- Collection:
- Atlanta University and Clark Atlanta University Theses and Dissertations
- Title:
- A Comparative Study on the Impact of Critical Thinking and Rote Memorization on End-of-Science Test Scores of Fifth Grade Students in Science in Egypt: Implications for Educational Leaders, 2019
- Creator:
- Noaman, Reham
- Date of Original:
- 2019-12
- Subject:
- Degrees, Academic
Dissertations, Academic - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798
- Medium:
- theses
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- The main objective of this study was to understand whether critical thinking teaching strategies or rote memorization teaching strategies produce better end-of-science test scores of fifth-grade students or not in a school in Egypt. To achieve this goal, the researcher used a pretest, posttest, and quasi-experimental design. Two classrooms—one using rote memorization teaching strategies and the other using critical thinking teaching strategies based on Bloom’s Taxonomy—were used for the study. The researcher described these tools as follows: a pre and post cognitive information test, questionnaires, and a purposed teaching program. The statistical analysis was carried out with the purpose of answering the research questions and led to the following results: There were no statistically significant variations between the critical thinking group and the rote memorization group as shown in the pretest stage indicating inadequate mean scores. Upon administration of the experiment, results indicated a statistic difference between the critical thinking group and the rote memorization group after administration of the test. The mean difference between the two groups was substantial and notable. The study also found minimal difference between the pretest and posttest rote memorization groups which shows that rote memorization is ineffective in contributing to memory and application of acquired knowledge. Critical thinking has been applauded in its role to enhance performance among students which was demonstrated in the study with substantial difference between the pretest and posttest critical thinking group. Additionally, the study was particularly significant in showing the importance of using critical thinking strategies to improve science course outcomes among fifth graders. Moreover, the study provided new insight on the impact of socioeconomic status on end-of-science test scores. The relationship between socioeconomic and science test scores can be attributed to such variables as interest in science, opportunities to education and cognitive factors. There is also a relationship between fifth grade students/teachers interactions (after classroom intervention) and end-of-science test scores in the critical thinking group.
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:2019_noaman_reham_s
- Rights Holder:
- Clark Atlanta University
- Holding Institution:
- Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
- Rights:
-
