Keywords

1 Introduction

One of the most fundamental objectives in education is considered to be critical thinking (Blunt, 2010). It is an essential skill that is needed in any workplace being able to aid an individual with his/her mental and spiritual inquiries through the assessment of information in hands, as well as assimilating all the evidence to become theoretical and through argument analysis Furthermore, added to designating students with problem-solving where they make use of teamwork for data arguing, writing reports and immerse in intellectual tasks. These approaches are said to be teachable and trainable CT skills, exclusively in science classes as science portrays an extensive role in the development of the students’ intellectual and cognitive intelligence which will eventually create lead to the academic progression of learners (Lai, 2011). There is a massive agreement that is highly required to associate students through the teamwork in practices that are authentic in the educational science classes (National Research Council, 2012).

Critical thinking is a cognitive mechanism where learners are skillfully and passionately engaged and drawn towards various concepts such as application, analysis, synthesizing and evaluation of examined, discovered or experienced evidence, as well as supporting their discovery with reasons and elaborations (Paul and Elder, 2007). From a contrasting perspective specified by (Dewey, 1998), critical thinking is said to be a “way of reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe and what to do”. Dewey is considered as the father of the CT or reflective thinking as being termed by him. He believed that reasons are crucial factors having the intent and objective to support the implications that our beliefs relate to, including logical, religious, scientific as well as moral or individual.

The conduction of this research study has a relevant motive behind it as it clarifies and creates realization regarding the importance for the use of critical thinking skills in the academic content standards in combination with the positive effect they imprint on the students’ futures, although teachers’ beliefs and views about CT have been examined and investigated numerous times, only a narrow number of studies have inspected the knowledge of educators regarding the magnitude of critical thinking skills in the United Arab Emirates. The rational and intellectual skills’ evidence has been infrequent and thus the data used for investigation has not been advantageous. Corresponding to the insufficiency of experience in CT, a lot of conflict has been encountered by teachers in engaging students in teamwork that associates critical thinking (Tempelaar, 2006), as well as a huge number of them, do not make use of practices conferred in their textbooks conveniently (NRC 2012). Consequently, considering the students’ feeble potential in critical thinking skills, they are struggling with grasping real-life problems and having to solve tough questions. It is necessary for teachers to yield students with a curriculum that involves creating and evaluating CT skills in order to strengthen their learning by obligating higher-order thinking and thus increase the students’ proficiency to critical thinking. In such circumstances, expected response characteristics will be knowledgeable to students and thus guide them to studious thinking as well as reflecting a critical thinking way (Deal and Hedge, 2013). This research study aiming to accomplish the needed documents that will enhance the analysis of the following question:

To what extent the in-service science teachers in American curriculum schools in Sharjah emphasize CTA in their implementation?

2 Literature Review

Critical thinking reverses the proficiency of which each individual has to face through convoluted decisions in various life prospects which may take a form of human’s personal, educational and social lives (Bagheri, 2015). Critical thinking can be analyzed as a way to approach methods and resolve difficulties taking various factors into consideration such as decision making, contrary thinking, establishing logical, conclusive and rational arguments or statements that include validating, verifying, evaluating and selecting the most accurate and relevant satisfactory response for a definite task from a diversity of alternative solutions with moderate eradication (Karabay, 2015). Concurrently, CT is one of the essential skills for education as it aids individuals in collaborating with a variety of information actively, with the aspiration to recognize the advantages and disadvantages and then to asses them in order to reach to the conclusion of the truth value, to apply knowledge and deposition towards the generation of new perceptions (Marilena and Hurjui, 2015).

According to Paul, critical thinking is said to be “the art of thinking about thinking in an intellectually disciplined manner” (Paul, 2005). Paul certified that this type of thinking has three important factors related to it. These factors include appraising and evaluating which show a higher standard of critical thinking. The final factor deals with developing and enhancing.

