Cognitive intervention strategy to improve the development of thinking skills

Abstract

This research implemented a cognitive intervention strategy to improve the development of thinking skills in the 5th-grade students of San Isidro Educational Institution, which is located in Montería (Córdoba-Colombia). It made emphasis in the classification and comparison skills. It is a quasi-experimental study, whose results were analyzed with Wilcoxon and U of Mann-Whitney nonparametric tests. To measure the cognitive level of two groups of students, an experimental and control, before and after the intervention two instruments called pretest and posttest were designed. Both tests include 20 questions from the language area and 20 questions from mathematics. In order to be solved they require the use of the comparison and classification skills. The intervention consisted of a systematic work based on two booklets, these were designed taking into consideration the cognitive Modifiability theories of Feuerstein, as well as complementary exercises based on the work of some authors and web resources inspired by Feuerstein, who are cited in the text; one with exercises that enhance the ability to compare and the other to classify, these booklets were adapted to the needs of the population under study with questions and practical workshops. The results of the pretest showed both groups with insufficient performance in the development of thinking skills related to classification and comparison, after the intervention, in the posttest, the control group maintained a level similar to the previously one; while the experimental group, who presented insufficient performance in the pretest, improved significantly.