The Effect of the 5E Instructional Design Model on Students’ Critical Thinking in an Educational Psychology Course

Introduction: This study aimed to examine the effect of the 5E Instructional Design Model on critical thinking of the students taking the educational psychology course. The main hypothesis of the study was that the critical thinking level of the students taught through 5E teaching method is different from that of the students through the traditional teaching methodS.The population included all the undergraduate students in the Psychology and Educational Science of Tehran Kharazmi University in the academic year, 2012-2013. Materials and Methods: The study was of the quasi-experimental design. Simple aviable sampling was used. The sample consisted of 36 people divided into two groups each with18 students. The data were collected, using California (form B) critical thinking. The validity of the test was calculated, using internal consistency validity. The reliability of the test was found to be 0.68, using Kuder-Richardson.California (form B) questionnaire was given to both of the groups as the pretest. The experimental group was taught through 5E Instructional Design Model and the control group through the lecture method for 7 weeks. The critical thinking post-test was given to both groups. The collected data were analyzed using the software SPSS and covariance analysis was applied to the groups, at the beginning and at the end of the semester as pre-test and post-tests Results: The results of the study indicated that the level of critical thinking was higher in the group taught through 5E Instructional Design Model than that in the control group (p < 0.01). Moreover, the analysis, evaluation and inference skills were significantly higher in the 5E group than those in the control group (p < 0.01).Conclusion: Overall, we can conclude that instructional design models derived from the constructivism theory of integration and instructional design model 5E, facilitating critical thinking, and learning in instruction.