Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Disposition toward critical thinking'

The South African Department of Basic Education (2011) has articulated the need for learners to think critically. The development of critical thinking skills has therefore been explicitly included in various education policies, such as the National Curriculum Statement Grades R-12. Technology, a relatively new subject in South African schools, provides many opportunities to foster critical thinking skills through, for example, problem solving. Technology offers a wide spectrum of problems – ranging from well-structured to illstructured problems. Well-structured problems are constrained problems with convergent solutions and are the most commonly found problems in schools and universities, but ill-structured problems have multiple possible solutions and solutions paths, which often lead to uncertainty about, for example, the concepts, rules, and principles required to solve the problem. This is particularly true with regard to teaching technology, where there is the added complexity resultant from the designing of solutions (artefacts) to ill-structured problems. This calls for teachers with certain habits of mind, who will be able to nurture a positive disposition toward critical thinking in learners. Facione (2000) points out that engendering the desire to use critical thinking as a means of problem solving prepares the ground for teaching and learning critical thinking skills. Teachers, however, must be willing to use these opportunities to cultivate critical thinking skills in the classroom. While much research has been done on Critical Thinking skills, there is a paucity of literature about teachers’ disposition toward Critical Thinking. This study sought to investigate technology teachers’ disposition toward critical thinking with reference to their habits of mind. Profiling technology teachers’ disposition toward critical thinking can enhance our understanding of the extent to which they are positively or negatively disposed toward critical thinking (CT) in terms of their habits of mind. Such understanding can inform, inter alia, teacher training and curricula in order to reciprocally enhance critical thinking skills and the required habits of mind needed to teach technology The study used a survey design to investigate South African Technology teachers’ disposition toward CT. Grades 8, and 9 technology teachers were targeted; they were invited via an email to participate in the study in which standard ethical protocols were followed. A link in the email directed the participants to an online survey collecting data with 42 statements. Participants were asked to rate their level of agreement with each statement on a six-point scale. The statements were derived from the seven habits of mind as identified by Facione. These are: Self-confidence, Inquisitiveness, Systematicity, Analyticity, Truth-seeking, Open-mindedness and Maturity of Judgment. Half of the statements were formulated to express a clearly favourable disposition toward CT, while the other half were framed to be clearly unfavourable. The frequency of responses in terms of each scale for each statement was counted in order to reveal trends regarding their habits of mind. The research findings reveal that this sample seems to be positively disposed toward CT. The habits of mind that recorded the highest scores were Self-confidence, Inquisitiveness, and Systematicity. The habits of mind that recorded the lowest scores were Open-mindedness and Maturity of Judgment. Females outperformed males in four of the seven habits of mind. Male and female participants scored an equal balance percentage toward Self-confidence and male participants outperformed females in Truth-seeking and Analyticity. Further research is needed to investigate how the disposition and practice of technology teachers encourage critical thinking skills in the classroom.
Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria 2019.
pt2021
Science, Mathematics and Technology Education
MEd
Unrestricted

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1999.
Title from title page screen, viewed July 28, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Edward R. Hines (chair), Kenneth Strand, Amee Adkins, Anne Gray. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-145) and abstract. Also available in print.

Although research has identified critical thinking (CT) as an objective of higher education, limited quantitative research has focused on how postsecondary instructors view using handheld devices for classroom collaboration to support CT. There are studies examining how the use of tablet technologies influence collaborative learning (CL), showing a link between CL and CT, and connecting CT to academic achievement. However, understanding how instructors perceive the intersection of these factors has not been well studied. Applying Vygotsky's social cognitive theory as a foundation of CL, using adapted questions from two questionnaires (Technology Acceptance Model and Cooperative Learning Implementation) and two frameworks, this quantitative survey study examined the relationship between tablet application and implementation of CL, and then between CL implementation and the development of CT dispositions (CTD). An email with a link to the survey was sent to a population of 1,932 instructors in a professional education technology organization. From a sample of 59, the key findings indicated instructors accepted the use and usefulness of tablets in the classroom, and used applications for completing collaborative tasks. The Pearson's product moment correlations between tablets and CL, acceptance and implementation appear to be affected by instructor's professional views and teaching practices. Perceptions about the development of CTD were positive with limitations of statistical significance. Results of this study may provide insights into using tablets in effective ways to enhance learning outcomes as one social benefit. Improving the CT of students may support developing citizens who contribute to communities and society in positive ways as lifelong learners.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005.
Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 199 p.; also includes graphics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-129). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

The Best PhD Thesis in the Faculties of Architecture, Arts, Business & Economics, Education, Law and Social Sciences (University of Hong Kong), Li Ka Shing Prize, 2001-2003.
published_or_final_version
abstract
toc
Curriculum and Educational Studies
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy

Young Americans must be equipped, both individually and collectively, with the 21^st century skills, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity, in order to thrive in the global landscape which lies before them. Little political or economic capital is devoted to maximizing academic opportunities for gifted secondary learners. Limiting opportunities for children and youth with the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment, deprives them of their right to an appropriate education and wastes a national resource. Recognizing that limited capital often circumscribes schools in their ability to provide special programs, the researcher proffers debate, a course within the standard curriculum, as an avenue to providing gifted secondary learners with depth, breadth and complexity while accelerating the development of critical thinking, communication and collaboration.

The threefold purpose of the study was to a) establish debate as a viable platform for providing the depth, breadth, and complexity needed by gifted secondary learners while developing critical thinking; b) examine the self-reported attitudes, principles and practices of AP-trained teachers, those most likely to have gifted students, related to 21^st century skills, particularly critical thinking, the needs of gifted learners, and debate’s ability to meet those needs, and; c) examine the effects of 6 independent variables, area of AP training, school size, community size and the presence or absence of three salient factors, teacher training in gifted education, debate in the school and special programs in the school for gifted learners upon teacher attitudes.

Results. A long history of empirical study confirms debate’s efficacy at developing the 21^st century skills, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. Survey results for a sample of 202 AP teachers indicated greatest importance is allocated to challenge and critical thinking and least importance to standardized testing. Area of AP training had no significant effect on AP teachers’ strong agreement that disruptions and too much test emphasis act as impediments to the development of critical thinking. There are significant differences between AP training groups in critical thinking development and assessment methods, communication, collaboration, and belief in the efficacy of debate. School and community size did not act as factors. Teacher self-reporting on the presence or absence of debate in their schools, the presence or absence of special programs for gifted learners in their schools, and their own special training in gifted education was substantially different from data available from the State Department of Education and from the chairman of the state chapter of the National Speech and Debate Association, therefore, no conclusions regarding the effects of those three independent variables could be drawn.

