The Assessment of the Fifth-Grade Students’ Science Critical Thinking Skills through Design-Based STEM Education

Abstract

Critical thinking has been one of the 21st-century skills consistently associated with students' future career advancement as a positive student outcome of STEM education. The aim of the study is to develop and validate science critical thinking skill instruments to assess the improvement in the subject of living organisms and force and friction through design-based STEM education. In this design-based research study, the student's modules were developed by the integrated STEM education principles involving the activities and worksheets in line with the frame of critical thinking approach. The kappa statistics for content validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis for construct validity, and item and reliability analysis for the quality of items were used in the development stage of instruments. The results of these analyses endorsed the 15 two-tier item for each test of Living Things Critical Thinking (LTCT) and Measuring Force and Friction Critical Thinking (MFFCT) as unidimensional constructs to produce valid and reliable data to measure the fifth grade students' critical thinking skills in the related science content. Comparing the pre and post applications of instruments in the study group indicated that STEM modules improved the students' science critical thinking skills such as interpretation, analysis, and inference. In this respect, developing and validating instruments to assess the integrated critical thinking skills will contribute to the empirical examination of this construct within the context of school science learning. 1.1. The Theoretical Framework Critical thinking is the process of mentally acting on something by "making reasoned judgments" (Beyer, 1995, p.8). Facione (1990) defines critical thinking as "purposeful, selfregulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based" (p. 2). Thinking skills in education settings generally involve activities of comparing and contrasting, classifying, predicting, generating original ideas, cause and effect, decision making, uncovering assumptions, and determining the reliability of sources of information (Swartz, Costa, Beyer, Reagan, & Kallick, 2008). Critical thinking includes process skills of "analysing, evaluating, or synthesizing relevant information to form an argument or reach a conclusion supported with evidence" (Reynders, Lantz, Ruder, Stanford, & Cole, 2020, p.4). Critical thinking enables individuals to develop their way of thinking about any subject, content, or problem by skilfully handling thought-specific structures and assigning intellectual standards to them. Then, these individuals can use the principles that help them to improve their thinking while analysing and evaluating the problems or their thoughts (Gencer & Boran, 2017). In addition, critical thinking skills are required in the process of analysing possible solutions during the probl...

Physics electronic teaching material-integrated STEM education to promote 21st-century skills

“…This is in line with previous research which has proven that STEM is relevant to apply in developing students' critical thinking skills (Hacioğlu & Gülhan, 2021;Mater et al, 2020). These results are also related to the fact that the process of generating problem solutions in a STEM context affects the development of students' critical thinking skills (Mater et al, 2020;Rizaldi et al, 2020;Savran Gencer & Dogan, 2020;Sumarni & Kadarwati, 2020). STEM accommodates student activities to be more active in groups to solve a problem by evaluating all the ideas obtained and making decisions to solve the problem (Hacioğlu & Gülhan, 2021).…”

Comparing study features is easy but identifying next steps is hard: Evaluating critical thinking through the Biology Lab Inventory of Critical Thinking in Ecology

“…The overall lack of change from pre‐ to postscores across a range of biology and ecology courses in our study emphasizes a possible misalignment in student outcomes and learning activities and assessments in the classroom. Further, this observation suggests that, although ranked as one of the most important and necessary outcomes of undergraduate degree programs (Gencer & Dogan, 2020 ; Murawski, 2014 ), critical thinking about experiments may not be commonly developed in the biology and ecology classroom (Fox & Hackerman, 2003 ; Handelsman, 2004 ). Bissell and Lemons ( 2006 ) attribute the challenges of incorporating pedagogical techniques that aim to improve critical thinking skills to (1) a lack of one common definition of critical thinking and (2) a limited number of instruments available to measure and assess critical thinking in the classroom.…”

“…Students need critical thinking skills—defined here as the process by which people use “data and evidence to make decisions about what to trust and what to do” (p. 1, Walsh et al, 2019 )—in both academic and nonacademic settings to effectively make decisions to acquire and evaluate data (Stein et al, 2007 ). Employers dependably rank critical thinking as one of the most important and necessary outcomes of undergraduate degree programs, as these skills are associated with employees who can consistently make evidence‐based decisions in their careers (Gencer & Dogan, 2020 ; Murawski, 2014 ).…”

“…Students need critical thinking skills-defined here as the process by which people use "data and evidence to make decisions about what to trust and what to do" (p. 1, Walsh et al, 2019)-in both academic and nonacademic settings to effectively make decisions to acquire and evaluate data (Stein et al, 2007). Employers dependably rank critical thinking as one of the most important and necessary outcomes of undergraduate degree programs, as these skills are associated with employees who can consistently make evidence-based decisions in their careers (Gencer & Dogan, 2020;Murawski, 2014).Ecology courses provide important settings in which to study and develop undergraduates' critical thinking skills. Notably, the Ecological Society of America's Four-Dimensional Ecological Education framework includes designing and critiquing investigations as essential practices for ecology courses (Berkowitz et al, 2018;Moore, 1993).…”

How a Design-Based Research Approach Supported the Development and Rapid Adaptation Needed to Provide Enriching Rural STEM Camps During COVID and Beyond

“…It also demonstrated that Design-based Research is a practical framework in such settings. The Design-based Research method has also been used in designing forensic science games for middle school students [23] and developing assessment tools for measuring students' science critical thinking skills [24]. Supporting teachers in implementing new STEM curricula and instructional materials is another context that has utilized Design-based Research methods.…”