Fostering Critical Thinking across the Primary School’s Curriculum in the European Schools System (original) (raw)
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Teachers' Perceptions of Critical Thinking in Primary Education
2022
To form critical citizens, it is crucial to thoroughly integrate critical thinking into school curricula. Despite this, there is no consensus among teachers about what the concept entails or how they should be trained to put it into practice, especially in primary education. Therefore, using a qualitative research method, the study's main aim is to identify how primary school teachers perceive the concept of critical thinking and what aspects within their professionalisation as teachers contribute to fostering pupils' critical thinking in classroom practice. Twenty-one teachers working in three European Schools in Brussels (Belgium) were questioned through semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis was conducted to identify, analyse and report on key themes. The results show that teachers consider the mapping of reasoning, group discussion, and active learning as practices that promote critical thinking among pupils. However, respondents indicate that despite previous exposure to the concept through project-based learning and 'Philosophy for Children', they still need support through peer learning and exchanges of best practices to fully promote critical thinking among pupils.
What is Needed to Develop Critical Thinking in Schools
• Starting with the fact that school education has failed to become education for critical thinking and that one of the reasons for that could be in how education for critical thinking is conceptualised, this paper presents: (1) an analysis of the predominant approach to education for critical thinking through the implementation of special programs and methods, and (2) an attempt to establish different approaches to education for critical thinking. The overview and analysis of understanding education for developing critical thinking as the implementation of special programs reveal that it is perceived as a decontextualised activity , reduced to practicing individual intellectual skills. Foundations for a different approach, which could be characterised as the 'education for critical competencies' , are found in ideas of critical pedagogy and open curriculum theory. This approach differs from the predominant approach in terms of how the nature and purpose of critical thinking and education for critical thinking are understood. In the approach of education for critical competencies, it is not sufficient to introduce special programs and methods for the development of critical thinking to the existing educational system. This approach emphasises the need to question and reconstruct the status, role, and power of pupils and teachers in the teaching process, but also in the process of curriculum development.
Institut Jean Nicod CNRS EHESS PSL University, 2020
This report is the result of Work package 1 (WP1) of the EEC-Critical Thinking Education project (ANR-18-CE28-0018) The objective of the present Report is to share the results of the EEC-Critical Thinking Education Project Work Package 1, dedicated to a. defining and characterizing critical thinking, b. identifying its specific cognitive underpinnings (naturalizing critical thinking), and c. deriving consequences for critical thinking education and transferring the research to real world activities. The EEC-Critical Thinking Education Project (ANR-18-CE28-0018) In France, Critical thinking (CT) is a core aim of education, involving disciplines such as science, history, language, and transdisciplinary subjects such as Media and Communication Education and Moral and Civil Education. However, even though educational projects are multiplying, there are still very few scientific studies evaluating the methods proposed by the different actors. Nor are these methods systematically based on existing scientific knowledge. The present project aims to fill this gap by designing and testing educational interventions for the development of critical thinking, thus establishing an evidence-based approach to critical thinking education. As a first step, the project aims to converge towards a more precise definition of critical thinking. It also aims to produce a scale for evaluating critical thinking. Finally, it proposes to disseminate these resources to institutions and teachers, as well as to the media and thes general public. Objectives and work of Work Package 1 (WP1)-Theoretical analysis. Define and characterize critical thinking.
2015
Our study aimed to identify which are the most appropriate methods and procedures to develop critical thinking in young schoolchildren. In the organization of teaching, we identified two contexts of analysis: static context and a dynamic context (procedural). Static context we localized to the teaching-learning for critical thinking. Here we aimed to identify the methods of developing the critical thinking framework specific to each stage of the development of critical thinking. Dynamic or procedural context is identifiable by methods that can be activated with specific tasks at all stages of teaching and learning. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of The Association “Education for tomorrow” / [Asociatia “Educatie pentru maine”].
This discussion paper was written for the participants at the University of Northampton, School of Education Partnership Conference 2015. It was written in order to facilitate discussion about the teaching of critical thinking skills. In this paper I first describe a small project involving four current teachers and one lecturer regarding the teaching of critical thinking skills in their specific context. The project involves looking at how this is done across a wide range of age groups and searching for teaching strategies and approaches that can inform teaching in other contexts. I first identify issues and challenges that this small group identified in terms of teaching critical thinking. I then describe and discuss a workshop for primary teachers where I presented two strategies commonly used in the secondary and sixth form classroom. I refer to their responses as to whether these strategies could also be relevant for the primary classroom. The two strategies referred to are the: origin, purpose, value, limitations approach to using historical sources and the zones of relevance (Counsell, 1998) approach to planning essay writing. Oh and if you search there is a picture of a rhinoceros in this paper too.
DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING - WISHFUL THINKING OR REALITY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Education and New Developments, 2023
One of the trends in the current curriculum design and goals of teaching methodology at all levels of education is the development of critical thinking as one of the highest priorities of educators. The authors of the article reflect on the extent to which the development of critical thinking is implemented in primary schools as part of the foreign languages teaching (FLT). In some countries of continental Europe, it reflects their long history of transmissive and encyclopedic education and its only very slowly weakening influence on the current training of future specialists. Is the development of critical thinking still just a teacher's wishful thinking or a phrase about cross-cutting competence in the school curriculum? What is the cause of this phenomenon? The article presents the results of a content analysis of current foreign language teaching curricula in the area of critical thinking implementation, and compares them with experiences with development of critical thinking of primary school teachers. The authors bring ideas for the development of critical thinking in the teaching of foreign languages in primary schools.
EXPLORING HOW SECONDARY TEACHERS PROMOTE CRITICAL THINKING
International Journal of Arts and Science, 2017
This paper outlines my case study experience of using a variety of teaching strategies in a Pakistani classroom context. The study aimed at exploring how secondary teachers promote students' critical thinking whilst using the Muslim Societies and Civilizations (MSC) module of the Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS) Secondary Curriculum. In order to explore this, teachers' perceptions and experiences regarding critical thinking, the teaching strategies which they implemented to promote critical thinking and the challenges they faced were examined. For the purpose of this study, a qualitative research structure was adopted through the use of three data collection tools. These methods included pre and post-research individual interviews of teachers, analysis of their lesson plans, classroom observations of the teachers followed by my own reflections, and post-observation discussions and teachers' reflective journals. The findings revealed that teachers had theoretical understanding of critical thinking and based on that they planned strategies such as, teachers' questions, classroom discussions and group activities which influenced students' thinking abilities and were helpful in promoting critical thinking for secondary students. While teachers faced challenges in implementing strategies to promote critical thinking, overall, both students and teachers felt the positive impact of these teaching pedagogies on their learning.
Critical Thinking Development in the Milieu of High School Education
2019
The need for developing critical thinking (CT) has been broadly discussed and its importance acknowledged in a myriad of disciplines. This quantitative study attempts to investigate the level of critical thinking skills as well as the impact of grade level, gender, and nationality on the development of these skills among 279 Bosnian-Herzegovinian and Turkish high school students. The instrument used for this research is a survey questionnaire which consists of 17 items made up of four subscales: Convictions that inhibit critical thinking development (CICTD), Application of critical thinking (ACT), Class activities that prevent critical thinking (CAPCT), and Teacher support for critical thinking development (TSCTD). The findings reveal that students' nationality and grade level significantly impact critical thinking development, whereas students' gender does not have a significant effect on the development of CT skills. These findings are widely applicable as they can be used by language teachers and teachers of general courses to contribute to their students' critical thinking development by structuring their syllabi accordingly. The findings also point to an urgent need to revise the existing curricula and design more adequate ones which would include a greater number of activities fostering critical thinking skills.
European Journal of Teacher Education
Recent educational policies, national reports, and voluminous literature stress that critical thinking (CT) is an essential skill in any stage of schooling for producing critical thinkers and ensuring better learning. The importance of teaching CT has been raised in teacher education programmes because students are supposed to teach this skill in schools in the future. This study therefore assesses the effects of a CT-based pedagogical course on student teachers' content knowledge and CT disposition. A pre-test-post-test experimental study was carried out in a vocational pre-service teacher education programme in Turkey. Although the students who were exposed to CT-based instruction showed better progress in both academic achievement and CT disposition than in traditional instruction, this result was not statistically significant according to the Mixed Factorial ANOVA and ANCOVA results.
Modern and forward-looking approaches to education and learning no longer treat learners as passive recipients of knowledge. Rather, they claim to nurture self-monitored and self-disciplined thinkers who are shown to be academically successful and promising. This qualitative case study aimed at exploring the teachers’ and learners’ attitudes towards critical thinking within the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context of Iran. To this end, the attitudes of eighty Iranian EFL learners and their teacher towards inclusion of critical thinking exercises into their regular syllabus were gauged. The results obtained from 18 unstructured interviews indicated that teacher’s and learners’ responses were diametrically opposed; while learners’ performance improved and they became more motivated, the teacher reported distress and dissatisfaction with the new approach to the syllabus. Thematic Content Analyses (TCA) and language skills tests also revealed that the L2 reading comprehension ability of learners benefited more than other skills. Other context-based factors and implications are discussed.