The South African Department of Basic Education (2011) has articulated the need for
learners to think critically. The development of critical thinking skills has therefore been
explicitly included in various education policies, such as the National Curriculum
Statement Grades R-12. Technology, a relatively new subject in South African
schools, provides many opportunities to foster critical thinking skills through, for
example, problem solving.
Technology offers a wide spectrum of problems – ranging from well-structured to illstructured
problems. Well-structured problems are constrained problems with
convergent solutions and are the most commonly found problems in schools and
universities, but ill-structured problems have multiple possible solutions and solutions
paths, which often lead to uncertainty about, for example, the concepts, rules, and
principles required to solve the problem. This is particularly true with regard to teaching
technology, where there is the added complexity resultant from the designing of
solutions (artefacts) to ill-structured problems. This calls for teachers with certain
habits of mind, who will be able to nurture a positive disposition toward critical thinking
in learners. Facione (2000) points out that engendering the desire to use critical
thinking as a means of problem solving prepares the ground for teaching and learning
critical thinking skills. Teachers, however, must be willing to use these opportunities
to cultivate critical thinking skills in the classroom.
While much research has been done on Critical Thinking skills, there is a paucity of
literature about teachers’ disposition toward Critical Thinking. This study sought to
investigate technology teachers’ disposition toward critical thinking with reference to
their habits of mind. Profiling technology teachers’ disposition toward critical thinking
can enhance our understanding of the extent to which they are positively or negatively
disposed toward critical thinking (CT) in terms of their habits of mind. Such
understanding can inform, inter alia, teacher training and curricula in order to
reciprocally enhance critical thinking skills and the required habits of mind needed to
teach technology The study used a survey design to investigate South African Technology teachers’
disposition toward CT. Grades 8, and 9 technology teachers were targeted; they were
invited via an email to participate in the study in which standard ethical protocols were
followed. A link in the email directed the participants to an online survey collecting data
with 42 statements. Participants were asked to rate their level of agreement with each
statement on a six-point scale. The statements were derived from the seven habits of
mind as identified by Facione. These are: Self-confidence, Inquisitiveness,
Systematicity, Analyticity, Truth-seeking, Open-mindedness and Maturity of
Judgment. Half of the statements were formulated to express a clearly favourable
disposition toward CT, while the other half were framed to be clearly unfavourable.
The frequency of responses in terms of each scale for each statement was counted in
order to reveal trends regarding their habits of mind.
The research findings reveal that this sample seems to be positively disposed toward
CT. The habits of mind that recorded the highest scores were Self-confidence,
Inquisitiveness, and Systematicity. The habits of mind that recorded the lowest scores
were Open-mindedness and Maturity of Judgment. Females outperformed males in
four of the seven habits of mind. Male and female participants scored an equal balance
percentage toward Self-confidence and male participants outperformed females in
Truth-seeking and Analyticity. Further research is needed to investigate how the
disposition and practice of technology teachers encourage critical thinking skills in the
classroom. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria 2019. / pt2021 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/80461 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Badenhorst, Douw Hendrik |
| Contributors | Rauscher, Willem Johannes |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Rights | © 2021 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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