Analysis of Cognitive Acceleration Effects in Implementing the Thinking Science Program to Secondary School Students by Delayed Test

摘要

The purpose of this study was to investigate cognitive acceleration effect of the experimental group over three years compared with the control group through the 'Thinking Science' program in the middle school students. The 'Thinking Science' program was implemented to 168 students in 7th grade over a period of two years. After implementation of the 'Thinking Science' program, the improvement of formal thinking ability of the students was almost twice examined with SRT VII as the post-test and the delayed test. It was shown that by the end of the implementation period the experimental group had achieved a significantly greater gain score in levels of cognitive development than had the control group. In the subsequent year during which there was no farther implementation, the experimental group continued to develop at the same rate as the control group. However, it is clear that much more experimental students in mature concrete operational stage shifted to formal operational stage in delayed test. The results were also analyzed by gender, and cognitive levels of the students. In the post-test, the ratio of girls that shifted to formal operation stage in the experimental group increased as compared with the ratio of boys, while, in the delayed test cognitive level of boys was more effective than that of girls.