The availability of critical thinking skills among secondary stage talented students in Sana'a and Taiz

Abstract

The current research targeted to identify the availability of some critical thinking skills of talented students in high schools in Sana’a and Taiz and disclosure of the relationship between the sex (male –female) , the academic achievement and critical thinking skills.

The number of the sample was (121) students , by (61) gifted male students from the Almethak school in Sana’a and (60) gifted female students from Zaid Almuchka school in Taiz.

To achieve the research objectives the researchers used the test of Watson / Glaser to measure the critical thinking skills (conclusion - to identify the assumptions - inference - Interpretation - Evaluating arguments), which translated into Arabic by Jaber Abdel-Hamid and Yahya Hndam and adapted to the yemeni environment by Sarah ALhammadi (2002).

The research revealed that sample of the critical thinking skills (each skill separately and skills as a whole) did not reach the acceptable limit educationally , as there were no statistically significant differences between the mean scores of male and female in the test of critical thinking skills as a whole but there were differences in the skill of inference in favor of a male and the skill knowledge assumptions in favor of a female, as there was no correlation of statistical significance between degrees of the sample in test of the critical thinking skills ( for each sub-test and the test as a whole) and their academic achievement.

The research has recommended the need to raise the level of the gifted students in the Republic of Yemen and to provide them enrichment materials which develop their thinking in general, and particularly the critical thinking.