Abstract
The aim of this proposal is to explore the effect of inquiry-based learning techniques on students’ higher thinking skills in middle grades. Some new teaching methods are being developed better to prepare pupils for the challenges of the modern world. It is hoped that inquiry-based learning will help students develop the abilities they need to succeed in their education. The study hypothesizes that students’ critical thinking abilities may be improved by inquiry-based learning (Husni, 2020). Prior to the study, each participant took the PET, which served to standardize the group’s level of fluency in the language. Twenty-three students participated in the research—an experimental and a control group comprised of students who had taken the same test but received different treatments. It was determined whether there were statistical variances between the two clusters by doing an independent sample T-Test on all of the data. Preparation for the class began with a critical thinking assessment for the pupils. Following inquiry-based instruction, the researchers conducted post-tests to investigate both experimental and control groups. Finally, the data analysis showed that inquiry-based activities improved critical thinking skills in students. Consistent with the findings of this study, those who took part in inquiry-based learning had a considerable impact on student’s critical thinking skills, according to the findings of this study.
Introduction
Thinking is essential for societal and intellectual lives. Quality of life and education is thought to be dependent on how well students think. In reality, human development is closely linked to the quality of one’s thinking abilities and the fact that we find mental activities and education enjoyable. Learning to think critically has become increasingly important in the classroom (Tarasenkova et al., 2020). It was noted rather often in the academic literature that students should no longer be seen as unreceptive consumers of information but rather should demand changes in educational and academic situations that foster critical thinking while restricting creativity. As an alternative, schools should teach pupils to think critically and independently (Royce et al., 2019). That is why they must be able to think at the highest level of creativity. However, this is a naive view of critical thinking, which is far from accurate. No one way of thinking is used when we try to make sense of the information we are presented with or the environment around us.
The complexity of critical thinking is further deepened by additional factors. For instance, it involves more than just asking logical questions or evaluating arguments based on speculation rather than hard evidence. Thoughts and acts are based on assumptions, which should be considered while evaluating our arguments for our actions (Royce et al., 2019). A greater understanding of the justifications can then be gained by comparing them to some form of objective study of the natural world as we view it. Alternatively, systematic thought management is required for critical thinking to function correctly. It is the manner of thinking that is evaluated for its clarity, sensitivity, and general quality (Royce et al., 2019). It is common to see critical thinking displayed outside of the classroom in the context of real life. Using a separate program as the only driving force for thinking training results in the less automatic transfer of these skills into students’ thinking than predicted, according to research.
Consequently, if the goal is to help students acquire and process knowledge, instructors must analyze the way in which they adopt and implement thinking skills in school programs. As a result, students will be free to select the most appropriate thinking skills for a particular context. Inquiry-based learning teaches learners how to comprehend situations, enabling them to establish context-specific answers independently.
Statement of the Problem
The study intends to investigate the outcome of inquiry-based learning on students’ ability to think critically while in Grade Four students in Aleman private schools in Abu Dhabi.
Research Question and Hypothesis
- RQ: What is the beneficial effect of inquiry-based learning on fostering children’s academic development?
- H1: There is no relationship between inquiry-based learning and the academic performance of early childhood education learners.
- H2: There is a statistically significant relationship between inquiry-based learning and the academic performance of early childhood education learners.
Theoretical Background
The Concept of Critical Thinking
Various educational institutions have sought to improve students’ critical thinking skills throughout the last few decades. Critical thinking has been defined in a variety of ways. Critical thinking can be exemplified by a person’s ability to recognize and examine critical assumptions and issues in an argument, discern meaningful connections among variables, and draw conclusions from available (Bashith & Amin, 2017). A person’s capacity for critical thinking produces rational thought. Cognitive scientists may refer to critical thinking as “higher-order thinking” or “cognitive processing.”
Another important concept that cannot be overlooked when talking about critical thinking is the ability to take responsibility for one’s thoughts. Individuals must establish logical benchmarks and criteria for assessing and improving the quality of their reasoning and reasoning processes. Thus, problem-solving is a circular process, whereas critical thinking is a straight line (Bashith & Amin, 2017). On the other hand, a researcher’s capacity for critical thinking gives them the ability to aid in every stage of the problem-solving process. Understanding the world around us requires a constant effort to examine our own and others’ perspectives to gain a complete picture (Bashith & Amin, 2017). Purposive, rational, and goal-oriented thinking is what we mean when we talk about critical thinking. Solving issues, concluding, calculating probabilities, and coming to judgments all require this type of thinking. As a simple definition, critical thinking is rational and active thinking that focuses on resolute beliefs and actions.