This study describes teachers' attitudes toward critical thinking: their definitions of critical thinking, the importance of critical thinking in their daily lives, how important it is to them that their students use critical thinking in class, whose responsibility it is to teach critical thinking, and who or what has influenced their attitudes about critical thinking. Each of these aspects of critical thinking was analyzed by teaching level (elementary, middle, or high school) and by subject area assignment (English, social studies, mathematics, science, and "other") to determine if relationships exist between these attributes and attitudes toward critical thinking. The population sample (n=408) consisted of 106 elementary, 123 middle, and 179 high school teachers from a large school division in central Virginia. These teachers completed a Critical Thinking Survey developed by this researcher. Results indicate that teachers define critical thinking and critical thinking skills very broadly. There is a lack of consensus about the definition. This is consistent with the literature in the field.Teachers report a high level of importance of critical thinking in their daily lives. They also report that they believe critical thinking to be of great importance to their students, yet only half of the include assessment of critical thinking in their student evaluation procedures. Teachers seem to accept the responsibility for teaching critical thinking to students. They seem confident in their ability to teach critical thinking, yet they report that they have not had adequate professional training for the task. College, graduate school, and job responsibilities have had a great impact on their attitudes about critical thinking. There were no significant differences by level or assignment with regard to definition. With regard to identification of critical thinking skills, differences were significant for ten of the 23 listed skills. There were also differences on ten of 31 items measuring importance of critical thinking, and on three of ten activities for teaching critical thinking skills.

碩士
國立臺北教育大學
自然科學教育學系碩士班
95
The study aimed to examine the CT( critical thinking (CT) ) dispositions for Science and Technology，as measured by CTS-T1 (Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory In Science–Test 1 )，of 1,087 sixth graders in Taiwan’ in 37 primary schools in Taiwan. This paper sets a model of normal distribution of CTS-T1 by Z score, PR value, T score transformation. And the purpose of this study were to investigate： (1) Are there differences of Between-Subjects Effects in CT ability？(2) Is there significant difference for different genders in CT ability？(3) Is there significant difference for city-urban-rural areas’ difference in CT ability？(4) Is there significant difference for different genders for city-urban-rural areas in CT ability？ The quantitative data included the CTS-T1 score and use the quantitative measurement included frequency distribution, KR 20, Uniway ANOVA, t-test, one-way ANOVA and Post Hoc. These investigation findings include: 1. The CTS-T1 is a great measure examination with good reliability and validity. 2. There is a significant difference for three-factor interaction effects (genders, learning environments and study achievements). 3.The results are for the CTS-T1 test scores： (1)For high achievement students, there are no significant differences for different genders and different learning environments. (2)For medium achievement students, there is no significant difference for different genders. (3)For medium achievement students, there are significant differences for different learning environments. (4)For low achievement students, there is significant difference for different genders. (5)For low achievement students, there are significant differences for different learning environments. And there are significant differences for town-country. (6)There is significant difference for girls group and for boys group for different study achievements. (7)There are no significant differences for girls group for different learning environments. (8)There are significant differences for boys group for different learning environments And there is significant difference for city-country.

碩士
國立屏東師範學院
教育科技研究所
91
Abstract The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect on sixth-grade students’ critical thinking after implementing Information Technology Integrated Project-Based Instruction and Learning in elementary science classes. Through Information Technology Integration and Project-Based Instruction and Learning, the researcher would like to know if the experimental group’s critical thinking skills and dispositions toward critical thinking are significantly different with the controlled group’s. To achieve this goal, a quasi- experimental design of nonequivalent pretest-posttest method was employed. Samples are two sixth-grade classes selected from school where the research serves. A twelve-week pilot teaching and an eight-week formal teaching were conducted in the experimental class, but not in the controlled class. The Critical Thinking Skill Test and The Dispositions toward Critical Thinking Scale designed by Yeh(1999) for K-12 students were adopted as evaluation tools. In order to know the effect of teaching experiment, data from pretest and posttest was treated by Analysis of Covariance and Independent Samples T-test. After statistical analysis, the major findings of this study are as follows: 1. The teaching of Information Technology Integrated Project-Based Instruction and Learning can significantly improve the critical thinking skills of students in the experimental group. 2. The teaching of Information Technology Integrated Project-Based Instruction and Learning can significantly improve the dispositions toward critical thinking of students in the experimental group. 3. The effect of Information Technology Integrated Project-Based Instruction and Learning on students of various learning achievement are: (1) The teaching of Information Technology Integrated Project-Based Instruction and Learning can significantly improve the dispositions toward critical thinking of students with middle-level and low-level learning achievement in the experimental group. (2) The teaching of Information Technology Integrated Project-Based Instruction and Learning can significantly improve the critical thinking skills of students with middle-level learning achievement in the experimental group. 4. Positive response and more aggressive learning attitude were observed in the experimental group after the implementation of Information Technology Integrated Project-Based Instruction and Learning. .

碩士
國立成功大學
教育研究所
94
Critical thinking (CT) is vitally important in the exercise of workplace decision-making, leadership, clinical judgment, professional success, and effective participation in a democratic society. Therefore, this research effort has empirically studied three coherent research subjects: (1) examining the effectiveness of different instructional strategies in improving students’ critical thinking skills (CTS) and critical thinking disposition (CTD), (2) investigating the relationship between the CTS and CTD of Taiwanese college students, and (3) probing the reasons students would like to use or not to use CTS. 　　This research design was a pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design. The participants were 220 students enrolled in a general education course, “Electricity and Life,” at National Cheng Kung University in fall semester 2004. The independent variable was CT instructional strategy, which included three levels—traditional instruction (comparison group), CTS instruction (Treatment I), and CTS instruction with CTD cultivation (Treatment II). The dependent variables were students’ CTS and CTD at the end of the semester. The pretest scores of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) and the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) were used as covariates to adjust for the differences among the three research groups in the beginning of the semester. The research data in this study was collected through a demographic survey, CCTST, CCTDI, and an open-ended questionnaire. The results of MANCOVA indicated that students’ CTS improved either after the CTS instruction or after the CTS instruction with CTD cultivation. However, students’ CTS were not significantly different between Treatment I and Treatment II. The results of the paired-sample t-test showed that high CTS level students in Treatment II improved their CTS, while high CTS level students in Treatment I did not. These results indicated that CTS instruction with CTD cultivation was effective in improving high CTS level students’ CTS. The results of MANCOVA indicated that students’ CTD were significantly different among the three research groups at the end of the semester. The students who received traditional instruction did not improve their CTD; the students who received CTS instruction improved their CTD; while the students who received CTS instruction with CTD cultivation improved their CTD the highest. When students were classified into three CTS levels (high CTS, medium CTS, and low CTS) and three CTD levels (high CTD, medium CTD, and low CTD), it was clear from the results that there were no high CTD level students in this study. The results might be due to the different culture between East and West. Next, the analysis of the Pearson Product Moment Correlation indicated that there was a positive correlation between CTS and CTD in the students overall. When the students were divided into different CTS and CTD levels, the results of the Pearson Product Moment Correlation indicated that only the high CTS and medium CTD level students possessed positive relationships between CTS and CTD. The other CTS and CTD level students’ CTS and CTD were not correlated. Finally, the findings from the open-ended questionnaire showed that most of the students in this study were willing to think critically because they understood that CT is important, valued, and helpful in life. However, some of the students were not disposed to think critically. Two main reasons were (1) A few students had a misconception of CT (they thought CT meant criticizing someone adversely). (2) Some students still possessed passive thinking habits, which mean that students in the East are usually taught to be obedient in class, and thus they gradually become reluctant to reveal what they know or what they are thinking. 　　In the end, several suggestions for CT course design have been provided for CT course designers and college instructors. In addition, some recommendations for future CT research have been provided for researchers in higher education.

