CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

The educational system in the Philippines has experience a major shift within a

few decades. During 1970’s, there was a wide discrepancy in the literacy rates of the

various regions in the country. Today’s Philippines education system it seems that the

United States had the most significant impact on the Filipino school system, with many

professionals and professor having received their education at university in the US.

Technology use starting to gain momentum in the overall education of the Philippines in

1999.

While historically education in the Philippines has been plagued with high

dropout and illiteracy rates, the Kindergarten Act of 2012 and the Enhanced Basic

Education Act 2014 seem to be making an impact on students. Those pieces of

legislation extended the required number of years in formal education from 10 to 13,

adopting the k-12 model that’s relatively standard around the world. This added a

mandatory year of Kindergarten and two mandatory years of senior high school, both of

which were previously non-compulsory and were often not attended. Since new

legislation was introduced in 2012, students are required to begin school kindergarten,

typically by age of five. They are then required to continue their schooling until they

graduate from grade 12, usually at age 18.

The enhancement of the quality of basic education in the Philippines is urgent

and critical. The implemented of the K-12 model in the country is an educational system

for elementary and secondary education patterned after United States, Canada, and
some of the Australia. The Department of Education (DepEd) reasons out that it is the

right time to adopt a K-12 system, attributing the low achievement score and quality of

basic education t the present school setup. The DepEd appears determined to enact the

program with its proposed budget catering mostly to prepare the grounds for its

eventual implementation.

In the implementation of K-12 Program, all subject matter are emphasizes the

developing of the critical thinking and problem solving. However, critical thinking usually

comes when the students ask why, rather than taking what they learn at face value.

Critical thinking leads to the skills that can be learned, mastered and used. It is the

rational examination of assumptions, inferences, principles, arguments, ideas,

conclusions, issues beliefs actions and statements. According to Polya, problem solving

a way a difficulty, around an obstacle and finding solution to a problem that is unknown.

These goals are to be achieved with an organized and rigorous curriculum content, a

well-defined set of high level skills and processes, desirable values and attitudes, and

appropriate tools, recognizing as well as different contexts of Filipino learners.

The definitions of critical thinking that have emerged from the cognitive

psychological approach include the following:

 “the mental processes, strategies, and representation people use to solve

problems, makes decisions and learn new concepts” (Sternberg, 1986, p.3 in Lai,

2011, p.8)

 “the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a

desirable outcome” (Halpern, 1998, p.450 in Lai, 2011,p.8 and

  “seeing both sides of an issue, being open to new evidence that your ideas,

reason dispassionately, demanding that claims be backed by evidence, deducing

and inferring conclusions from available facts, solving problems, and so forth”

(Willingham, 2007, p.8 in Lain, 2011, p.8) to name a few.

Meanwhile, in philosophy for instance, critical thinking is defined as:

 “ the propensity and skill to engage in activity with reflective skepticism” (McPeck,

1981 in Lai, 2011, p.6);

 “reflective and reasonable thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or

do” (Ennis, 1985, p 45 in Lai, 2011, p. 6);

In addition, it can be considered as the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that

increase the probability of a desirable outcome. Facione (1990) identified six cognitive

skills as central to the concept of critical thinking. These skills include interpretation,

analysis, explanation, evaluation, self-regulation and inference. Critical thinking skills

therefore are skills that enable one to analyze and synthesize information to solve

problems in broad range of areas.

Irfaner, S. (2006) concluded that the lack of critical thinking skills utilized within the

classroom greatly diminishes the students “chance for success”. The study identified the

gaps in the students’ understanding of information, quantified their ability to compose

their knowledge of the material, and for students to understand the material enough to

create an insightful question showcasing their comprehension of the material. The study

also determined if the teacher changed the lesson s or approaches based upon the

students need for extra discussions or questions.

 Marcut, I. (2005) supported that students who are trained in critical thinking skills

significantly improved positively in their performance than those who were not trained.

Moreover, Fisher (2003) highlighted that the critical thinking skills training had

helped in stimulating students’ intellectual capability and make them engaged more in

classroom activity. Critical thinking is a skill that should be taught early, practiced often

and should not be pushed from core of content designs (Troitter, 2009). The acquisition

of content typically requires choosing whether a concept is true and then applying that

truth to a given situation. Critical thinking goes beyond and require evaluating,

questioning, and synthesizing new information.

Meanwhile, Knodt, 2009, stated that students have a natural curiosity to explore

content beyond a lower level rote knowledge to a more complex higher- level of thinking

that analyzes and evaluates. Innovative thinking is enhanced when natural

inquisitiveness students bring to the learning process is inspired, affirmed, and

cultivated. When given opportunity to ask and explore openly, students learn and thrive.

This opportunity must be provided by the educator if students are to learn to be critical

thinkers rather than critics. Opportunities must be provided for students to voice

opinions and objections to topics rather than seek right or wrong answers. This

brainstorming process is necessary to fuel the continuing curiosity of the learner.

Content knowledge is best taught using natural curiosity because there is innate desire

within everyone to learn challenging thinking (Healy, 1990). Critical thinking, higher

order thinking, and problem solving make learning motivating ,energizing and fun

(Jenkins, 2009).