Group Work and Critical Thinking
There has been a great deal of professional study and credit given to the concept of group work and pairing pupils for academic purposes. Students with varying levels of proficiency can work together in various ways to achieve a similar goal. Students are expected to look out for one another and to take care of their own needs. As a result, one student’s achievement serves as an example for other students to strive for. According to this theory, students’ critical thinking skills are bolstered by the interchange of questions and answers in small groups (Erdogan, 2019). People who work together learn and retain more information than those who work alone. Students’ critical thinking abilities will improve due to their involvement in group discussions.
What is Inquiry-Based Learning?
Inquiry-based learning enables students to learn by actively participating in a real-world situation. Since the students are placed in the active role of problem solvers, they are concurrently developing problem-solving methodologies and disciplinary knowledge abilities, which are likely to come in handy in their future careers. PBL begins with an unstructured problem as the starting point for all learning activities. Students are likely to encounter this issue in their future careers. In order to gain expertise, one must engage in the process of iterative problem-solving. Each student assumes a significant role in his or her education and training. As a rule, the majority of the learning occurs in small groups (Dwork et al., 2018). Instead of distributing material, the teacher must be a student learning facilitator and resource at specific points in the course. For one thing, kids get a lot more out of it since they actively participate in solving problems and making decisions rather than just meditating about them.
Problems to Inquiry-Based Learning
Teachers must take on new duties that are vastly different from their previous responsibilities to implement inquiry-based learning strategies in the classrooms they lead correctly. It is the teacher who has all of the knowledge in lecture-based classes. The teacher poses an issue and then provides students with research and inquiry clues to help them investigate.
An educator serves as a guide to help students work through issues and find solutions. This change in role is too much for many teachers to handle (Erdogan, 2019). It is not clear to these teachers how best to operate a class without the customary authority and power. These courses are still primarily focused on rote memorization and lecture-style teaching methods for the most part. It is not an easy task to get instructors to implement learning procedures that they were not taught in their teacher education courses. Classroom materials that can be used immediately are a major barrier to implementing inquiry-based learning. Teaching aids are in short supply. This teaching method is not widely supported because the current materials do not offer enough sample problems or assessment criteria. Philosophical foundations have been established, yet there is a lack of practical implementation.
Research Methodology
Research Design
Using a quasi-experimental methodology, two groups were studied. When assessing the influence of an independent variable on a dependent variable, this study used control groups. The experimental and control groups were correlated without randomization. Two groups of students have included: the experimental group, which had inquiry-based homework, and the control group, which had no homework. The experimental group participated in tests conducted before and after the proposed intervention to evaluate if it had any effect on their language skills (Alharbi, 2019). Participants in the “control” group performed the same tasks as those in the “experiment” group in the classroom. It was important for the teacher to keep track of both groups during the experiment. An independent sample t-test was employed to examine the results of the experiment. Because the participants were homogenized by their language proficiency, English proficiency was used as a control variable in the study.
Study Population
Students in Abu Dhabi’s private fourth-grade school are the study’s intended audience. School districts in Abu Dhabi will be used for this research. The city’s many private schools make it suitable for studying the impact of Inquiry-Based Learning on kids’ higher-level thinking abilities in Grade Four.
Sampling
Non-random convenience sampling was used in this study for sampling. This study relied on people who were accessible to participate. There are five classes in grade four. Randomly, two sections will be chosen. Twenty-three pupils are in each class. The experimental group will be split into two sections, one serving as a control.
Instrumentation
Achievement Test
Before and after achieving the planned study’s unit objectives, the researcher will create an accomplishment test to examine several variables. Inquiry-Based learning will be studied to discover if an intervention will improve students’ academic performance (Alharbi, 2019). At the beginning of each school year, role-playing is essential for young children to adapt and learn. Before beginning inquiry-based learning, teachers should offer students clear directives and norms to decrease potential issues and increase learning opportunities.
The Questionnaire
Teachers will be required to fill out a questionnaire in order to examine how role-playing affects students’ academic achievement. These ten closed-ended questions focus on the instructor as an individual in role-play, the effects on role play, and a teacher’s immediate plan for student academic performance, providing quantifiable data to compare. Teachers will also be requested to submit examples of how role-playing can help students improve their performance, which will aid in the research and substantiate the study. Thanks to a survey of the questions they were asked, researchers and readers can be assured that teachers’ responses are correct. The survey will be emailed to students and handed out in person at their respective institutions.
