Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 15, Issue 2, Article 1 (Dec., 2014) Ata H. DARWISH The abstract thinking levels of the science-education students in Gaza universities Previous Contents Next

Results and discussion

Question 1:What are the abstract thinking levels of the first –year students of Science Education Department (SE Departments) in Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa Universities? The Science Reasoning Tasks Test (SRTs) was implemented on the first year students in SE Department of Al-Azhar University. The Cognitive developmental levels are displayed in table 3 and 4. It can be seen that 40% of the science education students at Al-Azhar University are at the formal operational level (abstract thinking level), with the majority at the concrete level. There were only 8% at the Mature formal (3A/3B) level (Table-4). The percentage of the students who have formal operational level in Al-Aqsa University is 42%, which is not far a way from Al-Azhar percentage (Table- 5).

Table 4. Cognitive development levels of Al-Azhar students -first year (Science Education)

Developmental stage	symbol	Frequency: No. of students	Percentage	Abstract/ Concrete
Mature Concrete	2B	3	12%	60% Concrete thinking
Concrete generalization	2B*	12	48.4%
Early formal	3A	8	32%	40% Abstract thinking
Mature formal	3A/3B	2	8%
Formal  generalization	3B	0	0	-
Total		25	100%	-

Table 5. Cognitive development levels of Al-Aqsa students -first year (Science Education)

Developmental stage	symbol	Frequency No. of students	Percent	Abstract/ concrete
Mature Concrete	2B	2	7.7%	57.7% Concrete
Concrete generalization	2B*	13	50%
Early formal	3A	9	34.6%	42.3% Abstract thinking
Mature formal	3A/3B	2	7.7%
Formal  generalization	3B	0	0
Total		26	100%	100%

According to literature, most of the students in the university should have a formal thinking level. It is strange to find, that about 60% of the first year students of SE Department in the University are not capable of formal thinking.

Being only 42% of the students in the first year are capable of formal thinking may indicate that university students showed a delay in reaching the expected level of cognitive development or abstract thinking. Also, the result may indicate that the selection process of students in science Education Department is random and does not follow specific criteria to select the best candidates.

Question 2:What are the abstract thinking levels of the fourth –year students of science education in Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa Universities?

The SRTs test was implemented on fourth- year students in SE Department in the two Universities. The Cognitive developmental levels of the samples are displayed in Table (6) and Table (7). It can be seen that 62 percent of the science education students at Al-Azhar are at the formal operational level (abstract level) , with the majority (51 percent) at the early formal (3A) level. There were only 7.2 percent at the Mature formal (3A/3B) level and 38 percent of the sample were at the concrete levels of cognitive development.

Table 6. Cognitive development levels of Al-Aqsa students -fourth- year students.

Developmental stage	symbol	Frequency/ No. of students	%	Abstract/ Concrete
Mature Concrete	2B	1	1.8%	38.2%
Concrete generalization	2B*	20	36.4%
Early formal	3A	28	51%	61.8%
Mature formal	3A/3B	4	7.2%
Formal  generalization	3B	2	3.6%
Total		55	100%	100%

There is 61.8% of the sample in fourth year in science in Al-Azhar University sample display formal operational thought, with the majority of these at the early formal (3A) level, and 11% in 3A/3B and 3B level.

Table 7. Cognitive development level (Profile) of Al-Aqsa fourth-year students.

Developmental stage	symbol	Frequency No. of students	Percent	Abst/ Concrete
Mature Concrete	2B	1	3.7%	33.4%
Concrete generalization	2B*	8	29.7%
Early formal	3A	12	44.4%	66.6%
Mature formal	3A/3B	5	18.5%
Formal  generalization	3B	1	3.7%
Total		27	100%	100%

In Al-Aqsa University, there were about 66.6% of the students having formal thinking (abstract thinking). Also, the percentage of students who had the concrete thinking level- was 33.4%. The percentage of the 3A/3B and 3B level is 22% (Table. 6). The percentage of abstract-thinker students in Al-Aqsa University is relatively higher than Al-Azhar University.

According to Piagetian levels, by the age of 14/15 years, most individuals should be at the formal operational level (abstract level). However, in Aqsa University sample only 66.6% were at abstract level and 33.4 % were at the concrete level of cognitive development. The results may indicate that university students showed a delay in reaching the expected level of cognitive development or abstract thinking.

The current results are different from the results shown by McCormack et al, (2009) in Ireland . The profile obtained by McCormack showed that almost 70 % of students in the first year of the university were at levels capable of formal operational thought, while in Al-Aqsa or Al-Azhar universities the formal thinking did not exceed 66.6%.

In summary, the results of cognitive development profiles of the two Palestinian universities showed that the spread of thinking ability was wider than expected. The sample showed that 33.3% of the four year students were classified as concrete thinkers (as 12 year olds) and the remaining (66.7%) were classified as abstract thinkers, who demonstrated formal operational thinking.

The data of the Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa universities indicated that the sample of university students tested was at cognitive developmental levels that were behind that expected for their age. That means majority of students were at levels which were insufficient for meaningful engagement and understanding of many Junior Certificate science and mathematics concepts. It is strange to find that: the late stages of abstract thinking (3B) was about 4%, which is highly under expected.