碩士
國立高雄師範大學
英語學系
103
This study contains two research studies. Research 1 aimed to examine the correlation between senior high school students’ critical thinking ability and their English reading comprehension proficiency. On the other hand, Research 2 aimed to investigate the effects of the reading-writing instruction on critical thinking ability and disposition for senior high school students in Taiwan. Moreover, students’ feedback responses toward the reading-writing instruction were also discussed. In Research 1, 113 tenth-grade students from three classes in Changhua County Tianjhong Senior High School participated in the study. Then, to understand students’ critical thinking ability and reading comprehension proficiency, the student participants were required to take Critical Thinking Test-Level 1 (Yeh, 2003) and the reading comprehension test from the intermediate level of GEPT. After students completed the two tests, the researcher collected students’ scores of the two tests and employed Pearson Product Moment Correlation to investigate the correlation between students’ critical thinking ability and English reading comprehension proficiency. As for Research 2, 11 tenth-grade students in Changhua County Tianjhong Senior High School were recruited in the study. The researcher designed the reading-writing instruction to strengthen the participant students’ critical thinking ability and critical thinking disposition. All the participants received 6 weeks reading-writing instruction. During the reading-writing instruction, the researcher put the main focus on reading instruction. In the instruction, three reading materials were applied for students to read. Each reading material went through three levels of reading teaching process, accompanied with writing activities, including reading the text, interpreting the text, and reading beyond the text. Before the researcher implemented the reading-writing instruction, all the participants were asked to take the Critical Thinking Test-Level 1 (Yeh, 2003) and the Questionnaire of Critical Thinking Disposition (Yeh’s, 1999) as the pretests. After 6-week instruction, all of the participants were required to take the Critical Thinking Test-Level 1 posttest and the Questionnaire of Critical Thinking Disposition posttest. The results of the two Critical Thinking Test-Level 1 tests (a pretest and a posttest) and two questionnaire of critical thinking disposition (a pretest and a posttest) were collected to explore the effects of reading-writing instruction on the enhancement of students’ critical thinking ability and their critical thinking disposition. To analyze the data quantitatively, the paired-samples t-test was used to compare students’ pretests and posttests. Moreover, as for the qualitative data, an interview of how students responded to the reading-writing instruction was administered through audio-taping, followed by transcription and analysis. Additionally, students’ in-class activity worksheets were also analyzed to explore students’ learning process. Based on the results of Research 1 & 2 in the present study, the findings are summarized as follows: 1. The students’ critical thinking ability positively correlates with their English reading comprehension proficiency. That is, students with better critical thinking ability tend to have better performance in their English reading comprehension. In contrast, students with insufficient critical thinking skills might have some difficulty in comprehending English reading texts. 2. After receiving 6-week reading-writing instruction, all the participants in Research 2 had significant progress as reflected in the Critical Thinking Test-Level 1 test. The results indicated that the instruction had significant positive effects on the development of students’ critical thinking ability. Thus, the reading-writing instruction was beneficial to the enhancement of senior high school students’ critical thinking ability. 3. Among five categories (i.e., assumption identification, induction, deduction, interpretation, and evaluation) in the Critical Thinking Test-Level 1, the results indicated that the significantly positive influence of the reading-writing instruction was found in students’ evaluation ability. In the section of Assumption Identification, Induction, Deduction, and Interpretation, although students’ posttest mean scores showed a little higher than their pretest mean scores, results did not reach the significant gains. It was only in the Evaluation section that students’ posttest score was on average significantly higher than their pretest score. Therefore, the findings suggest that the reading-writing instruction was helpful in enhancing senior high school students’ evaluation ability among five critical thinking abilities. 4. For the effects of the reading-writing instruction on students’ critical thinking disposition, the results in Research 2 in this study showed that the instruction had significant positive influences on cultivating students’ critical thinking disposition. Thus, the reading-writing instruction was helpful to the enhancement of senior high school students’ critical thinking disposition. 5. Based on students’ responses toward the reading-writing instruction, most of the students revealed that their most impressive activity was the activity which required them to draw and write down their favorite and impressive part of the story. They claimed that drawing made the instructional process more interesting, and helped them to comprehend reading materials better. Furthermore, most of the students claimed that the reading-writing instruction was beneficial for them to strengthen their critical thinking skills. What’s more, they also revealed that the instruction was helpful in improving their English reading comprehension and English writing. In addition, when asked which activity helped them to think, most of them indicated that group discussion activity which asked them to write graphic organizers relating to story content helped them to think and work cooperatively with classmates together. Some of the students revealed that the questions that the teacher researcher asked in the instructional process helped them to think. Simply put, most of the students had positive feedback in the interview. 6. The researcher found some proofs that further imply that students improved their critical thinking ability from their in-class worksheets. By analyzing students’ worksheets, their performances revealed that their critical thinking skills, such as interpretation, synthesis, evaluation, and so on were inspired and applied during their worksheets writing process. According to students’ graphic organizer worksheets, students showed their synthesizing and organizing skills to write the story plots with their comprehension of the reading materials by working in groups. Moreover, in students’ drawing and writing for their favorite part of the story, they performed their personal interpretation skills to express the story creatively. Then, when doing their story reflections, and interview worksheets, they further applied their evaluation skills to analyze the character’s behaviors in the story and express their thoughts by linking their life experiences. In general, students’ worksheets implied that they performed their critical thinking skills in a variety of ways. To sum up, the suggestions that this study provided for English teachers are: (1) integrating the guidelines of three levels of reading comprehension process while teaching English reading to promote students’ critical thinking, (2) asking more referential questions or some open questions in class to help students to learn from what they’ve read actively to promote their critical thinking, (3) inspiring students’ thoughts through having group discussion to promote students’ critical thinking ability and critical thinking disposition, and (4) applying some in-class activities, for example, combining graphic organizers to teach English reading, integrating interview activity to encourage students to express their thoughts and ideas, and combining drawing and writing together to stimulate their imagination and show their unique way of expressions are ways to cultivate students’ learning toward critical thinking in EFL classroom.

碩士
國立臺南大學
數位學習科技學系碩士班
99
In the era of computer and communication technologies, strengthening students’ high-level thinking abilities has become an important nowadays. Among various learning strategies, inquiry-based learning has been recognized as being a helpful approach for training the thinking process of students. In this study, the effects of integrating the STS (Science-Technology-Society) strategy into online inquiry learning activities on students’ learning achievement, attitude and critical thinking ability is investigated.. The participants were divided into an experimental group, which learned with online sts-oriented inquiry learning approach in a science classroom, and control group, which learned with conventional in-class online inquiry learning approach. From the experimental results, it is found that the experimental group has significantly better critical thinking performance than the control group, implying that the online sts-oriented inquiry learning approach is able to enhance students’ critical thinking ability. In addition, it is found that the experimental group reveal better critical thinking disposition, learning achievement and learning attitude than the control group.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
生命科學系
103
The purposes of the study were to investigate the impact on different critical thinking disposition, students’ critical thinking ability and Science learning performances by discussing socio-scientific issues (SSI). This study adopted a quasi-experiment design. Four classes of seventh graders in a junior high school in the New Taipei city were invited to participate. Two classes (n = 110) were randomly assigned as the experimental group (n = 54) which could search materials on Internet for SSI discussions and the others as the comparison group (n = 56) which were given materials by the teachers. The present study selected genetic counseling and genetically modified organism as SSI topics. Research instruments included Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level X (CCT-X), California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and the students’ biology grades represented students’ learning performance. The collected data are analyzed by quantification statistics, such as Pearson’s correlation, regression analysis, one-way ANCOVA and two-way ANCOVA. The data analysis indicated that, first, after searching materials on Internet for SSIs, students who were high critical thinking appraisal significantly can improve critical thinking ability. Second, students’ learning process affected critical thinking ability, such as argumentation quality, information-seeking behavior. Third, science learning performances and critical thinking ability have a positive relationship. According to the findings, teachers may let students search SSI materials on Internet and provide further instruction.

