A Conceptual Framework for Enhancing Critical Thinking in Biology Education

Thesis Abstract

The cultivation of critical thinking skills is increasingly recognized as essential for fostering scientific literacy and effective decision-making among biology students, yet there remains a significant gap in understanding how to systematically enhance these skills within biology education frameworks. This study aims to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework to improve critical thinking among secondary school biology students, addressing the need for evidence-based instructional strategies that promote higher-order cognitive abilities. The specific objectives include identifying core components that influence critical thinking in biology, examining existing pedagogical approaches, and synthesizing these insights into an integrated framework tailored to biology curricula. Employing a mixed-methods research design, the study integrates qualitative and quantitative approaches to ensure robust and comprehensive insights. The qualitative phase involves a thematic analysis of interviews and focus group discussions with 20 biology educators and 30 students across five secondary schools to explore perceptions, challenges, and instructional practices related to critical thinking. The quantitative phase employs a survey design with a structured questionnaire administered to a stratified random sample of 300 biology students selected from 15 secondary schools to measure baseline critical thinking disposition, participation in pedagogical strategies, and academic achievement. The questionnaire’s validity and reliability are established through expert validation and pilot testing, yielding a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.87. Data analysis employs thematic analysis for qualitative data to identify key themes and constructs, while quantitative data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis via SPSS to determine relationships between instructional variables and critical thinking outcomes. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is employed to develop and validate the proposed conceptual framework, thereby elucidating the causal pathways and interrelated components influencing critical thinking development in biology students. Expected findings include the identification of key pedagogical components such as inquiry-based learning, collaborative problem-solving, use of modeling tools, and metacognitive strategies as significant predictors of critical thinking enhancement. The study anticipates that the SEM analysis will validate a nuanced, multi-factor framework illustrating how curriculum design, instructional practices, and student engagement converge to promote higher-order cognition in biology. The findings are expected to reveal that targeted instructional interventions, grounded in Bloom’s revised taxonomy and Vygotsky’s social constructivism theory, substantially contribute to developing critical thinking. This research significantly contributes to the knowledge base by providing an empirically validated, theoretically grounded framework that educators and curriculum developers can implement to systematically foster critical thinking in biology education. It offers practical guidelines for instructional design and policy formulation aimed at enhancing scientific literacy and cognitive skills among secondary school students. The study concludes with recommendations for integrating the framework into teacher training programs, curriculum development processes, and assessment practices, as well as proposing avenues for longitudinal and experimental research to test the framework’s efficacy across diverse educational contexts.