The Critical Thinking Skills and the Academic Performance of Grade 11 Academic Strand Students in Camp Vicente Lim Integrated School

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Critical thinking plays an important role in people's lives. It becomes essential for a student as it helps in comprehending lessons and accomplishing tasks. Considering the need to build the society that possess higher level of cognitive abilities, educational institutions considered the development of their students' critical thinking skills through providing lectures and activities that test their skills. Itis understood that being able to think critically enables students to perform well; however, it was found that the current classroom appears to be ineffective in developing students' thinking skills. From this, the researcher aimed to know if there is really a significant relationship between a students' ability to think critically and his academic performance; if the development of the thinking skill contributes to the increase in the students' academic performance.

METHODS

The respondents of the study were the 115 grade 11 academic strand students of Camp Vicente Lim Integrated School whereas the researcher computed the sample size for each section to distribute the questionnaires equally. The descriptive-correlational method of research was used with the questionnaires as its primary tool in data gathering. Statistical treatment applied to the research data were weighted mean and Pearson's r using SPSS 23.

RESULTS

The researcher found out that the respondents' level of critical thinking skills was very high in terms of analytical thinking, logical reasoning and problem solving skills. More so, the researcher concluded that majority of the respondents have a very satisfactory academic performance. A moderate positive correlation was found between the level of critical thinking and academic performance.

DISCUSSIONS

The researcher concluded that there is a significant relationship between the critical thinking skills and the academic performance of grade 11 academic strand students. It is a proof that students with critical thinking skills can give an exemplary performance academically. That is why it is a challenge for the future study to know how to improve students in terms of thinking analytically, problem solving and logical reasoning as well.