that the students are at the Beginning Thinker Level. It also showed that the five factors positively intervene with the level of critical thinking of students.

Introduction

T he changing milieu of educational interdependency among students and teachers is one of the challenging dialogues that the government and people relentlessly voice out in the entire archipelago for it can be the new weaponry in the upbringing forth of globalization(Okabe, 2013). The government and its people agreed to speak out the ideas of independence and liberalism which pushes them to participate in the clamouring outbreak of social and educational transformations. Consequently, the government opened a new door that could transparently hold the perseverance and thinking capacity of the patrimony through the reformation of the Philippine Education System. This gave birth to Republic Act 10533, the Enhanced Basic Education Curriculum which is more popularly known as the K to 12 Curriculum.

K to 12 Curriculum is a student-centered curriculum anchored to the development of the inner self of students with the aid of four major competencies that suited for the communicative effectiveness, interpersonal and social regards, reasonable and efficient activation of schema, and creative promulgation of thoughts. These four central competencies would surely help the Filipino students to competently endeavour and efficiently pave all odds concerning to works and assignments. K to 12 curriculum is the government key to uplift the lives of many Filipinos as they go along with a healthy socialization and a fair competition with foreign countries. The benefits that the curriculum has brought to its stake will be corporately spread and will address problems in Philippine Education system.

Despite the myriad benefits that this curriculum offers, inevitable problems continuously challenged the different sectors of educational foundations. Those challenges that trigger the mind of many curriculum experts to deeply think some innovations of how these problems would be overcome. One of the most significant aides for these phenomena has something to do with the ability to provide relevant reasons and ideas through careful evaluation, analysis, and assessments. This is when the critical thinking skills is being applied and developed. Curriculum experts continuously nurture the developmental stages of their thinking that could uplift the sensing power of their minds not just to elucidate the tangled dispositions within the core of education but also to unearth the most suitable solutions to these educational problems. This is how critical thinking works.

CRITICAL THINKING

Critical thinking has significant parts within the context of every individual. According to Willingham (2007), critical thinking includes seeing things in different perspectives, acceptance of new ideas, ability to reason out in a more extensive way, deduction and induction of ideas, and solving problems. In addition, Lipman (2003) as cited by Thompson (2011) provides criteria in critical thinking of individuals. He posited that the manifestation of critical thinking is self-correcting, sensitive to context, and provides intellectual empowerment. In a simple context, critical thinking is the ability to analyze and evaluate ideas. Critical thinking skills are composed of analysis, evaluation, decision- making, reasoning, and problem solving. These skills are needed to be developed among the students to become good critical thinkers.

Studies have been made about critical thinking. It is mostly applied and nurtured in a formal way of educational system. As the one of primary contributories of knowledge, and thus, responsible for the activation of critical and higher order thinking, teachers include this competency in the teaching-learning process. Though it is the crucial goal of the education, it is still difficult for teachers to activate critical thinking of students and nurture it. Based on the studies made all throughout the world, it is observed that most students have weak critical thinking skills (Yanklowitz, 2013).

DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE DISCIPLINE

Two interconnected disciplines help students in developing their critical thinking skills. Garnett & Tobin as cited by Incikabi, Tuna, and Biber (2013) posed that the emphasis in the development of critical thinking as well as logical thinking is mainly significant in Mathematics and Science subjects. Moreover, these subjects offer numerous tasks that stimulate the way of processing the mind to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize schematic knowledge into constructive knowledge.

Mathematics is one of the subjects which mainly contribute to the advancement and continuous nurturance of critical thinking among students. The National Council for Math Teachers as cited by Butera, A., et. al. (2014) provides five key competencies that every student should possess after undertaking this subject; (1.) The students should become problem solvers. As one component of the critical thinking skills, students should overcome many struggles in life. They need to select a better solution for the problems. This is where critical thinking needed most. (2.) Students should learn to connect the ideas they have learned in mathematics for the concepts are interrelated. To be able to connect ideas, students should learn how to evaluate and synthesize ideas. (3.) Teach students the ability to reason out things. Another important concept of critical thinking skills has something to do with reasoning. Math teaches us the perfectibility of using appropriate words, weighing its importance, and desirable throw of ideas. These are some of the significant contribution of mathematics in critical thinking of students.

