The effect of instructional software packages that was supported by educational interface with subject based critical thinking teaching feature on the critical thinking skill and the academic achievement in the science course

The general purpose of this study is to examine if there is a significant difference between the experiment group which uses instructional software packages that was supported by educational interface with subject based critical thinking feature and the control group which uses instructional software packages that was supported by educational interface without subject based critical thinking feature in the Science course of secondary school 6th grade students' critical thinking skills and their academic achievement. The research was designed according to pre-test post-test control-grouped experimental research model. The groups in the study were constituted as one experiment group and one control group design. The sampling of the research consists in total 50 students that attend to secondary school in Kahramanmaraş city center. The classrooms were leveled by their Critical Thinking Evaluation Rubric and Academic Achievement Pre-Test scores. The students in the experimental group has used "instructional software package that was supported by educational interface with subject based critical thinking feature" while the control group has used "instructional software packages that was supported by educational interface without subject based critical thinking feature". The participants of both experiment and control groups have answered the academic achievement test which serves as pre-test and post-test, critical thinking rubric and semi-structured interview questions. The data obtained during the study were analyzed via the SPSS 20,0 statistical analysis software package program. After providing arithmetic mean and standard deviation of data in a descriptive way, independent samples t-test and covariance analysis (ANCOVA) were conducted. Qualitative and quantitative data obtained from the research can be summarized as follows: 1. It can be said that the instructional software which has teaching critical thinking feature is more effective in the development of critical thinking skills comparing to instructional software which does not have teaching critical thinking feature. 2. It cannot be said that the instructional software which has teaching critical thinking feature is more effective or different in the academic achievement of the students comparing to instructional software which does not have teaching critical thinking feature. 3. At the at end of the study, it was observed that, the students in the experiment group who have used instructional software that was supported by educational interface with subject based critical thinking feature, have assimilated the concept of critical thinking actively use and express this skill, while they were not able define and exemplify critical thinking. On the other hand, it was also observed that, the students in the control group who have used instructional software that was supported by educational interface without subject based critical thinking feature, have no significant difference between their perceptions before and after using the instructional software. 4. At the end of the study, when the views of the students in the experiment group on the communication of the educational interface agent are analyzed, it can be said that the students in general have a positive attitude towards Sponge Bob in the instructional software, they attach importance to thinking process thanks to Sponge Bob and they think that this attitude is required in their daily lives and in other courses. The results of the study indicate that the critical thinking skills of the students in the experiment group which uses instructional software packages that was supported by educational interface with subject based critical thinking feature have increased, therefore in order to obtain more extensive information related to this, it can be suggested to design and test similar software for different school levels, different disciplines and different class levels.