The impact of thinking maps to enhance the development of critical thinking skills among first year pre-service life science teachers

Abstract

The National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) Grades R-12 continues to support teaching and learning that should nurture critical thinking skills among learners1. This research investigated the impact of Thinking Maps as a teaching strategy to enhance the development of critical thinking skills among first year pre-service Life Science2 teachers at a university in South Africa. The literature review explains the multidimensional nature of critical thinking that involves the development of cognitive and metacognitive skills and strategies, dispositions/behavioural traits, intellectual traits, as well as universal intellectual standards of reasoning that are applied to the elements of thought. The importance of critical thinking for teacher training was explored by emphasising its importance to cope with the challenges of the 21st century. Moreover, the development of critical thinking skills stands central to achieving the objectives of CAPS. Nationally and internationally, the development of the critical thinking skills of pre-service teachers appears to be fragile, and political, educational, personal, behavioural, cultural and language factors seem to play an important role in influencing the development of critical thinking skills. A number of commercially available tests exist to assess the development of critical thinking skills. As none of these tests focus on assessing critical thinking in subject content, the researcher decided to construct his own closed multiple choice test, strengthened by open questions, to assess the application of the critical thinking skills analysis, synthesis and evaluation in the context of Life Sciences. In order to identify a suitable theoretical framework for developing the Thinking Maps intervention that was implemented in the study, important learning theories and related teaching styles, teaching methods and teaching strategies were clarified. It appeared that teaching framed within a cognitive and constructivist approach would be more apposite for enhancing the development of critical thinking, as these approaches provide opportunities for active and social construction of knowledge and problem-solving that hold benefits for the development of critical thinking. The role and importance of visual learning, in particular Thinking Maps, for enhancing the development of critical thinking were clarified by means of a literature review. Thinking Maps is a programme that consists of a set of eight visual tools designed to help students3 develop critical thinking processes and habits in a multidisciplinary and an integrated fashion, such as describing, comparing, categorising, identifying cause and effect relationships, sequencing and ordering, analysing part-whole relationships and seeing analogies. In the context of the study, the researcher employed the Circle Map, Tree Map and Multi-Flow Map to enhance the development of the critical thinking skills’ analysis, synthesis and evaluation, that are central to achieving the objectives of Life Science subject content. The empirical research design employed in the study comprised a quantitative, quasi-experimental research design in which a Thinking Maps intervention was implemented on a rotation basis in two experiments with experimental and control groups with a purposively selected group of first year pre-service teachers (n = 56) at a South African university. The twelve-week Thinking Maps intervention programme, also presented on a rotational basis, was underpinned by cognitive and constructivist learning theory and implemented Thinking Maps as a teaching strategy that supported the facilitation of independent teaching and learning. The study aimed to determine if a Thinking Maps intervention could enhance the development of critical thinking. Descriptive and inferential statistical procedures were employed to analyse pre-test and post-test data, and data obtained through the Thinking Maps constructed by the students. The pre-test results obtained for Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 revealed that the students’ critical thinking skills to analyse, synthesise and evaluate, were in need of development. After a twelve week Thinking Maps intervention with Experimental group 1 and 2 on a rotation basis, the latent potential for enhancing critical thinking skills through Thinking Maps was observed. Normal lecturing apparently also contributed to some extent to enhancing the development of the critical thinking skills. Although some improvement in the application of the participants’ critical thinking skills was noticed, the students still appeared to be beginning thinkers with an average ability to apply critical thinking. More continuous and purposeful development of the critical thinking skills seem to be necessary to sustain the development and application of the skills to enable the students to become master thinkers. Moreover, the universal intellectual standards of reasoning involved in critical thinking apparently did not benefit from the Thinking Maps intervention. The study is concluded with recommendations to further enhance the development of critical thinking.