碩士
國立成功大學
護理學系碩博士班
96
Critical thinking skill is the essential ability in nursing clinical practice. It would be a guide line to lead nursing administration strategy when we understand the nurse’s critical thinking disposition. But the scale of critical thinking disposition inventory for Taiwan nurses is still lacking. The Chinese version of critical thinking disposition inventory (CTDI-CV) was edited by Pang-et-al who applied the Chinese culturally concept in the California critical thinking disposition inventory. It had been tested among Chinese nursing students. The overall content validity index (CVI) was .89 and the subscale CVI were ranging from .60 to 1. Cronbach’s α of the overall scale was .90, the subscale ranged from .54 to .77. The CTDI-CV contained 70 items with 7 subscales. This study was to test the CTDI-CV among clinical nurses in Taiwan. There were 864 participants in this study whom were stratified random sampling from different hospital’s registered nurses. Data were collected by self administration using a structred questionnaire. The confirmatory factor analysis used to test the goodness-of-fit of the hypothetical measurement model with poor results: χ2/df = 4.66, p＜ .05, GFI = .59, AGFI = .56, SRMR = .11, RMSEA = .07. The exploratory factor analysis was then to test the structures of the underline factors. Guiding by item analysis the number of items was decreased to 32 items. Further, 14 items were deleted through the analysis of factoral structure and communalities ＜ .3. The final scale norminated short form critical thinking disposition inventory contained 18 items with 3 subscales. The total explained variance from the 18 items was 44%. Cronbach’s α for overall and each subscale were over .8. The CFA reused to test the goodness-of-fit of the SF-CTDI-CV among clinical nurses in Taiwan with good results: χ2/df = 4.04, p＜ .05, GFI = .93, AGFI = .91, SRMR = .076, RMSEA = .059. SF CTDI-CV are effective and convenient for researches and participants to understand Participants’ critical thinking disposition.

博士
國立中山大學
教育研究所
107
The purpose of the study will explore the effects of junior high school students’ disposition of moral cognition, critical thinking, and moral action through a reflective-thinking moral issue teaching model. During the first stage, 240 participants from four junior high schools were recruited with a partition cluster sampling selection to complete a “Junior High School Students Questionnaire (JHSSQ)”. After revising the JHSSQ into a formal questionnaire, we invited 351 junior high school students to complete the formal JHSSQ to understand students’ disposition of moral cognition, critical thinking, and moral action. Second, 29 7th graders were randomly selected to participate in a 20-week intervention and formed as the experimental group (EG); another 29 7th graders joining 20-week "Moral issues discussion" community class from another school were selected as the comparison group (CG). Besides, 12 target students from EG with the highest, middle and the lowest total scores on their pretest of moral cognition were purposively recruited to be observed weekly and interviewed after two weeks of the intervention to understand the changes of their disposition of moral cognition, critical thinking, and moral action. The formal JHSSQ includes “Disposition of Moral Cognition Scale”, “Disposition of Critical Thinking Scale”, and “Disposition of Moral Action Test”. In addition, the investigator developed class observation checklists, interview protocol, reflection sheets, and course learning sheets to collect EG participants’ performance on their disposition of moral cognition, critical thinking, and moral action. Descriptive statistics, independent-sample t tests, analysis of variance, repeated measured ANOVAs, analysis of covariance and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the quantitative data between two groups. In addition, a content theme analysis was adopted to analyze 12 target students’ interview information, class feedbacks, and course learning sheets. The results revealed that junior high school students’ disposition of critical thinking can moderate the relationships between their disposition of moral cognition and moral action. Besides, after two-semester reflective-thinking moral issue teaching, the EG had significant progress scores on their disposition of moral cognition, critical thinking, and moral action. There were also significant differences between EG and CG students’ disposition of moral cognition, critical thinking, and moral actions. The results will allow us to shed an additional light on the effects of the reflective-thinking moral issue teaching for learners, and also contributed empirical evidences for the future studies that focus on the moral education teaching approaches.

碩士
臺北市立師範學院
科學教育研究所
93
The revolution of education had been changing over years. The new generation had more patented to discover and they were more creative. For encouraging teachers teaching creatively, there were a lot of creative teaching module competitions. Although the teaching modules were very attractive and energetic to the students’ mind, the problem was if the students actually learned something from the project. For resolving these problems, the researcher’s teaching module created much thinking to students. Moreover, the researcher’s teaching module can provide a new teaching style of critical thinking. The researcher hoped the students could get their own judgments and creative ability. Therefore, the purposes of the research were: (1) To investigate how creative teaching is going to give the students affection of motivation to learn, critical thinking ability and scientific creativity. (2) To investigate the reasons to cause students to make a progress. (3) To investigate relationship among motivation to learn, critical thinking ability and scientific creativity. The research was based on Solomon four-group design. The samples were from four classes of fifth grade selected from DM Primary School to Jhongjheng District, Taipei City. The quantitative research used four different kinds of instruments. Those were science learning motivation progressing questionnaire (SLMPQ), science critical thinking examination (SCTE), scientific creativity examination (SCE) and Williams creativity assessment packet (CAP). The qualitative parts included researcher’s teaching record book, classroom observations memo, semi-structured interview and the students’ progressing paper. The outcomes of this research showed: (1) After teaching creative and critical thinking teaching module, there was positive effect on enhancing the motivation to learn in elementary science class. (2) After teaching creative and critical thinking teaching module, there was no significant effect on enhancing the critical thinking in elementary science class. (3) After teaching creative and critical thinking teaching module, there was positive effect on enhancing the scientific creativity in elementary science class. (4)There were the significant correlation in the motivation to learn, critical thinking ability and scientific creativity. According to the outcomes, creative and critical thinking teaching module made the positive effect to motivation to learn. Although there was no significant enhance to critical thinking, the idea to combine creative teaching and critical thinking provided the appropriate way to enrich the teaching. And it offered us the possibility to develop the scientific creativity. In conclusion, if the creative and critical thinking teaching module was practiced properly in science class, the scientific creativity would be promoted effectually. There were six suggestions about creative teaching from the research results: (1) To use more energetic, creative and variety teaching style in science class. (2) To make creative teaching module increasing students’ creative mind. (3) To encourage students to develop thinking ability. (4) To combine creative thinking and critical thinking together. (5) To manage creative teaching environment for students. (6) To have a relaxed relationship between teachers and students. Finally, the researcher offered some suggestions for further study in future.

