The Relationship between Critical Thinking Skills and Quantitative Reasoning among Junior Secondary School Students in Nigeria (original) (raw)

Evidence suggests scarcity of investigations on the relationship between critical thinking (CT) and students' achievement in quantitative reasoning (QR) in Nigeria. This correlational study adopted a quantitative model to investigate critical thinking skills as correlates of achievement in quantitative reasoning among 1500 junior secondary school students in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study involved three research questions and two valid and reliable instruments {California Critical Thinking Skills Test-Form B (CCTST with KR-20=0.88 and the Quantitative Reasoning Achievement Test (QRAT with KR-20=0.92)} were used for data collection. Data collected were analysed by deploying the statistics of mean, standard deviation, Pearson productmoment correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis at 5% level of significance. The outcome of the study showed a prevalent shortfall of quantitative reasoning among the junior secondary school students in Lagos State. Results showed statistically weighty associations amid critical thinking and its gauges (analysis, deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, evaluation, and inference) with students' quantitative reasoning achievement. In addition, the five gauges or indicators were weighty forecasters of quantitative reasoning achievement among the junior secondary school students. Based on the outcomes of this study, it was recommended that mathematics teachers should abstain from deploying teachercentered pedagogies that are hostile to students' comprehension of mathematical concepts and critical thinking. In conclusion, mathematics teachers should endeavour to integrate everyday life experience of the students into the mathematics taught in the classroom to enable purposeful utilization of mathematics.