Formal Logical Thinking Skills and Their Relationship with the Acquisition of Mathematical Competencies in Middle School Students

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze the formal logical thinking skills on students in 11th grade and to determine if there is a relationship between these skills and the results obtained in the Saber 11 tests in mathematics, based on the TOLT test (Tobin & Capie, 1981). The population was 83 students from two private schools and one public school, 79 of them were taken for the analysis since the 4 missing students did not take the Saber 11 tests. For the analysis, correlations were applied between the variables of the TOLT test, and the mathematics results obtained in the saber 11 test. Furthermore, an ordinary least squares econometric model was estimated to determine the factors that may or not influence formal logical thinking skills.

The results indicate that students during secondary education do not develop formal thinking skills. They are not yet prepared to successfully solve problems of variable control, combinatorial, probability, proportionality, and correlations. As a result, it was also obtained that several factors can influence the students' thinking skills in mathematics, such as the parents' education which had a high incidence index in the results.