Examination of the relationship between mathematical and critical thinking skills and academic achievement

Abstract

In today’s world, it is important for individuals to have critical thinking and mathematical thinking skills, which are high-level thinking skills. In advanced education systems, it is among the important priorities that students not only learn knowledge but also acquire high-level thinking skills. This study aims to examine the relationship between mathematical and critical thinking skills and academic achievements of secondary school students. In the study, relational screening model, one of the quantitative research models, was used. The research was carried out in a province located in the southern region of Turkey in the 2022-2023 academic year with students studying in secondary school (n=346) who were determined by maximum variation method selected from the types of purposeful sampling. Mathematical thinking scale and critical thinking scale was used as a data collection tool. In the process of analyzing the data, one-way analysis of variance and regression analysis techniques were used. According to the research findings, it was observed that there was a relationship between the critical thinking and mathematical thinking skills of the students, both the critical and mathematical thinking skills of the students did not differ significantly according to gender, and the mathematical thinking skills differed significantly according to the grade level. In addition, it was concluded that both mathematical and critical thinking skills of the students increased according to their grade levels. In addition, students’ critical skills and academic achievement together explained 25.0% of the total variance of mathematical thinking skills. In other words, as students’ critical thinking skills and academic achievement increase, their mathematical thinking skills also increase.