Magical Thoughts in the Scientific Fair Youth: an Approach to the Development of Explanation

Abstract

Critical thought is a modality that is expected to be of frequent use for those individuals who develop activities focused on the use of the scientific method. In the particular case of students and teachers who participate in scientific fairs presenting research projects, it was evidenced that magical thinking and critical thinking are present in this group of teaching individuals and students. The application of a dichotomous questionnaire indicated for four categories of subjects evaluated, that the percentage distribution of the use of the PM (magical thinking) and the PC (critical thinking) are in a ratio of ap­proximately 1: 3 (25% PM and 75% PC). In teachers of secondary education the ratio is 1: 4. Significant differences were found in relation to the use of critical thinking (PC) considering gender in basic educa­tion (P <0.05). In contrast, in high school students, the PC value does not present differences, while in PM there are significant differences (P <0.05). This research found that in the students and teachers who participated in the youth scientific fair, the PM presented a frequency of 25.8% in the elementary stu­dents, 25% in the average ones, while in the elementary teachers there was an evident 26.4% and 16.5% in the average. Basic teachers obtained the highest use value of the PM. These values are consistent with the literature on this. The results suggest the need to redesign teaching and assessment strategies in order to identify early the establishment of the rationales that determine the recurrence of magical thinking over critical thinking, as revealed by the work of the participants in this national science fair.