碩士
臺北市立教育大學
自然科學系碩士班
96
The purposes of this study were to investigate：(1) the influences of different scientific critical thinking ability and disposition toward Type A behavior. (2) the influences of different Type A behavior toward the scientific critical thinking ability and disposition. (3) the relationships among the scientific critical thinking ability , the scientific critical tthinking disposition and Type A behavior. (4) the differences of the different gender among the scientific critical thinking ability,the scientific critical thinking disposition and Type A behavior. This was a quantitative research; There were 304 sixth graders at an urban elementary school in Taipei county. There were three kinds of instrument used in the quantitative research: the Test of Critical Thinking Ability (TCTA), the Test of Critical Thinking Disposition (TCTD), and Type A Behavior Pattern Scales for Children (TABP). Data analysis included the descriptive statistics, t-test, two-way MANOVA, one-way MANOVA and Pearson Correlation.The auxiliary design was qualitative.The instrument used in the qualitative research was semi-structured interview questionnaire. The findings of this study were listed as follows: (1)There was a singnificant gender difference on the TCTA. The representation of students’ critical thinking ability in science could be included five behavioural characteristics; On the subscale (a) “collect information”, girls got higher scores than boys (p < .05). But there were no significant gender differences among the other four subscales, (b) “clarify problem”, (c) “analyze and criricize”, (d) “be curious”, (e) “concern and respect”. (2)There was no significant gender difference on the TCTD. (3)There was a singnificant gender difference on the TABP. The representation of students’Type A behavior pattern could be included three behavioural characteristics; Those were (a) “time urgency”, (b) “competitiveness and achievement”, (c) “aggressiveness and hostility”.One behavioural characteristic, (a) “time urgency”, boys got higher scores than girls (p < .01), But there were no significant gender differences between the others, (b) “competitiveness and achievement”, (c) “aggressiveness and hostility”. (4)There was a singnificant positive correlation between “the critical thinking ability in science” and “Type A behavior” (p < .01). There were singnificant positive correlations between “time urgency” and “competitiveness and achievement” (p < .01); there was a singnificant positive correlation between “the critical thinking disposition in science” and “Type A behavior” (p < .01). There was singnificant positive correlation between “the critical thinking disposition in science” and “competitiveness and achievement” (p < .01). Finally, the suggestions of the study were listed as follows: (1) Social issues and living problems can enhance students’ interest and motivation, teacher should give students chance in conversation.(2) Teacher should pay attention and continuing teaching of the higher “time urgency” boys.(3) In the future researchers can do long term study form elementary school in order to investigate the development and promotion of students’ the critical thinking ability and disposition in science. It is worth to do further research in this direction.

碩士
國立體育大學
體育研究所
106
The purpose of this study is to explore the difference between the students' critical thinking disposition and game performance impacted by the introduction of the reflective teaching into the sports education season and the ones impacted by just sports education season. The research method adopts the Quasi-experimental design and aims at the ninth graders in Taoyuan City. The experimental group applies the course “Guiding reflective teaching into the sports education season,” while the control group applies the “Sports Education Season” course. After 20 teaching classes, the researcher will use the assessment tool to analyze the data with the help of the critical thinking disposition questionnaire and the students’ game performance. The results of the analysis are as follows: first, the implementation of the two courses will both make the students' critical thinking disposition and game performance significantly improve. Second, the experimental group is more critical than the control group in critically thinking about the "open mind and empathy", "intelligence and curiosity" and "integrated and reflective thinking." Third, the experimental group is superior to the control group in the game performance. According to the results, the conclusions are as follows: implementing the sports education season course helps students to think more criticially and to perform better in the competition; the students implemented by the courses of the guided reflection teaching into the sports education season are much better than the students who are simply implemented by the courses of the sports education season. Through the teacher’s guiding, the students can not only have chance to observe, analyze, discuss, and introspect themselves but also promote their critical thinking intentions and enhance their performance in the game.

碩士
臺北市立教育大學
自然科學系碩士班
98
Abstract The proposes of this study were to investigate (1) the impacts of reading Scientist story toward sixth graders' critical thinking ability, critical thinking dispositions and problem solving ability; (2)the changed process of critical thinking ability, critical thinking dispositions and problem solving ability after reading scientist story. (3)what were the students' opinions about this reading activity. The research design was a quasi-experiment. There were two homogeneous sixth classes in Taipei county participating the research. One class was assigned randomly to Experimental Group (EG), and the other was assigned to Comparison Group (CG). Before the treatment, EG and CG students were administered the pretests of the Test of Critical Thinking Ability (TCTA), the Test of Critical Thinking Disposition (TCTD) and the Test of Problem Solving Ability (TPSA). The duration of treatment last eight weeks. There were two class periods every week ; one was regular reading class, and the other was advance reading class. EG students read the scientist stories which were composed by the researcher. These stories were referred to the scientist's biography, and contained the critical thinking and the problem solution situation. EG students wrote work sheets after reading a scientist story in first class. Students discussed and shared their thoughts by their work sheets in second class. Students compared two scientist stories when they finished reading two scientist stories. CG read eight scientists stories bought in the bookshops, they also wrote work sheets after reading. All the students were administered the posttests included TCTA, TCTD and TPSA. Data analyses included the descriptive statistics, one-way ANCOVA. The posttests of the TCTA, TCTD and TPSA were tested by using the pretests of the TCTA, TCTD and TPSA as covariates, treatment as independent variable. Teacher's teaching record book, classroom observations memo, students' reading work sheets and students' reading feedback were provided for qualitative information. The results of the study were listed as follows: (1) EG was significant higher than CG (p&lt;.05) on TCTA, TCTD, TPSA; (2) After four weeks of treatment, EG students’ critical thinking ability and problem solving ability found from reading work sheets improved obviously. However, there was a slight drop from sixth to eighth week. The cause possibly be the massive, and standard work sheets. After six weeks of treatment, EG students’ critical thinking ability and problem solving ability showed on comparing work sheets improved again. According to the findings, the researcher proposes four conclusions: (1) Reading with critical thinking, problem solving situations of the scientist stories may help students to promote critical thinking abilities. There are more helpful to student's critical thinking ability who engage in the discusses and publishes activities positively; (2) Reading with critical thinking, problem solving situations of the scientist stories may help students to promote critical thinking disposition and stimulate the tendency of the student to think deeply; (3) Reading with critical thinking, problem solving situations of the scientist stories may help students to promote problem solving ability; when students confront new problems, the reading experience can stimulate students to solve problems easily; (4) After four weeks of treatment, EG students’critical thinking ability and problem solving ability found from reading work sheets improved obviously. After six weeks of treatment, EG students’critical thinking ability and problem solving ability showed on comparing work sheets improved again; (5) According to the feedback in reading from students, the majority of students approve the reading activity. The researcher suggests that (1) The teacher may provide interesting and many kinds of scientist stories which contain critical thinking, problem solving situations to encourage students participate positively in the publication and discussion (2) The work sheets can be considered as students' homework; (3) The teacher may provide personal and concrete questions to stimulate students to solve problem ; (4) The teacher provides work sheets should be appropriate, diverse, and more activities. Keywords: Reading Scientist Stories, Critical Thinking Ability, Critical Thinking Disposition, Problem Solving Ability.

