The influence of age, gender and subject choice on logical and lateral thinking skills in science students at secondary level

Abstract

One of the primary goals in education is the development of a student's cognitive structure on acquiring knowledge and understanding through thoughts, experiences, and senses. The study was aimed at providing a better insight into the development of thinking skills in science students in local secondary schools. This research was carried out to outline in particular how the concept of lateral thinking and logical thinking skills may be used in order to enhance creative and analytical thinking in the classroom. The handling system of the mind imposes a number of imperfections, and lateral thinking, together with the use of logical thinking, is one way to compensate for some disadvantages. Children must not passively receive content knowledge but engage as active learners in thinking independently by combining logic with creativity and intuition (Phillips, 2011). To measure the levels of creative thinking and logical ability, students were presented with a test, which included different creative and analytical questions. The study was conducted through the analysis of the participants’ responses from both gender schools respectively. The study revealed that students with all three-science subjects, particularly boys, tend to think more outside the box with the use of logical and lateral thinking tests, than the rest of their peers.