The Effectiveness of Teaching Critical Thinking Skills on Students’ Academic Achievement in Mathematics and Science: A Study in Timss Framework

The present study, conducted in Timss 2007 framework, aimed to examine the effectiveness of teaching critical thinking on students’ academic achievement in mathematics and science. Research design was Quasi-experimental. Research sample (With available sampling method) included two classes of third grade students in Eghbal middle school in Baharestan, Tehran, Iran in 2014-15 randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Afterwards, the experimental group received critical thinking instruction for 12 sessions, while the control group received no training during this period. The data were gathered using parallel forms of Timss 2007 framework, which were implemented in three periods. The data were analyzed through Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), and t-test. Results showed that critical thinking teaching could considerably improve students’ performance in mathematics and science in domains of reasoning and applying; however, no significant relationship was revealed between critical thinking teaching and students’ performance in the domain of knowing. Findings of the follow up test, in addition, indicated a significant decrease in applicants’ scores of the experimental group. It can be concluded that critical thinking teaching should be brought into sharper focus in syllabuses of middle schools as its principles could not only resolve students’ problems in academic issues but they would also result in improving performance of students in the domains of mathematics and science.