碩士
國立臺灣科技大學
數位學習與教育研究所
105
This study aims to explore the effects of role playing mode in picture E-book on the critical thinking disposition, reading motivation, and flow of middle school students. The present study uses a quasi-experimental design with surveys and interviews for analysis. Through convenient sampling, 67 8th grade participants from three classes in a Taiwan middle school were selected. The study lasted four weeks, approximately 45 minutes each week. The participants were split into three groups, a control group of 23 students just reading the book, a role playing group of 22 students where they role play different characters, and finally a third experiment group of 22 students who role played themselves through a selfie feature within the game. Results indicate role playing does significantly help reading motivation but not in flow. Besides, role playing does significantly help reading motivation but not flow. As for critical thinking, the role playing picture e-book significantly improved student's open-mindedness and reflective thinking. If there is a discussion after reading the picture e-book, student's critical thinking disposition will significantly grow. Further analysis shows the role playing groups both have a significantly stronger understanding of critical thinking and were more willing to express their own ideas and opinions. In conclusion, this study suggests when designing picture E-book for either research or education, that a multiple role playing aspect can be integrated to help students have greater motivation and critical thinking disposition.

博士
國立中山大學
教育研究所
107
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become a very popular approach in Europe over the past decades in the belief that it may help to improve not only on students’ target foreign language but also on the taught content. This study intended to investigate Taiwanese senior high school students’ learning performances through a one semester teaching intervention utilizing a CLIL approach. With concerns of globalization, abilities of using English for communication and abilities of critical thinking, the intervention used contents of diverse cultures and critical incidents to help students use English to discuss their ideas with not only local students but also with peers from a different country through online discussion. The participants were recruited through convenient sampling from two senior high schools and assigned into the experimental group 1 (EG1; N=37, 10th graders, required class), the experimental group 2 (EG2; N= 17, 10th graders, elective class) and the comparison group (CG; N= 37, 10th graders, required class), respectively. According to the nature of the class, 8 students from the participants were selected as target students for weekly class observations based on their pre-test English proficiency scores. All the participants took pre and post-test standardized General English Proficiency Test (GEPT-intermediate level: Listening and Reading tests), and High School Students English Learning Questionnaire (HSELQ) developed and validated by the researcher with references of the seven dimensions of California Critical Thinking Disposition Scale, the Intercultural Communicative Competence Questionnaire (Mirzaei & Forouzandeh, 2013) and Learning Attitudes Scale (Hong, 2013) to determine the students’ improvement on English learning, motivation, critical thinking disposition and cross-cultural awareness during the intervention. In addition, 59 Korean senior high school students were encouraged by their local English teacher to participate in the online discussion voluntarily during their free time. The data of the study was collected through English proficiency tests, HSELQ, the online discussion, the teacher’s reflection, the weekly observations of the target students, the interviews of the eight selected students (4 from EG1 and 4 from EG2) and the two school English teachers. The quantitative results were analyzed through descriptive analysis, paired sample t-test, and ANCOVA; the qualitative results were analyzed via content theme analysis. The research findings were as the follow: EG2 students’ English learning motivation, English reading proficiency test score, critical thinking disposition and cross-cultural awareness were significantly higher than EG1 and CG. Besides, using paired sample t- tests to investigate the changes on each individual group’s pre-test and post-test, and the researcher found that EG2 students’ post-test scores on the dimensions of intrinsic motivation, and integrative motivation were critically improved. In addition, EG2 students’ post-test scores of critical thinking disposition scale on the dimensions of self-confidence, analyticity, cognitive maturity were noticeably enhanced. Moreover, EG2 students’ post scores of cross-cultural awareness scale on the dimensions of knowledge and attitudes were critically improved but no significant differences were found in the post-tests of all scales for CG students. Besides, when investigating students’ initial English proficiency and its possible relations with the CLIL intervention, the researcher found that EG2-low English proficiency students’ English reading proficiency score was significantly improved after the intervention whereas EG1-high English proficiency students’ English listening was decline and no significant differences on their reading post-test score. In addition, EG2-low English proficiency students’ post-test scores of English learning motivation scale on the dimension of intrinsic motivation, of critical thinking disposition scale on the dimensions of self-confidence and cognitive maturity had significant improvements. Additionally, EG2-middle English proficiency students’ post-test score of cross-cultural awareness scale on the dimensions knowledge, skills and attitudes had significant improvements. The results allowed us to shed an additional light on the effective teaching strategies of a CLIL approach to be applied in high school English class and contributed empirical evidences for educational applications.

碩士
國立嘉義大學
國民教育研究所
92
The main purpose of the study was to explore the relationships between reading comprehension abilities and critical thinking skills ,disposition. Investigation was employed in the study. The participation included 610 fifth-and sixth-grade students in Chiayi.The instruments employed in this study were The Critical Thinking Test-LevelⅠ（CCT-Ⅰ）, The Questionnaire of Dispositions Toward Critical Thinking.The employed methods included Descriptive Statistics,ANOVA,t-test, Pearson Product-moment Correlation, and Stepwise Multiple Regression. The main findings of this study were as follow: 1.There were different from critical thinking skills, disposition of the fifth-and sixth-grade students’ background variables. 2. .There were different from critical thinking skills, disposition of the fifth-and sixth-grade students’ reading behavior variables. 3. The critical thinking skills and disposition of the fifth-and sixth-grade students were different from their reading comprehension. 4.Reading comprehension abilities of reading variables could be the most to predict their critical thinking skills and disposition. Finally, some suggestions for teachers and further research were proposed. Keyword: Reading comprehension, Critical thinking, Reading behavior, chatters reading

碩士
臺北市立教育大學
自然科學教育學系
95
The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of CPS module on sixth graders’ scientific creativity as well as critical thinking ability. The research adopted both the quasi-experimental design of non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group and Solomon four-group design. The samples were 108 sixth graders from four classes of an elementary school in NanGang district in Taipei. Among them, 54 students were assigned to experimental group, where CPS module was integrated into the scientific teaching. The other 54 students were assigned to control group, where a regular teaching was practiced. Electromagnetic Interaction was the theme in both teaching environments. The experiment lasted for five weeks. The research included qualitative and quantitative measurements. The quantitative research used three different kinds of instruments: Williams Creativity Assessment Packet (CAP), Scientific Creativity Examination (SCE), and Test of Science Critical Thinking (TSCT). Data analysis included the descriptive statistics, one- way ANOVA, two-way ANOVA, and ANCOVA. The qualitative research utilized researcher’s teaching record book, classroom observations memo, semi-structured interview questionnaire. The results of the study are listed as follows: (1)CPS module showed a significant effect on students’ performance in the SCE and TSCT (p<.05). Students in the experimental group got higher score than those in the control group in the SCE and TSCT. (2)There was a significant correlation (p<.01) between science critical thinking ability and scientific creativity. (3)Students instructed with CPS module responded positively, improving in both quality and quantity of scientific creativity and critical thinking ability. Yet there were some individual differences in students’ performance in scientific thinking. According to the results, it can be inferred that CPS module made a positive effect on science critical thinking ability and scientific creativity. Although there was some diversity in performances in science critical thinking ability, the idea to combine CPS module, science critical thinking, and scientific creativity provided the appropriate way to enrich the scientific thinking. And it offered us the possibility to develop and promote the scientific thinking. Furthermore, the researcher offered some suggestions for Science and Technology instruction in elementary schools as a direction for future study. First, in the practice of teaching modules: (1) Design teaching modules with more phases. (2) Build an open mind and a more energetic attitude towards teaching. (3) Create a friendly environment for scientific thinking. Second, in the cultivation of scientific thinking ability: (1) Enhance the capacity of scientific teachers to promote discussion-based instruction. (2) Ensure assistance and support from school administrations. In the end, the study proposed the direction of research as a reference for future study: (1) Multi-faceted research methods (2) Multi-dimensional research instruments (3) Intensive and extensive follow-up researches.

