The Effectiveness of Digital Educational Platforms on Enhancing Critical Thinking for Students in Primary School
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Abstract
The study aims to investigate the effectiveness of using digital educational platforms in developing critical thinking skills among primary-stage students through: identifying the difference in the mean post-test scores on the critical thinking test between the experimental group and the control group, and identifying the difference in the mean scores of the experimental group on the critical thinking test between the pre-test and post-test applications.The study adopted a quasi-experimental approach and included fourth-grade students from the primary education stage in Hama Governorate. A sample of 30 male and female students from Al-Manara Virtual School was selected to represent the experimental group, while 30 male and female students from Al-Wahda Al-Arabiya Governmental School (First Cycle) represented the control group.To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher developed a test to measure the critical thinking skills identified in the study. The test consisted of 18 essay-type questions, and its psychometric properties were verified.The findings revealed that the mean score of the experimental group in the post-test application reached 60.4 with a standard deviation of 6.2, whereas the mean score of the control group was 51.8 with a standard deviation of 5.9. The calculated t-value was 6.18, with a significance level of 0.000. This indicates that: there is a statistically significant difference at the significance level of 0.05 between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups in the post-test application in favor of the experimental group.The results also showed that the mean score of the experimental group in the pre-test application was 42.5 out of 72 marks, while this mean increased in the post-test application to 60.4 marks. The calculated t-value was 14.92, with a significance level of 0.000. This indicates that there is a statistically significant difference at the significance level of 0.05 between the mean scores of the experimental group in the pre-test and post-test applications in favor of the post-test application.
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