| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立師範大學 === 家政教育學系 === 86 === The purpose of this study is to design a 12-unit teaching program on critical thinking based on the theoretical framework of Ennis critical thinking,to go with the teaching of home economics at junior high schools , with the hope of developing and enhancing students'' critical thinking ability. The effects of the program of critical thinking teaching in home economics on junior high school students'' critical thinking abilities are evaluated after a 12-week experimental teaching program , and then the results are suggested to serve as references for promoting critical teaching at junior high schools in the future. The subjects in this study, totaling 164 students, were first-graders at Dwun Hwa junior High School （Taipei）, among which, 83 were grouped in Experiment Team,and the rest 81, Controlling Team. Cornell Critical Thinking Level X and Problem Solving Test are used as testing tools. The results are analyzed through one-way analysis of co-variance and processed statistically by t-test and K.Pearson product-moment correlation to evaluate the teaching effects as well as to explore the correlation between critical thinking test and academic achievements. The major results are as follows： 1.Critical thinking teaching in home economics significantly improves the critical thinking ability of students in the Experiment Team. It is found that after the 12-week critical thinking Experiment, the students in the Experiment Team are significantly superior to those in the Controlling Team in terms of total test scores on Critical Thinking Test , and the scores in the sub-tests on induction and deduction abilities,and information credibility investigation.However, no significant difference is found between the two on the sub-test of hypothesis confirmation. 2.Critical thinking teaching in home economics significantly improves the problem solving ability of the students in the Experiment Team. After the 12-week critical thinking teaching Experment,the students in the Experment Team are significantly superior to those in the Controlling Team in terms of total test scores on the problem Solving Test , and the sub-tests on explaining inferences , determining causes, negative why question and avoiding problems . However , no significant difference is found between the two teams in terms of determining solution. 3.A significant positive correlation is found between critical thinking ability and academic achievement. After the 12-week critical thinking teaching experiment, significant correlation is found between the critical thinking scores and the academic achievement scores of the students in the Experiment Team. 4.For the students in the Experiment Team, the differences between on the Critical Thinking the pre-test and post-test forthe critical thinking teaching experiment, evaluated by t-test , reveal remarkable improvement shown in the total scores and sub-tests scores of the low-score and medium- score teams.However,for the high-score teams,the sub-test scores reveal that only the information credibility investigation ability improves significantly ; the improvements in total scores , induction and deduction abilities,and hypothesis confirmation are not remarkable. 5.For the students in the Experiment Team,the differences between on Problem Solving the pre-test and post-test for the critical thinking teaching experiment,eualuated by t Test,showed significantly improvement in the total scores and sub-test scores of the low-score , medium-score teams, and high-score teams. It is suggested that the above findings serve as references for the application of home economics teaching at junior high schools as well as further research in the future.Ⅰ.Suggestions for home economics education at junior high schools 1.set up critical teaching centers for home economics education at junior high schools; 2.provide teachers of home economics at junior high schools with opportunities to study critical thinking teaching; 3.include critical thinking teaching materials in new curricula ; 4.home economics teachers at junior high schools may adapt cooperative learning method to carry out critical thinking teaching; 5.teachers using critical thinking teaching in home economics should skillfully use the feed-back technique; 6.topics in everyday life are recommended in selecting teaching materials for critical thinking teaching in home economics.Ⅱ.Suggestions for future research 1.while carrying out experimental teaching research on critical teaching,the arrangement of the seating of students should be based on the principle of developing students'' multi-way communication; 2.Computer-Assisted Instruction may be included when applying the experimental teaching strategies of critical thinking; 3.the homogeneity between materials and the testing tools should be considered carefully in the study of experimental teaching of critical thinking; 4.further studies on the experimental teaching of criticalthinking at senior high schools should be carried out.
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