DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENTS' CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS AT PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS, DINALUPIHAN DISTRICT: AN ASSESSMENT

Education

The study aimed to assess the development of students’ critical thinking skills by Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies) teachers at public secondary schools of Dinalupihan District, Division of Bataan during the School Year 2015-2016. Included in the study are the profiles of the respondents in terms of age, sex, highest educational attainment, length of service, and relevant seminars and trainings attended; the methods utilized in developing critical thinking skills such as asking questions, analyzing situations, interpretation of data, and panel discussion; the difficulties encountered in developing the critical thinking skills of the students; and the measures to develop the students’ critical thinking skills. The study used the descriptive method of research with the utilization of survey questionnaire and unstructured interview as the main data gathering instruments. The data gathered were organized, tallied, tabulated and subjected to statistical tools such as frequency counts, percentage, ranking, and mean. From the gathered data, the following conclusions were withdrawn: majority of teacher-respondents were within the 45 to 47 years age bracket and with a mean age of 37.25 years old, females, graduates of Baccalaureate Degree with Master’s Degree units, have rendered service from 1 to 9 years, and have attended 1-3 seminars and training relative to critical thinking; teachers always developed the critical thinking skills of the students in terms of asking questions, analyzing situations, interpretation of data, and panel discussion, especially the analysis of data; sometimes encountered difficulties in developing students’ critical thinking skills; and always chose their best options and took necessary measures in developing students’ critical thinking skills.

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