The Effect of Cognitive Acceleration Programme on Critical Thinking of Science Students at Secondary Level

This study was conducted to determine the effect of Cognitive Acceleration Programme on the critical thinking skills of 9th graders. The posttest only non-equivalent control group design was used. Two sections of class 9th were selected conveniently for experimentation. There were 80 participants (girls) in the experiment. There were 30 intervention lessons in the experimental classrooms. The posttest was designed based on Cornell Critical thinking test. Test was validated by experts from the Faculty of Education, Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad. The data were analyzed by the SPSS. The independent sample t-statistics were applied for control and experimental groups separately. The t-value for the comparison of performance of experimental and control group in sub-skills of critical thinking i.e., inference, deduction, assumption, interpretation, and argumentation showed significant difference. The results showed that critical thinking skills can be developed significantly through cognitive acceleration programme. So, the thinking science activities were recommended to science educators to incorporate into the classroom to accelerate critical thinking of students. Keywords: Cognitive Acceleration, Critical Thinking, Inference, Deduction, Assumption, Interpretation, Argumentation

Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) program: Accelerating students’ cognitive development

As an intervention program developed to accelerate participant cognitive development, the effect of Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) implementation in certain conditions needs to be clarified. This paper describes the effect of CASE program on the cognitive development of elementary students in Indonesia. The study used a mixed method sequential explanatory design with the quantitative data collection in the first phase by Scientific Reasoning Skill Tasks administered to all of the participants both before and after intervention followed by collection of qualitative data in the second phase included interviews with the participants from both CASE and control groups. Participants of the study were 70 elementary school students (aged 10-12). After three months of intervention, students of CASE group showed higher mean gain (RGS mean= 4.4) compared to those of control group (mean RGS = 0.1). The qualitative data indicated that the CASE program also enhanced students’ motivation. Moreover, teachers who involved in the Teachers’ Professional Development (PD) Training Program developed a more specific strategy to enhance student’ cognitive ability. In other words, the CASE program was a worthwhile intervention for elementary level students in Indonesian school.

The Effectiveness of Suggested Strategy based on the Cognitive Acceleration in Achievement of Mathematics and Deductive Thinking for Students of the sixth primary class and Their Cognitive Competence Perceived

The study aimed to know the effect of a Suggested strategy based on theCognitive Acceleration in Achievement of Mathematics and Deductive Thinking for Students of the sixth primary class and Their Cognitive Competence Perceived. The sample of the research consists of (63) students, distributed randomly into two equal groups. The first experimental group has been taught by the Suggested strategy, and the second group (control group) has been taught by the normal method. Two research tools were conducted: one is for measuring the deductive thinking composes of (15) items, and the others test for measuring Cognitive competence Perceived composes of (24) items. The validity and constancyof the two test has been checked. Then applied two test on the sets of research. The results showed by using "T-test" for two independent samples, There are statistical significant difference between the two sets of research students and infavor of the experimental group in the achievement and deductive thinking and Cognitive competence Perceived, and in the light of the search results, the researcher recommended the importance of teaching the use of the Suggested strategy, for the purpose of development operations mental students.