CONTRIBUTION OF MOBILE DEVICES TO STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING & PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS IN LABORATORY SETTINGS

The aim of this study is to evaluate the contribution of mobile devices to ninth-grade students' Critical thinking & Problem solving skills in laboratory settings. Students participated in a sequence of Microcomputer-based and mobile supported Laboratories, covering four different cognitive topics in Physics. Research instruments such as a reflective questionnaire, students' messages in a Viber group and a set of open-ended questions seem to enlighten the students' progress. Students' development of Critical thinking and Problem solving skills, over time in the Laboratory sequence, turns out by their way of manipulating, analysing, evaluating the experimental data and reflecting on the experimental procedures in the Viber group. Also, students' written responses to open-ended questions before and after the mobile-supported Labs revealed interesting data about their improvement.