Developing students' critical thinking skills through the social studies course In the light of teachers' self-efficacy A field study at the intermediate stage in the city of Batna

Abstract

The study aimed to identify the relationship between the self-efficacy of the teacher of social subjects and the development of critical thinking skills among students, as well as to reveal the differences between teachers of high self-efficacy and low self-efficacy in their development of critical thinking, and to reveal the differences between their students on the critical thinking test. The researcher relied on the self-efficacy scale and the critical thinking development questionnaire designed by her, and applied the two tools to a sample of 84 teachers, and the critical thinking test (designed by the researcher) was applied to a sample of students whose size was 375 students. The researcher followed the descriptive approach, and the study reached the following results: There is an inverse relationship between the self-efficacy of the social subjects teacher and the development of the thinking skills of his pupils. There are no statistically significant differences between high self-efficacy and low self-efficacy teachers of social subjects in their development of critical thinking among students. - There are no statistically significant differences between the average scores of students of social subjects teachers who are high in self-efficacy on the critical thinking test and the scores of students of social subjects teachers who are low in self-efficacy on the same test. In light of the previous results, the researcher formulated a number of recommendations and suggestions, among which we mention holding training courses for middle school teachers to train them on methods and strategies for developing critical thinking among students - Creating a social and educational climate within the school that encourages the agitation of thinking - Modifying and formulating curricula with a new formulation that helps to develop thinking.