The relationship between the accomplishment of students and the use of CT techniques has sought massive attention. CT symbolizes a crucial component in the learning and academic advancement of students. As well as working effectively and precisely in their upcoming academic standard and be willing to oppose in the marketplace worldwide then these students will accommodate and portray a vital aspect in the success in the following generations (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2011). There are various aspects that can alter the scheme and advancement of CT skills implementation. The first aspect is associated with the animosity between the tutor’s essentiality to illustrate these skills corresponding to the teacher’s request for the success of learners on the test of an unsound achievement (Greenstein 2012). The second aspect has a wide connection to critical features that will give aid and support to the application of these skills which take the energy and right amount of time for the application to occur into consideration (Rosefsky and Opfer, 2012). The third aspect is connected to the teachers being capable of promoting these certain skills for the students, while the final aspect is in correlation to the extensive pressure that the teachers are enduring due to high expectation level of academic prosperity that they’re required to work up to as conducted by a large number of stakeholders for the purpose of maintaining their positions at their jobs.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards aimed at setting expectations for what students should know and be able to do at each level of study. According to the National Academies Press (2012), One of the three dimensions of NGSS is science and engineering practices which build upon analyzing and interpreting data, developing and using models, engaging in argument from evidence, carrying out investigations, and designing solutions which is totally aligned to the CTA that we are up against in our research, we have selected schools that follow these standards and are controlled by an inspection team of Sharjah Ministry of Education (MOE).

Ministry of Education launched a strategic plan for 2017–2021 to develop an innovative education system for building a knowledgeable and globally competitive society, and encouraging a society that is driven by science, technology, and innovation is also one of its values in education and though, improves the level of students to prepare them to a better future. In order to achieve these goals.

In 2013, the significance of problem-solving and CT is validated by the NGSS Lead States as a crucial factor in the development of the students’ learning effect brought in science. Due to that reason, these abilities and skills should be taught to the students from the initial primary stage year with the purpose of acquiring the ability to perform and manifest competence in functioning and appointing research, evaluating, defining and portraying data, conceiving several interpretations and draft various illustrations, analyzing followed by communication of facts and evidences (NGSS Lead States, 2013, p.3). A large number of researchers established the effective results through carrying out critical thinking in various subjects such as geography (Korkmaz and Karakus, 2009), reading (Keller, 2008), technology (Scott, 2010). According to the academic standards of the state and the educational content, for the purpose of the enforcement and development of the learning method results in the classrooms, teachers have to integrate critical thinking skills into the instructions of learning. This can be qualified by using the academic content measures for various subjects. Critical thinking teaching is a main target in education nowadays, because it provides students with the necessary skills to justification social issues in a rapidly changing world. Some people consider the skills of critical thinking hard to be applied and even complicated however it is crucial to the learning process.

This study falls under the umbrella of different educational theories, Cognitive apprenticeship theory proposed in the late 1980s, social Constructivism theory that emphasizes the role of social interactions and the construction of knowledge through collaboration and dialogue, and Bloom's taxonomy theory that classifies cognitive processes into different levels from lower-order thinking skills and progresses to higher-order thinking skills.

3 Methodology

The study in this research is a quantitative study, an online questionnaire was conducted via electronic devices in the form of Likert Scale; the objective of applying this questionnaire is to find a connection between the science content standards from k-12 and the critical thinking skills from the science teachers’ points of view, thoughts and ideas. That questionnaire provides a numerical description of different people's strategies, patterns or ideas using learning and checking cases of such a community. There has been a detailed analysis of the value of designing this study questionnaire followed by leading it to an online system (Sue & Ritter 2012). Moreover, the given questionnaire will be able to introduce analysis with a straightforward justification by using claims that draw on its strength points along with weakness points, information gathering and greater efficiency (Creswell, 2014). The in-service k-12 science teachers have been chosen to participate in this study and only twenty volunteered from various schools in Sharjah and they have been classified according to their demographic data. This demographic information could have the names, designation and also in this study I included the gender, years of teaching experience, the grade stages that are taught plus their academic qualifications and whether they had any CT courses before or not. Worth to mention, that the chosen teachers are all using NGSS American standards in their schools that already identified as American schools because they apply the American curriculum. The findings of this online questionnaire were gathered within seven days period of time. According to Forawi 2016, this method has been validated using equivalent approaches as well as being applied by all respondents in this study.

3.1 Participants

Twenty science teachers who work in different schools in Sharjah participated as a proper exemplification to establish the implementation and alignment of CT instructions and methods used in this research. The in-service science teachers took part in the courses for their methods in science periods in all three levels of primary, intermediate and secondary during the first semester of the current school year to make sure that the adequate numbers of the science standards have been covered at k-12 grades.

