Abstract
The author has been engaged in the study of the development of scientific thinking for the past several years. He has found that scientific thinking can be divided into 13 elements. Each element has its own step of development which are shown in a diagram of students from the 1st year in primary school to the 3rd year in lower secondary school. The author conducted research concerning the relationships between the elements of those developing steps with students of primary and lower secondary schools. Then he did the same diagnoses with students in schools for the blind and the deaf, then compared the results with those from the first investigation. In summary, the following facts were observed. In one group of elements both blind and deaf students were behind ordinary students, in another group of elements either blind or deaf were behind, and in the other group, both were almost equal to ordinary students. The causes for these facts were sought. It was recognized that they resulted from defects of the senses of sight or hearing which influence the elements of development of scientific thinking. In the future, on the basis of the above results the author will pursue his research in the application of audiovisual methods to the development of scientific thinking.
