Assessing the Development of Critical Thinking in Greece through an Approach of Teaching Science to Primary School Students which Incorporates Aspects of History of Science

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Assessing the Development of Critical Thinking in
Greece through an Approach of Teaching Science to
Primary School Students which Incorporates
Aspects of History of Science
Ninth International History, Philosophy Science
Teaching Conference,June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• Katerina Malamitsa, Ph.D.
• Panagiotis Kokkotas, Professor
• Michael Kasoutas, Ph.D. student
• Efthymios Stamoulis, Ph.D. student
• Faculty of Primary EducationNational and
  Kapodistrian University of AthensGreece

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Critical Thinking Conceptualization
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• as logical fallacies
• (Dreyfus Jungwirth, 1980 Jungwirth Dreyfus,
  1990 Jungwirth, 1987)
• as formal reasoning processes or skills
• (Blair Johnson, 1980 Lawson, 1982, 1985 Obed,
  1997)
• as scientific reasoning in general
• (Friedler, Nachmias Linn, 1990)

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Critical Thinking Conceptualization
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• An historical benchmark in conceptualizing
  critical thinking is the consensus of a panel of
  46 leading theoreticians, teachers and critical
  thinking assessment specialists from several
  disciplines as it is described in the conference
  proceedings of the American Philosophical
  Association (APA) widely known as the Delphi
  Report
• (Facione, 1990a)

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Critical Thinking History Of Science
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• Issues of History of Science (HOS) can be
  incorporated to Science courses to promote
  students Critical Thinking
• HOS can provide content material which could be
  used in Science Teaching
• Aspects of Nature of Science (NOS) can engage
  students in Critical Thinking
• although,
• History Philosophy of Science isnt a unified
  field
• The agenda between Critical Thinking and Science
  Education is conflicting
• (Zemplèn, 2007 Matthews, 1994 1998a 1998b
  Stinner et al, 2003 Stinner Williams, 1998 Mc
  Commas et al., 1998 Lederman, 1992)

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Science Education Critical Thinking
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• Science Education promotes Critical Thinking
  skills by
• Stimulating critical reflection on the knowledge
  and the experience gained inside and outside the
  classroom
• Promoting the awareness of subjective and
  ideological biases
• Developing the ability to analyze evidence
  expressed in rational argumentation

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Purpose of our Research
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• Examine whether the exploitation of issues of HOS
  in science teaching contributes towards the
  development of students Critical Thinking Skills
• A project was developed on electromagnetism
  concepts which incorporated some historical
  aspects (i.e. Galvani-Volta controversy, Oerstead
  experiments)
• A between groups experimental design was applied
  in order to explore whether HOS incorporation
  significantly affected students Critical
  Thinking Skills

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Rationale of the Project
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• incorporate selected material from HOS (i.e.
  Voltas electrical pile, Oerstead experiments)
• address directly both students alternative
  frameworks and the historical and sociocultural
  context of the scientist to whom the discovery is
  attributed
• engage of students in the reflective examination
  and comparison between their own frameworks and
  the scientific models
• aspects of NOS were also incorporated
• pronouncedly non-authoritarian and student-centred

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About the Project
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• 30h duration (26h teaching, 4h evaluation)
• 12 worksheets
• hands on and minds on activities / experiments
  / practical work
• focused on Critical Thinking Skills
• e.g. Categorization, Examining Ideas, Identifying
  and Analyzing Arguments, Assessing Claim, Drawing
  Conclusions, Justifying Procedures
• students were engaged to discussion
• with questions e.g. How..?, Why?, What
  If?
• students developed argumentation
• videotaped

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A Worksheet of the Project
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada
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Project Video 1
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada
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Project Video 2
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada
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Research Design
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• Critical Thinking Skills were evaluated
• with Test of Everyday Reasoning (TER) for both
  groups
• with assessment sheets for the experimental group

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Test of Everyday Reasoning (TER)
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• based on the APA Delphi Report
• it is a 35-item multiple choice test
• assesses an individual's or group's reasoning and
  critical thinking skills
• gathers program evaluation on reasoning and
  critical thinking skills research data
• assesses educational learning outcomes
• we translated the TER (into Greek) and
  standardized it

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Test of Everyday Reasoning (TER)
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• TER provides six scores from an individuals
  completed test
• an Overall Score which ranges from 0 to 35
• three Sub-scales
• Analysis, ranging from 0 to 9,
• Evaluation , ranging from 0 to 11
• Inference, ranging from 0 to 15
• two more Sub-scales
• Deductive Reasoning, ranging from 0 to 19
• Inductive Reasoning, ranging from 0 to 16
• each of the items of TER is assigned to only one
  of the three sub-scales Analysis, Evaluation
  or Inference
• the same items are reclassified to only one of
  the two other Sub-scales Deductive Reasoning
  or Inductive Reasoning
• (Facione, 2001 11-12, 25)

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Assessment Sheet
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• for the evaluation of the projects teaching
  objectives
• included multiple choice questions, open ended
  questions (sentence completion and completely
  unstructured), concept map construction
• was completed individually by students of the
  experimental group

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Research Design
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• a within-groups design was employed (experimental
  control group)
• each group had 22 students
• each group had the same initial level of Critical
  Thinking Skills
• investigated with an independent samples t-test
  for TER Overall Score
• no significant differences were found t(21)
  0,859p 0,4 (gt 0,05)

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Experimental Hypothesis
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• students after the project would have
  significantly better results in TER scores than
  before the project in Overall Score and Sub-scale
  scores signifying the improvement in their
  critical thinking skills.

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Research Results
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada
Box plot of TER Overall Score and Sub-scale
Scores, before and after the project for the
experimental group
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Paired Samples t-tests (Pre Post)
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• For the Experimental Group
• were found statistically significant for the
  Overall Score and all sub-scale scores
• the effect sizes were
• much larger than typical (d gt1)
• or larger than typical (0,80 lt d lt 1)
• For the Control Group
• were found statistically non significant for the
  sub-scale scores of Analysis Evaluation
  Inference,
• were found statistically significant for the
  Overall Score and the sub-scale scores of
  Deductive Reasoning Inductive Reasoning
  but
• the effect sizes were
• much smaller than typical (d lt 0,20)
• (Cohen, 1988)

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Assessment Sheet Results
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada
Histogram of Assessment Sheet Overall Scorewith
normal curve
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Discussion
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• there is a need to create opportunities for
  students which
• develop their understanding on how scientific
  ideas are accepted and/or rejected on the basis
  of empirical evidence
• develop their understanding on how scientific
  controversies can arise from different ways of
  interpreting such evidence
• students generally respond positively to the
  integration of History of Science

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9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada
Discussion

• The incorporation of aspects of HOS
• supports the development of instructional tools
• supports learning by engaging students to
  discuss, argue and build consensus as members of
  a community
• contributes towards students Critical Thinking
  Skills development

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9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada
Discussion

• we reject the null hypothesis
• thus, the project implementation led to
  statistically significant results concerning the
  critical thinking skills development

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THANK YOU
9th IHPST Conference, June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada
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Assessing the Development of Critical Thinking in
Greece through an Approach of Teaching Science to
Primary School Students which Incorporates
Aspects of History of Science
Ninth International History, Philosophy Science
Teaching Conference,June 24th - 28th 2007,
Calgary, Canada

• Presenter Katerina Malamitsa
• Faculty of Primary EducationNational and
  Kapodistrian University of AthensGreece