3.2 Instrument

The questionnaire of this study includes two segments, it begins with the demographic data about the participants, and then, it goes to the different ways that participants respond to CTA. The critical thinking attributes or CTA is the name of the instrument that many researchers use and work together in order to build it up and improve it; these attributes include ten major and crucial statements as shown in the appendices. This tool also is able to assess the validity of the arguments and the accuracy of the rationale with the aim of leading to assumptions and explanations of the findings. Moreover, the main premise of this CTA instrument is that it reflects the concept and interpretation of CT which can be considered as a way to examine and evaluate thoughts.

4 Data Analysis and Findings

The following pie charts represent the demographic information about the twenty k-12 science teachers who participated in the study. It shows that most of the participants have more than ten years of experience, and about half of them had critical thinking courses before, the majority of them are teaching science high school while the minority are teaching middle and elementary school (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
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Demographic information

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Fig. 2.
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Applying CTA in NGSS science classes

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In more details, the Bar graph in Fig. 2 is showing the mean scores of applying each of the early mentioned critical thinking skills in science classes in American curriculum schools that use the next generation science standards (NGSS) and the percentage of each as well. The results of this research showed that almost all the participants are using the CTA in their science classes but they give more focus to the fifth and sixth attributes in order which are related to creating the parameters and scales for evaluation, as well as enhance the levels of questions. The highest mean (4.3) for the sixth attribute that has the highest application rate within science classes. Participants confirmed that they work hard to answer and address the important questions (4.2) in the fifth attribute. The independent thinking and building cognitive capability as well as using the vocabulary of critical thinking both were fairly equal in their mean scores (4). While the least mean scores were (3.5) for both the third and seventh attributes that tend to avoid the early decisions and the analytical skills that are not easy to achieve, while the rest of the required CT skills were proportionally attainable and acceptable.

5 Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations

The study found that science teachers in Sharjah recognized the importance of critical thinking and attempted to apply it in their lessons. Also, the highest percentage of the fifth and sixth CT attributes can be justified as teachers are subject matter expertise who have a deep understanding of skills and knowledge that need to be assessed, and this allows them to refine and enhance the evaluation criteria based on their professional judgement.

As noticed also in the results of the study that the analytical skills practice by teachers should be improved. Furthermore, the results of this study assured the science in-service teachers' awareness of the importance of the CTA and their attempts to apply it within their science lessons in the light of the relation between critical thinking and the standards required in all American schools that use NGSS in the emirate of Sharjah. Forawi & Mitchell (2012), believed that the skills of critical thinking of learners are considered to be present in a social and cultural-oriented system where teaching is responsive and driven, important to realize that this will give a chance to students to expand and enhance their metacognitive knowledge. The new NGSS document (2013) also embraces this concept in which, standards alone will not be considered as a functional framework. Accordingly, innovative new teaching techniques are required to achieve the expected results. It was discovered that one of the most efficient strategies in CT is the inquiry-based teaching method of science that was recognized as a tool for a successful introduction of the new NGSS system (2013) and so it has to be improved. To be able to develop CT in schools, it is necessary for these skills to have a strong basis. This can be achieved by engaging teachers by giving them unique and advantageous CT courses to help teachers to acquire the skills in more analyzing as well as professional way. When these courses are accomplished, the teachers will be more confident as they will get more experience and will be capable of implementing the critical thinking skills of the students in a positive way.

As a matter of fact, it is worth to mention that, to bring out a better result in terms of having clear instructions on CT skills, one approach should be to study standards precisely, closely, and show readiness always to help the teachers to improve their teaching techniques mainly the ones that have critical thinking skills when needed. Critical thinking skills should be integrated into the vocabulary of academic standards in all classrooms, targeted at all teachers all over the world and those in charge of curriculum development.

Implementing CT skills in education prepare students to become lifelong learners and active participants in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. However, a limitation of this study was the inability to evaluate teachers' critical thinking abilities, which could hinder the transfer of these skills to students if teachers are not aware of them or how to apply them effectively. It is crucial to provide teachers with training on effective implementation of CTA using various teaching styles, best practice, role modeling and professional development courses because these guidelines will enhance the efficiency and ensure lasting outcomes. Future studies can explore the implementation of CTA in American schools following NGSS and compare the rate of improvement over time, assessment methods, and curriculum design and alignment.