Meanwhile, Science is another key subject that develops the critical thinking of students. As per the K to 12 curriculum guide offers, the ending principle of teaching Science is for the development of scientific knowledge. This scientific knowledge shall be used by the students to make relevant reasons and decisions as perusal to how they would use and apply the knowledge in attaining scientific literacy. Thus, critical thinking of students will be sharpened as they grow and nurture scientific learning.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

Numerous identified factors have been discussed in the following related studies and articles. Mortellaro (2015) studied about the factors that influence the critical thinking skills of health professional students through qualitative and quantitative approaches. Quantitatively, the study revealed that students who are involved in clubs and athletics had significantly higher overall critical thinking scores than those who are not. Meanwhile, in a qualitative perspective, the study yielded that the students were involved in teacher-centered activities and do not have sufficient understanding of what critical thinking is. She concluded that the development of critical thinking skills has something to do with student-centered learning and by providing a wide array of opportunities that will help them in applying their skills in a more interactive learning. Learning style is another factor that affects the critical thinking skills of the students. The study discussed the learning styles of 135 students enrolled in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in University of Florida. The researchers identified four learning style namely Abstract Sequential, Concrete Sequential, Abstract Random, and Concrete Random Learning Styles. The study showed that students who possessed Abstract Sequential learning style had a higher critical thinking score than those of the other learning styles. Meanwhile, no differences, with respect to critical thinking scores, arose from Concrete Sequential, Abstract Random, and Concrete Random. These findings concluded that students who possessed Abstract Sequential learning style are capable of thinking critically and thus, teachers may not need to focus on their teaching strategies that will address student’s learning. However, those who possessed the other learning styles may need to have an additional intent focus through teaching strategies, methods, and techniques that will develop their critical thinking skills (Myers and Dyer, 2006). Another important aspect that promotes critical thinking is the art of questioning and teaching materials.

The above literature and studies intently supported that there are factors which intervene the development and nurturance of critical thinking among individuals. This research has been made to delineate the following factors that intervene with the active process of critical thinking among students. A common observation of the teachers reveal that a significant number of students in Enverga Candelaria experience hard time analyzing problems during Math and Science subject. Moreover, the students are likely to lose interest and lamely participate in activities which they regard as difficult. The researchers are interested to know the reasons why students often misunderstand problems or Mathematics and Scientific concepts. These are the primary reasons why the researchers are eager to find answers to the following problems:

1. What are the levels of critical thinking skills of Grade 10 students?

2. What are the factors that intervene with the development and active stimulation of critical thinking among Grade 10 students according to;
a. student factors, and
b. teacher factors?

3. What further recommendations can the researchers give after working on this study?

Methodology

RESEARCH DESIGN

The purpose of the study is to delineate the factors that intrude students’ level of critical thinking skills in Math and Science subjects. Thus, a quantitative type of research was made. It involved the use of mathematical concepts in presenting, analyzing, and giving conclusions about the data gathered. Specifically, descriptive method was used in order to discuss the significant thoughts about the study.

SAMPLE

The respondents of this study were one hundred eighty seven (187) Grade 10 students of Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation-Candelaria, Inc. They were randomly drawn from three hundred and fifty four (354) Grade 10 students with the use of Slovin’s formula. They were randomly selected through systematic way of sampling. The following is the detailed partition of respondents corresponding to their sections: Diamond (25), Ruby (22), Sapphire (24), Jade (24), Pearl (23), Emerald (23), Garnet (23), and Topaz (23). The researchers selected Grade 10 students as their respondents because they have the longest academic years in secondary. Thus, they were involved in most number of activities which aimed to nurture and develop their critical thinking skills.

INSTRUMENT

The researchers’ questionnaire is divided into two sections. To assess the level of critical thinking skills of the Grade 10 students, the adapted questionnaire of Mr. Marcos Lopez (2012) was used.

The CEU-Lopez Critical Thinking Test is a multi-faceted general critical thinking test composing of five critical thinking aspects namely deduction, credibility judgment, and observation report judgment, identification of assumption, induction, and meaning. It is an 87-item test that can be taken from 90 to 120 minutes.

The next part is a four-point Likert scale that assesses the factors that intervene with the activation of critical thinking in Math and Science subjects.

DATA COLLECTION

The researchers secured permissions from the principal for the implementation and conduct of the study. The researchers also sought the approval from the Dean of College of Nursing and Allied Health and Sciences to allow the researchers to use the Nursing Skills Laboratory 1 as the testing center for the CEU-Lopez Critical Thinking Test and the Likert scale type of questionnaire. Moreover, the researchers coordinated with the Grade 10 advisers and subject teachers so that the 187 students will be excused from their classes. It took 2 and a half-days (March 2-3, 2016) for the researchers to complete the gathering of data. After which, they proceeded with the interpretation and analysis of the data gathered.

[...]

Excerpt out of 31 pages

Details

Title
Intervening Factors among Grade 10 Students’ Level of Critical Thinking Skills
College
Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation  (Education)
Course
Bachelor of Secondary Education
Grade
1.0
Authors
Year
2016
Pages
31
Catalog Number
V321301
ISBN (eBook)
9783668214309
ISBN (Book)
9783668214316
File size
1210 KB
Language
English
Keywords
intervening, factors, grade, students’, level, critical, thinking, skills
Quote paper
Russel Moreno (Author)Mariz D. Braza (Author)Roly Duane R. De Villa (Author)Kurt Matthew L. Refugido (Author), 2016, Intervening Factors among Grade 10 Students’ Level of Critical Thinking Skills, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/321301

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