| Georgia Professional Standards' guidelines suggest that kindergarten (K) students should use higher order critical thinking skills (HOCTS). However, educators have noted a majority of kindergartener's lack the ability to answer the most basic why questions. Thus, to answer academic reasoning questions, K students need to be trained how to answer why questions. HOCTS often are not included in K curriculum. The purpose of this study was to determine if a computer-based program would significantly increase K students' acquisition of HOCTS, specifically, their understanding of why questions. The research question addressed whether a specific computer program significantly increased the ability of K students to answer why questions when compared to those that received typical academic instruction without the computer program. The theoretical foundations of this study included the constructivist learning theory and HOCTS, specifically as they apply to computer-aided instruction. This quantitative study employed a secondary analysis of data to compare two groups of K students' ability to correctly answer why questions following one group receiving computer-based program and one group receiving classroom-based instruction. A test measure designed to assess students' ability to respond to question words (WQCT) was used. Data were analyzed using ANCOVA and the results indicated that K students receiving the program scored higher on why questions when compared to those who did not. This study has implications for social change as it raises awareness about HOCTS and ability level in K students, provides an effective computer program to address higher order thinking skills, and offers data to support using computers as effective RTI tools. |