Data Collection Procedure
The participants’ critical thinking abilities were assessed before the experiment using Peter Honey’s critical thinking questionnaire. The English-language versions employed two questionnaire versions in this study, as all participant groups were proficient in the language. Both sets of participants received the same amount of education and were taught the same way during the trial. Students in the experimental part of the sample were given a brief overview of the course and the activities that would take place during it. He emphasized the advantages of a language-learning strategy focused on inquiry (Noon, 2018). The teacher emphasized the significance of problem-solving tasks in which students must use English. Students were presented with new challenges by researchers in the following classes. In order to gain more insight into the issue, the teacher gave students a vocabulary and asked them about their personal experiences.
Based on what they had learned about access, the group came up with a list of potential solutions. Small groups of students met to discuss the issue. After that, the team set out to determine what data was required to develop a solution and confirm or refute any theories. These people were well aware that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. There was no attempt by the teacher to restrict the students’ thoughts as they attempted to solve the problem. They discussed the things they discovered as a result of their work on the subject. Based on the observations conducted by the teacher, the latter also provided additional activities. The teacher evaluated the level of engagement and achievement of the pupils in the activity.
There was no requirement for a conclusion at the end for either the experimental or control groups. On the other hand, some debates produced conclusions, allowing the participants to go on to the next subject. Participants in the therapy group were instructed to talk about their issues with their classmates for the final 30 minutes of each class session. Each student in the experimental group was expected to work on their problems prior to class. Both groups were responsible for all of the work they did.
Discussion
A student’s most important and sought-after abilities are the ability to think critically. According to a number of studies, inquiry-based learning is an effective way to teach. Using a meta-analysis, researchers examined how inquiry-based training compared to various teaching techniques, such as direct instruction and unassisted discovery, as one example (Baker et al., 2018). There was an overall mean effect size of 0.50 favoring inquiry-based education over traditional education when many different terms, such as mastery learning and constructivist teaching, were used to denote inquiry-oriented learning.
Researchers found that instructing students in science through inquiry-based methods was superior to more traditional methods. It has also been reported to promote numerous inquiry abilities, such as diagnosing problems and creating questions and hypotheses, conducting experiments to obtain data and evaluate that data, and drawing conclusions after concluding data (Deák et al., 2021). Inquiry-based learning has significantly benefited from recent technological improvements. According to educational policymakers around the world, a scientifically literate community can only be built through inquiry-based learning. Inquiry-based learning should therefore be examined in further detail and its basic aspects identified.
Conclusions
Tests on critical thinking were considerably different between the two groups, according to this study’s findings. Pre-test to post-test improvements was seen in both groups, but not at the same level. The majority of participants felt that their critical thinking skills had improved as a result of the program. Hence, the relationship between these two variables was found to be statistically significant. Inquiry-based training improves students’ critical thinking abilities, as demonstrated by the difference in critical thinking skills between the treatment and control groups. According to this study, inquiry-based classrooms encourage students to build their meaning out of the facts they are presented with.
As students gain new knowledge and experience, their mental models evolve as well. That is not all, however; researchers found that inquiry-based projects keep students engaged long enough to yield valuable results. Students are more engaged in English classes when they can solve difficulties. They are no longer just passively taking in the information that’s being fed to them. Because of this, it is beneficial for pupils to participate in activities such as these. Students were found to have a good outlook on inquiry-based learning. Inquiry-based learning has various problems, such as students’ capacity to go through the process of self-study and to learn to become autonomous learners and problem solvers.
Implications
Inquiry-based instruction and EFL students’ ability to think critically were the focus of this study. Rather than relying on conventional teaching methods, this study suggests using inquiry-based learning activities. In addition, teachers should be acquainted with the PBL model to sustain an unrestrained learning atmosphere in language lessons. Then, it becomes sensitive to devote some time to education in this area. Teachers must set up a time to create resources that will be used in these classes (Deák et al., 2021). If one wants to provide their pupils with meaningful assignments, they must be fully prepared. To help pupils go from easy to tough activities, it has a well-structured learning path. Consider the pupils’ prior knowledge when teaching. These assignments give students a taste of what they can encounter in the real world outside of the classroom.
Students of English and those who create educational materials can benefit from the findings of this study. In addition, students require numerous opportunities to engage in real-world activities. This is of utmost importance for foreign language learners, as they have had far less exposure to the language. This means that students should have access to a wide variety of materials, and inquiry-based activities can be a significant assistance in this regard.
References
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