LITERATURE REVIEW
Inquiry skills teaching and its relationship with UAE secondary school students’ critical thinking: Systematic review of science teachers’ perspectives
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Emirates College for Advanced Education, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Online publication date: 2024-02-01
Publication date: 2024-01-26
EURASIA J. Math., Sci Tech. Ed 2024;20(2):em2397
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Undoubtedly, due to continuous changes in time, environment, and demand, teaching techniques
in science education should be constantly explored, reflected upon, and improved. This paper
explores the current evidence related to secondary science teachers’ perspectives about teaching
inquiry skills in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). After a systematic Boolean search in online
databases, a research synthesis was conducted on the perspectives of secondary science teachers
regarding inquiry and critical thinking of students in the context of UAE. Eight quantitative and
qualitative studies were analyzed, and results showed that science teachers’ perspectives on
teaching inquiry skills varied across studies. Additionally, some factors should be addressed when
teaching critical thinking including socio-psycho factors (e.g., attitudes towards learning science,
teacher competence, professional development, student characteristics, teaching and learning
practices, and classroom management). This study recommends that further attention should be
paid to teaching theories and approaches such as active learning strategy, sociocultural theory,
constructivism theory, and affective filter hypothesis. These results are important since they
identify the need of reevaluation of inquiry-based teaching and learning of science (e.g., critical
thinking skill as a key one) in UAE secondary schools.
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