Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 15, Issue 2, Article 5 (Jun., 2014)
Ata H. DARWISH
The abstract thinking levels of the science-education students in Gaza universities

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The present study

Statement of the problem

Intellectual abilities of student- teachers may be considered as one of the evidences of how teacher preparation program is doing, what our selection standards look like in practice, how students are doing in relation to expectations, and if the universities have already selected the best candidates to be science teacher in the future (Astin, 1997). Literature considers the abstract thinking ability one of the important requirements for effective teaching of science. So, it was used to partially assess some aspects of the selection process in some universities to guarantee the enrollment of the best candidates for Colleges of Education.

Consequently, the specific purpose of this study was to determine the cognitive developmental profile of science students in Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa Universities in order to determine the proportions of students who have abstract thinking level in the Science Education Department. This was done to determine whether the science students had all reached their optimum cognitive developmental level and hence have the ability to understand and teach science concepts as proposed by the literature or not. The result will help us to assess our selection criteria of the student-teachers in the College of Education. The specific questions of the study are:

  1. What are the abstract thinking levels of the students of science education in Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa Universities?
  2. Are there any statistical differences at level ( α ≤ 0.05) between the average score of first- year students and the fourth -year students on Science Reasoning Tasks?
  3. Is there any statistical relationship between the abstract thinking level and the achievement in science for student- teachers in the Department of Science Education?

The significance of the study

  1. The result of the study will be used as an indicator of the success of selection process of the college candidates in the Science Education Department. So, it may be considered as one source of assessing the Teachers Preparation Program (TPP) in science in Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa Universities. Consequently, the study may reveal some causes of deterioration in teaching science through assessing the intellectual abilities of the science teachers.
  2. The current study is considered one of the few studies which examined the thinking levels for the university students in Palestine.
  3. The study introduces a translated copy of abstract thinking test (SRTs) which is used in several countries.

Objectives of the study

  1. The study tried to determine the abstract thinking levels of sample of the students of Science Education Department in Al-Azhar University and Al-Aqsa University.
  2. The study tried to find if there are any statistical differences at ( α ≤ 0.05 level) between the average score of Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa first year students on Science Reasoning tasks (SRTs) or not.
  3. The study tried to find if there are any statistical differences between the average score of first year and the fourth year students on Science Reasoning Tasks (SRTs) or not.
  4. The study tried to find if there is any statistical relationship between the abstract thinking level and the achievement in science for student- teachers in the Department of Science Education or not.

Hypotheses

The claims being investigated are that:

  1. There are no statistical differences at ( α ≤ 0.05 level) between the average score of Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa first year students on Science Reasoning tasks (SRTs).
  2. There are no statistical differences at ( α ≤ 0.05 level) between the average score of Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa fourth year students on Science Reasoning Tasks SRTs.
  3. There are no statistical differences at ( α ≤ 0.05 level) between the average score of first year students and the fourth year students on Science Reasoning Tasks SRTs.
  4. There is statistical relationship at ( α ≤ 0.05 level) between the abstract thinking level and the achievement in science for student- teachers in the Department of Science Education.

Study delimitation

The study was carried out in Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa Universities in Gaza in Palestinian territories, in the second semester 2013/2012. The target group is the students of the Science-Education Department in the first and fourth year (see sample). The British SRTs test was used to determine the abstract thinking levels or cognitive development level of the university students of the Science-Education Department (the target group).

 

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