碩士
臺北市立教育大學
科學教育碩士學位學程
98
The electronic-waste is a serious societal issue; the Critical Thinking Abilities (CTA) and Argumentation Skills (AS) are important to students. Therefore, the study tried to develop the electronic-waste teaching module, as an extension of aqueous solutions of the fifth grade science, in order to enhance students’ CTA and AS, and understood environmental pollution and health risk. This was a quasi-experimental research. The subjects were 107 students of four homogeneous classes of fifth grade selected from an elementary school in Wanhua District, Taipei city. Two classes were randomly assigned to be experimental group (EG), and two classes assigned to be comparison group (CG). The Experimental Group and Comparison Group were 53 and 54 fifth graders respectively. The EG received the instruction of electronic-waste teaching module; the CG received regular instruction. The experiment was conducted 2 periods every week; one period is science, the other is multi-activity, for six weeks that was 11 class periods. There were three parts in the electronic-waste teaching module. The first part of the module was the current situation and the sources of e-waste and health risk and environmental pollution presented by video. The second part of the module was teaching students to use the Internet as an instrument to collect information about e-waste. The third part of the module included argumentation instruction, role-play and debate activities. Before the instruction, all students accepted a pre-test of Critical Thinking Test (CTT) edited by Yu-Chu Yeh (2003) and argumentation questionnaires (AQ). During the instruction, all the activities were all video-taped and transcribed word by word. All kinds of qualitative data, including students’ learning sheets, teacher’s reflective journals and teaching checklists were collected. After the instruction, all students accepted a post-test of CTT and AQ. The researcher also collected the data of semi-structured interview. The data of CTT was analyzed by one-way ANCOVA, the pre-test of CTT as a covariate, e-waste teaching module as independent variable to investigate the change of students’ CTA. The data of AQ was coded, then analyzed by two-way ANOVA, e-waste teaching module and the pre-test of AQ as independent variables, to investigate the impact of the pre-test of AQ. Then the data of AQ was analyzed by t-test and one-way ACOVA to investigate the change of student’ AS. There were AQ, student’ learning sheets, teacher’s reflective journals, teaching checklists, the semi-structured interview, and videotape to analyze in depth the change of students’ CTA and AS. The major findings of this study were as follows: (1) The quantitative data: (i) There were no significant differences between the EG and CG on average scores of the post-test of CTT and AQ. The EG had significantly higher score than the CG in evaluation skill of CTT. (ii) The high-level group had significantly higher score than the low-level group in total scores of the post-test of AQ. (iii) There were significant correlations between AS and CTA, Chinese performance, science performance. (2) The qualitative data: (i) The EG tended to make a decision under more consideration of the whole situation than the CG. (ii) The EG felt fresh and interesting for role-play. (iii) In the “video game” of AQ, the most supportive ground was “help learning”; the most oppositional ground was “hinder performance”. The problem context was not present, students take the initiative of the supportive ground that “Do not play too long is ok”; the most oppositional ground was “myopia”. (iv) In the “plastic bottled water” of AQ, the most supportive ground was “get easy”; the most oppositional ground was “Plastic bottles involve toxic antimony”. Although problem context was not present, students take the initiative of the supportive ground that “Plastic bottles can be reusable”; the most oppositional ground was “a waste of money”. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The electronic-waste teaching module did enhance students’ evaluation skill of CTA. (2) The electronic-waste teaching module and the regular instruction is similar on students’ AS. The students of electronic-waste teaching module tended to make a decision under more consideration of the whole situation. (3) The AS is better, the CTA, Chinese performance and science performance are better, too. (4) Role-play and video teaching did enhance students’ learning motivation of the electronic-waste teaching module.

碩士
臺北市立教育大學
自然科學系碩士班
96
The purposes of this study were to integrate the effect of science history into sixth grade science class toward students’ critical thinking abilities, critical thinking disposition, and attitude toward science. This was a quasi-experimental research that was designed to be Solomon four-group design, and supplemented by qualitative data. The participants were four classes sixth graders conveniently sampled from an urban elementary school in Taipei City. The researcher adopted Test on Critical Thinking Abilities (TCTA), Test on Critical Thinking Disposition (TCTD), and Questionnaire on Learning Science Attitude (QLSA). Three units were selected as the teaching materials in the research, namely “weather changes”, “life and reproduction”, and “electromagnetic force”. The experimental group was taught with material integrating science history, while the control group was taught with regular material. Pre-test and post-test were held, data were statistically analyzed to investigate students’ critical thinking abilities, critical thinking disposition, and attitude toward science. Also, open-ended questionnaire and interviewing techniques were used to further explore the rationale. The major findings of this study were as follows: (1) Experimental group got significantly higher TCTA score than control group (P<.001). (2) Experimental group got significantly higher TCTD score than control group (P<.001) . (3) Experimental group got significantly higher QLSA score than control group (P<.001) . According to these results, some conclusions of this study were as follows: (1) Teaching science history would improve students’ critical thinking abilities. (2) Teaching science history had positive effects on students’ critical thinking disposition. (3) Teaching science history had positive effects on students’ attitude toward science.

碩士
國立臺灣科技大學
數位學習與教育研究所
106
With the popularity of digital and mobile devices, web programming has become an important skill nowadays, especially RWD (responsive web design) which can prevent user not to be interfere by bad browsing experience due to screen size differences. However, few studies have discussed how to improve students' skills through digital aids. This study designed a peer review system which can preview web pages on different devices. The goal for this study is to know the influence for student’s learning motivation, learning achievement and critical thinking during the time that they’re using this web programming system, hoping to teach students to master various devices in web design. In this study, a quasi-experimental design was used. We chose junior high school student as test subjects, and each of the experimental group and control group are both 28 people, and they learned web programming separately. After completing the project, the experimental group used peer review and evaluation system to give peer ratings and feedbacks. On the other hand, the control group used the general feedback grading method. The result for the experiment shows that the use of peer assessment system can enhance students' learning achievements, however, there is no significant difference in the aspects of learning motivation and critical thinking.

