The Investigation And Study Of Junior High School Students' Critical Thinking Tendency In Mathematics

As early as the middle of the twentieth Century, the western education community, led by the United States, had realized the importance of cultivating students' critical thinking, and in high schools and universities, the corresponding critical thinking course was set up. However comparing with Western countries, the research in our country is far later and pay less attention to it. Since the beginning of twenty-first Century, more and more scholars have studied the critical thinking according to own teaching experience.However, these studies are mainly based on the high school and the University, not on the junior high school and elementary school, and many foreign scholars have appealed the cultivation of critical thinking should start from the middle school students. So the author made a survey on the disposition of junior high school students' mathematics critical thinking according to her teaching experience. To furtherly optimize the daily teaching and improve the students' mathematical ability of critical thinking.Based on such background, this paper reveals the necessarity and feasibility of the research of critical thinking developing in junior high school mathematics teaching. Next, the research should sum up the study situation at home and abroad on critical thinking, then carries on the theoretical analysis of mathematics critical thinking disposition.Based on that, 42 items are selected mainly with reference to the California critical thinking disposition questionnaire Chinese version, combined with the junior middle school students living environment and cognitive level, and modify a few topics in maintaining the original intention and seven dimensions of the questionnaire are formed in the principles for students to understand easily. Then 1000 junior high school students were surveyed in the school where the author works on. The author statistics and analized the datas: Statistics of the junior high school students mathematics critical thinking disposition overall scores; To test the different categories(factors) of students critical thinking disposition whether there are significant differences. Different classes of students in the comparison includes different grades and sex, whether as a class leader, whether there is a travel experience, whether to participate in the competition, whether to participate in the extra specialty classes, the different amount of reading, the different grades,the different test scores in math, the different educational level of their parents, different family income, different family atmosphere.Statistical results showed that the students overall average is 177.5 points, slightly higher than 169 points that is the positive critical thinking disposition standard minimum value, but there are 32.7% of students got the actual score less than minimum value, and the students only cover 5.6% whose total score is greater than 208 points, that has a strong critical thinking disposition standard. The result suggests that the surveyed students have positive critical thinking disposition in general, but weaker. In the seven dimensions of critical thinking tendency, the average scores of the seeking truth are all up to the standard. In the first four factors are curiosity, cognitive maturity, open thinking, analytical skills, and finding the truth got the lowest score.Single factor analysis of variance results showed that age, holds the post of the class cadre, travel, to participate in the competition, specialty learning, reading amount, math grades, family income, parents' educational level affect significantly the students' critical thinking disposition,and the effect of family environment and sex on the critical thinking disposition is not significant.Then the reseach analyzes the causes leading the results: travel, participate in the games, reading and other factors can broaden students' horizons, expand students to look at the problem from an all-around poit of view; served as class cadres, specialty learning factors can offers students more opportunity to personally practice and exercise students independent thinking and problem solving ability; mathematics learning can improve students' logical thinking, analysis, system capabilities and enhance the confidence of critical thinking; family background is imperceptibly influence to form a child's character.Based on that,the author put forward three training strategies from the school, the family and the mathematics teaching of junior high school.Finally, further put forward suggestions for the future research on basic.