2020 Volume 61 Issue 2 Pages 309-320
The purpose of this study is to devise a teaching method that can proactively enhance children’s critical thinking ability in order to achieve the goals set by the students themselves in the study of science, and to verify the effectiveness of the method through class practice. Therefore, in learning about the topic “combustion mechanism” (11 hours in total) with a class of 30 children in the 6th grade, first, a radar chart was used to grasp the actual state of the students’ critical thinking ability, and let the students determine their own concrete goals of the learning by themselves. After that, we set an experimental task based on the questions posed by the children, and then repeated the self-evaluation activities while conducting the experiment. In addition, during the course of learning, we held an individual meeting with the teacher. As a result of the effect verification, the instruction method devised demonstrated that children improved their critical thinking abilities, with a focus on the reflective thinking and goal-oriented thinking set by each child as a goal. It became clear that the teaching method contributed to the increase in critical thinking ability while fostering independence.
