| For a long time,the scientific education circle has believed that Critical Thinking(CT)is an important goal of scientific education.Critical thinking is a literal translation of critical thinking.Some people also translate it into deliberative thinking.This paper adopts critical thinking as a translation method.The United States incorporated "training STEM talents with strong basic scientific skills" into the new generation of science education standard NGSS,and proposed that "skills here include not only skills in the field of scientific content,but also critical thinking and problem-solving ability based on inquiry".However,at present,science education in our country often focuses on the accumulation of scientific knowledge rather than helping students develop higher-order thinking such as deliberative thinking.The G Secondary School attached to this study is a high school that attaches great importance to science education.In addition to the curriculum stipulated by the state,"STEM curriculum focusing on scientific inquiry and engineering design" is also included in the school-based curriculum,and students are organized to participate in various scientific and technological activities such as scientific and technological games on a large scale.So,under such training,what level is the student's critical thinking? Based on this question,the author has carried out a semester-long course development and practice of "scientific inquiry" in g affiliated high school,observed the comprehensive and exploratory STEM course in g affiliated high school from a zero distance,and raised the research question: does STEM course play a certain role in students' critical thinking?Critical thinking includes both tendency and skill.Critical thinking tendency refers to the will and tendency to consciously adopt trial-and-argue thinking.Critical thinking skill is the basic method for people to master the analysis of problems and information,including analysis,reasoning,evaluation,induction and deduction.This study will focus on the measurement of middle school students' critical thinking skills.In previous studies,the California Critical Thinking Skills Test-2000(CCTST-2000)is a relatively mature critical thinking skills test tool with good reliability and validity.This studywill translate and revise it as a measurement tool.In order to better cultivate students' scientific literacy,many schools have independently created STEM education courses.The research idea is:Through consulting a large number of documents,I know the concept of critical thinking and the related research done by predecessors,draw lessons from the existing research,do more in-depth thinking on critical thinking,and clarify the research ideas.Secondly,explore the teaching philosophy and teaching staff of STEM course in G affiliated high school,and design and implement STEM course for its students in G affiliated high school.In the process of course implementation,students are consciously trained in various skills such as analysis,evaluation,reasoning,induction and deduction of critical thinking.Then,the author translated the questionnaire "California Critical Thinking Skills Test-2000" and revised and localized it to form the final version.Finally,323 middle school students from G affiliated high school were tested with the Chinese version of the questionnaire under the background of "STEM course focusing on scientific exploration and engineering design".Finally,descriptive statistics,variance analysis,independent sample T test and other analysis are carried out on the data based on SPSS20.0 software through systematic analysis.Trying to find out the current situation of the students' thinking of reviewing and arguing in G affiliated high school;Based on this,the author puts forward empirical suggestions for the cultivation of middle school students' critical thinking.The results of data analysis show that the students of G affiliated high school are at a good level of critical thinking.Scientific inquiry is an effective way to cultivate students' critical thinking.In addition to classroom learning,autonomous learning often leads to deeper memories.G affiliated high school not only includes "STEM course focusing on scientific exploration and engineering design" into the formal curriculum,but also sets up different STEM education courses for students of different grades.Consciously integrate science,engineering,technology and mathematics into classroom teaching,and also make use of after-school time to open laboratories to students,hold and guide students to participate in various science and technology competitions.In interviews,it was found that teachers consciously use science courses to cultivate students' critical thinking.It is suggested that in the science curriculum,students should be guided to do more scientific research.Through guiding students to design,implement projects,display results and other processes,they should be encouraged to study more comprehensively and cultivate students' higher-order thinking ability to cope with the future.The sample taken in this study is relatively single and has certain limitations.In the future research,the author will take larger samples from different schools for research.To furtherunderstand the effect of STEM course and teaching on the cultivation of students' critical thinking. |