碩士
臺北市立教育大學
自然科學系碩士班
97
The purposes of the study were to investigate the impact on sixth graders’ thinking ability by reading Controversial Socioscientific Issues (CSI) and the correlation of Critical Thinking Ability (CTA), Critical Thinking Disposition (CTD), and Problem-Solving Ability (PSA). The researchers designed a quasi-experiment study. Two sixth graders’ classes in Taipei city were selected and random assigned one class to be experimental group (E) and the other to be comparison group (C). Research instruments included Critical Thinking Ability Test (CTAT), Critical Thinking Disposition Test (CTDT), and Problem-Solving Ability Test (PSAT). Before one week of the treatment, E and C students were administered the pre-test of CTAT, CTDT and PSAT. Then E read six CSI and finished reading feedback； C wasn’t given any particular issue during reading activity. Experiment lasted for twelve weeks. After the reading activity one week, both groups took posttest. Finally E and C were given a debate competition. Quantitative data included descriptive statistics, one-way ANCOVA, Pearson Correlation and t-test. Qualitative data included students’ reading feedback, students’ interview, and the process of debate competition. The findings of the study were list as follows: (1)There was no significant difference on CTAT but significant difference on the dimension of “inductive and deductive” (p<.05); (2) There was no significant difference on CTDT but significant difference on the dimension of “seeking and evaluating the credibility of the evidence” (p<.05); (3)There was significant difference on PSAT (p<.01) and the dimension of “awareness of the existence of the problem” (p<.01), “confirming the existence of the nature of the problem” (p<.01) and “identifying issues relating to situational factors” (p<.05); (4)There was a significant correlation between CTA and PSA (r=.47 p<.01) ; (5)E students with higher score on reading feedback could manifest the CTA during the interview and had higher scores on CTAT. Because every student had different background knowledge, they had different interesting and difficulty on different CSI; (6) Students who read CSI had higher performance on demonstration and rebuttal during the debate competition. According to the findings, researcher concluded that: (1) Reading CSI could help students to promote PSA. Although that could help to promote each one dimension of CTA and CTD, a whole remained to be explored further; (2) There was a significant correlation between CTA and PSA. This could be explained that problem-solving process needs to use CTA. (3)Most E students could state the message of the CSI and express their point of view clearly. One-third of the students who had better ability of self-regulated learning could state more message of the CSI and complete expression of their ideas with reasonable evidence or grounds; (4) Reading CSI could help students to promote the ability of deduction, induction and rebuttal.

碩士
國立中正大學
成人及繼續教育研究所
102
The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of teaching video on attitude toward online peer assessment and critical thinking of pre-service adult teachers in online peer assessment with Facebook club. In this experimental study, university students were asked to use Facebook club for online peer assessment after micro-teaching. The experimental group was students with using teaching videos during online peer assessment while the control group was those without teaching videos. The major findings were following: （1） Pre-service adult teachers with teaching videos perceived more positive attitude toward online peer assessment and used two types of critical thinking skill, judgment and suggestion, more frequently than those without teaching videos. （2） The qualitative data revealed that most of pre-service adult teachers with teaching video could add more details in their feedback. Moreover, most of pre-service adult teachers would spend more time preparing their teaching due to online peer assessment. In addition, pre-service adult teachers’ Facebook habit increased their participation in online peer assessment.

The primary objective of this research was to determine if a specific set of reflective practices enhance university undergraduate students’ abilities to: 1) reflect on their thinking processes to become more aware of their own intellectual habits and how they form; 2) inquire with open-minded curiosity, including suspension of assumptions long enough for them to be challenged; and 3) generate justifiable, contextual understandings and judgments, individually and in collaboration. “Reflective practices” refers to a specific set of reflective learning activities introduced to undergraduates in two courses: mindfulness practice extended into journal writing, listening, inquiry and dialogue. The purpose of the reflective practices in this research was to support independent, critical thinking: well-reasoned, evaluative judgments based on evidence, contextual understanding, and respect for others. Students were instructed in both individual, introspective activity as well as in paired and group interaction while preserving a degree of mindfulness. Indicators of the dispositions for critical thinking were developed using grounded theory methods to study students’ experiences, as well as those dispositions previously identified in the research literature. Qualitative results showed increased self-confidence, engagement with multiple points of view, and an unexpected sense of connectedness that was stronger between students who disagreed with each other than between students who found easy agreement in their interaction. Quantitative results showed statistically significant gains in the average number of indicators of critical thinking dispositions appearing in student journals comparing week 1 to week 11. There was also positive correlation between final essay exam scores graded for critical thinking skills and the total number of indicators found in students’ journals.
This thesis presents primary research on the impacts of mindfulness applied to introspective and interactive learning activities in undergraduate university courses.

博士
中山醫學大學
醫學研究所
102
part 1 Background: Stroke is the second leading cause of death and a major cause of adult disability in Taiwan. This research established correlations between pre-admission and discharge data in stroke patients to promote education of the general public, prevention, treatment and high standards of chronic care. Methods: A total of 790 stroke patients at Chung Shan Medical University Hospital from 2007 to 2009 contained in the Taiwan Stroke Registry were included in this study. The patients were classified into two major categories: ischemic and hemorrhagic. Thirteen variables, including time series variables: (1) Gender (2) Age (3) Education (4) Mode of arrival (5) Time from symptom onset to ED arrival (6) Time from ED arrival to ED physician assessment (7) Time from ED arrival to neurologist assessment (8) Thrombolytic therapy (9) Discharge status from ED (10) Reason for leaving ED (11) Reason for transfer to another facility (12) In-hospital main caregiver (13) Length of stay, were explored. Results: Our results showed that age, education, hours from symptom onset to the emergency department (ED) arrival, and length of stay in hospital were significantly associated with stroke incidence. Conclusions: These findings show the present situation and medical quality of medical care for stroke patients in Taiwan. The factors association model may assist in developing a set of improvement plans for the coming year. part 2 Background: This paper described the validation of a critical thinking disposition assessment (CTDA) to assess medical care professionals’ or students’ level of critical thinking disposition and to assess the psychometric properties of this instrument. Methods: To undertake and determine the reliability and validity of the CTDA. Assessments of psychometric equivalencies and similarities in reliability and validity across the CTDA and CTDS were conducted. Using Pearson product-moment correlations to determine the concurrent validity between the scores of the CTDA and CTDS. Statistics were calculated using the SPSS (version 14.0), set at a significance level of 0.05. Conclusions: In light of these findings, CTDA was found to be a valid and reliable instrument to measure critical thinking disposition for medical care professionals and students.

The purpose of this study was three-fold: to measure the ability of the Medical Explorers case-based curriculum to improve higher order thinking skills; to evaluate the impact of the Medical Explorers case-based curriculum to help students be self directed learners; and to investigate the impact of the Medical Explorers case-based curriculum to improve student attitudes of the life sciences. The target population for this study was secondary students enrolled in advanced life science programs. The resulting sample (n = 71) consisted of 36 students in the case-based experimental group and 35 students in the control group. Furthermore, this study employed an experimental, pretest-posttest control group research design. The treatment consisted of two instructional strategies: case-based learning and teacher-guided learning. Analysis of covariance indicated no treatment effect on critical thinking ability or Motivation and Self-regulation of Learning. However, the Medical Explorers case-based curriculum did show a treatment effect on student attitudes toward the life sciences. These results seem to indicate that case-based curriculum has a positive impact on students’ perspectives and attitudes about the study of life science as well as their interest in life science based careers. Such outcomes are also a good indicator that students enjoy and perceive the value to use of case studies in science, and because they see value in the work that they do they open up their minds to true learning and integration. Of additional interest was the observation that on average eleventh graders showed consistently stronger gains in critical thinking, motivation and self-regulation of learning strategies, and attitudes toward the life sciences as compared to twelfth grade students. In fact, twelfth grade students showed a pre to post loss on the Watson-Glaser and the MSLQ scores while eleventh grade students showed positive gains on each of these instruments. This decline in twelfth grade performance is an endemic indicator of underlying problems that exists in this transitional year of education and supports the need to strengthen the transitional connections between high schools and institutions of higher learning.
Department of Biology