The Effect of Critical Thinking Training on Cognitive Flexibility, Academic Vitality and Academic Self-Concept in Female Students

Objextive:

The present study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the effect of critical thinking training on cognitive flexibility, academic vitality and academic self-concept in female high school students of the first year.

The current research was practical in terms of its purpose and semi-experimental in terms of collection method with a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of this research was the female students of the first secondary school in the 5th district of Tehran in the academic year 2023-2024 and the sample size included 30 students (15 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group) and the available sampling method was used. became. In order to collect data, cognitive flexibility questionnaires of Dennis and Vanderwaal (2010), academic vitality of Martin and Marsh (2008) and academic self-concept of Yasen Chen (2004) were used, and the educational content of critical thinking was based on the views of Myers (1986) and Fisher and Hypel (1984) was prepared and given to the experimental group in 8 one-and-a-half-hour (90-minute) training sessions. The method of data analysis was multivariate covariance analysis.

Based on the findings of this research, there is a significant difference at the 0.01 level between the average scores of the subjects of the experimental and control groups in the post-test stage in the variables of cognitive flexibility, academic vitality and academic self-concept.

Therefore, it can be said that critical thinking training can be a method to increase cognitive structures such as cognitive flexibility, and motivational factors such as academic vitality and academic self-concept.