In Egypt, Ateewa (1985) showed that only 35% of the secondary school student had formal thinking level. In KSA , Magoshi (1990) reported that: only 30% of the first year students in college of education had formal thinking level. The best results of formal thinking level in the Arab Countries was in Bagdad (1987), where about 75% of the 12th grade students (18 years) had formal thinking level (Rasheed, 1988).

In UK, only 30% of the GSSC students (16 years) had formal thinking (Adey and Shayer, 1994). A more recent study by Ginsburg and Shayer (2007) showed that there was a large drop in their performance on cognitive tasks between 1975/76 and 2000/01 (Ginsburg and Shayer , 2007).

According to (Markwell & Courtney, 2006) the two levels which most college students operating at are concrete and formal operations. However, they stated that evidence suggests that close to half of entering college students are not operating at advanced stages of cognitive development and that postsecondary education plays a key role in exposing students to experiences that encourage cognitive development. Woolfolk (2007) stated, “Some students remain at the concrete operational stage throughout their study years, even throughout life.

Question 3: Are there any statistical differences at ( α ≤ 0.05 level) between the average score of Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa first year students on Science Reasoning test (SRTs).

Hypothesis :The claim being investigated is that: "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)".

Student t-Test was used to test this hypothesis. Table (8) shows that the significance value was 0.306. This show that there are no statistical differences at ( α ≤ 0.05 level) between the average score of Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa first year students on SRTs test.

Table 8. Student t-Test results, comparison between the means scores of Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa students on SRTs test (1st year science students).

 

groups	N	Means	Standard Deviation	T-Value	Significance
Al-Azhar	25	6.6640	.70763	1.035	.306	Not significant at level 0.05
Al-Aqsa	26	6.8846	.81765

Question 4: Are there any statistical differences on ( α ≤ 0.05 level) between the average score of Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa fourth year students on Science Reasoning test (SRTs).

Hypothesis :The claim being investigated is that: 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.

Student t-Test was used to test this hypothesis. The significance values were 0.01 and, the t-value was 4.090 (Table.9). This shows that there is statistical differences at ( α ≤ 0.05 level) between the average score of Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa fourth year students on SRTs test. Al-Aqsa scores is better than Al-Azhar scores on the SRTs test.

Table 9. Student t-Test results, comparison between the means scores of Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa students on SRTs test (4th year SE students)

groups	N	Means	Standard Deviation	T-Value	Significance
Al-Azhar	55	7.1074	.6436	4.090	.01	significant on 0.05 level
Al-Aqsa	25	7.6640	.6518

Question 6: Are there any statistical differences on ( α ≤ 0.05 level) between the average score of first year students and the fourth year students on Science Reasoning test SRT.

Hypothesis: The claim being investigated is that: 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.

In an analysis of the university- level differences in performance on SRT test by using t-Test, the results showed that there was a statistical significant difference at ( α ≤ 0.05 level) between the average scores of the students in the two levels on the test (SRT). The average scores of the fourth- year students are higher than the first year students (Table. 10).

Table 10. Student t-Test results, comparison between the means scores of first and fourth year students on SRTs test

groups	N	Means	Standard Deviation	T-Value	Significance
4th year	55	7.107	.6431	2.769	.007	significant at 0.01 level
1st year	25	6.66	.7076

Comparing the two cohorts, 66.6% of the fourth year students display formal operational thought (abstract thought) , while there is only 40% in the first year. An increase in the abstract thinking level of the students could be attributed to the university experience and the normal growth of the students. But the rate of the increase in abstract thinking level is still limited, compared to the expected in the fourth year.

Is there any statistical relationship between the average scores in SRT test and general achievement in science for fourth year students.

Hypothesis: The claim being investigated is that: There is no statistically significant relationship on (α ≥ 0.05 level ) between the average score in SRT test and general achievement in science for fourth year students.

The study tried to investigate the nature of the relationship between the average scores in SRT test and general achievement in science for fourth year students (80 students). Pearson coefficient was used to investigate the relationship. The result is summarized in the following table:

Significance level	Correlation Value  (r )
0.01	0.804

The results show that, the null hypothesis is rejected. That means, there is statistically significant relationship on (α ≥ 0.01 level ) between the average score in SRT test and general achievement in science for fourth year students.

This current study attempted to gather evidence about the link between abstract thinking skills and success in Science discipline. The upper results show a positive correlation between the scores of the students in the abstract thinking test with the marks achieved in the university (GPA) in science. The ability to think abstractly has long been considered a core skill for study in many sciences. However, the small numbers of students in the current study mean that wider research is needed.

There has been some research interest in gathering evidence of a link between abstract thinking and achievement in science (Armoni M, Gal-Ezer, 2007; Bennedsen, Caspersen. 2006). Robert (2010) and Kramer (2007) gathered evidence about the link between abstraction skills and success in the Computer Science (CS) discipline. This evidence may be used to improve the quality of education and selection process in the university. Conceptually there appears to be a more direct link between the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts and many aspects of Science.