Abstract:

This study was designed to investigate the effect of Paul-Elder’s critical thinking model on the academic achievement of science students at the secondary level in Balochistan, the province of Pakistan. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant difference between the mean post-test achievement scores of the experimental and control groups. The target population of the study was consisting of all the science students at the secondary level in the government boys’ high schools in Balochistan. One government boys’ high school in Quetta was considered as the accessible population of the study. The sample of the study was comprised of 72 students of 10th grade which was randomly selected from the accessible population of 123. The true experimental design was selected for the experiment. The teaching Method and ability of students were used as the independent variables. Academic achievement through Elements of reasoning and intellectual standards of Paul-Elder’s critical thinking model was considered as the dependent variable. The dependent variable was measured through a self-constructed Students’ Achievement Test (SAT) and was administered as a pre-test as well as post-test. The collected data were analyzed by using statistical techniques such as mean, standard deviation, and t-test through SPSS (V.20), after the teaching of eight weeks duration. A factorial design was used due to the presence of more than one independent variable. Recommendations were made by the researcher to develop the critical thinking skills in science students at the secondary level in Balochistan.

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