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by Autumn G. Gabriel Edd (Author)
There is an inconsistency with urban middle school teachers' perceptions about promoting critical thinking skills within middle schools in a large metropolitan area. By implementing differentiated approaches in mathematics classes that incorporates critical thinking skills, such as modeling activities, open-ended questioning, using Bloom's taxonomy, cooperative grouping, computer-based instruction and diagnostic and adaptive teaching, instead of traditional work-book exercises, student's scores in mathematics would increase, but also urban teachers' insight about the importance of critical thinking skills would also give credibility to usefulness. Thinking critically in problem situations is a skill that has received increasing attention as an educational goal (Incikabi, Tuna, & Biber, 2013; Goodchild, Fuglestad, & Jaworski, 2013). The National Commission on Standards declared that the teaching of critical thinking skills was crucial to producing students who were not only ready for college, but also for the workforce (Kaplan & Kies, 1995). The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore urban middle school mathematics teachers' perceptions about incorporating critical thinking skills within mathematics classes daily. The study consisted of fifteen 8th grade mathematics teachers who taught African American males in a large metropolitan city in Georgia. Achieving the purpose may not only assist mathematics teachers in urban middle schools with teaching critical thinking skills, but also provide insight into how urban middle school mathematics teachers feel if teaching critical thinking skills to African American males and other ethnic groups does promote transformation of knowledge. Tsui (2002) suggested that establishing effective critical thinking skills was essential for student's success at the post-secondary level; perhaps these critical thinking skills could also be essential to students' success at the middle school level in a mathematics class. An educational objective of school systems should be to develop students who are independent enough to think critically about academic subjects and real-world situations (Whittaker, 2014; Jensen, 2013). The study contributed to challenges and extend theory by first analyzing which theoretical methods used in public schools in large metropolitan cities in mathematics classes were not effectively working in educating African American males. The descriptive phenomenological study conveyed through questionnaires the lived experiences and perceptions of urban middle school mathematics teachers from their own perspectives, if incorporating critical thinking skills within mathematical lessons assisted with transferring knowledge. The study showed teachers' perception of teaching critical thinking skills did promote transference of knowledge, and the same critical thinking skills employed by middle school mathematics teachers assisted African American males with being successful in middle school mathematics classrooms. This field of study is valuable to leaders because it presented an alternative teaching strategy for not only closing the achievement gap in mathematics, but also enabling African American males to think critically about mathematics. Understanding how teachers felt about teaching critical thinking skills at the middle school level provided leaders with not only valuable information about the necessity of incorporating critical thinking skills in the curriculum, but also challenged the one-size fits all approach to educating African American males.
