importance of critical thinking in primary school

Critical Thinking in Primary Schools

by Open Minds Foundation | Uncategorized

Authored by John Snell

Developing critical thinking skills in primary schools can appear to be a daunting challenge for educators in the UK. After all, how do you begin to develop these skills in children as young as four? Over 25 years working in education as a classroom teacher and now head teacher, I have always been interested in the purpose of education – and to add value to the process of helping children learn.

It is all too apparent to me that education is far more than the acquisition of knowledge, and it is our essential duty as educators to prepare children for their future lives. Knowledge itself will not equip children with the skills necessary to navigate their way through life, nor it could be argued, will it prepare them for future careers. So where do we begin? How do schools look to teach these skills while also covering the statutory national curriculum?

While finding time in the school day to teach critical thinking skills may be a challenge, I believe it is possible to teach these skills alongside the day to day teaching. In many ways, I see this as a hugely valuable and relevant way to develop understanding, as the content of the lessons is then presented more deeply, and for our learners is more relevant.

Let me explain how this might look in a classroom. Imagine a maths lesson (or any other lesson) where the teacher is explaining a concept. For the younger children, this might be a simple calculation – what is 5+5? In an average class, it is likely that most children will be able to give a correct answer, however is this enough? In fact, is the correct answer what we are looking for at all? This might seem counterintuitive to many outside the profession but here is where there is a fantastic opportunity to develop deeper thinking skills than would ordinarily be covered. In many classrooms, there may be a short acknowledgment that 10 is the correct answer – and that 9 or 11 are incorrect – and, due to the amount of subject coverage required to be taught in a school day, the teacher would quickly move on to the next question. My point here is that teachers should stop here and ask, ‘how do you know?’ Simply put, can the children explain deeply, how they know 5+5=10. From my experience, children initially look blank or reply, ‘because it is’, however by probing further, children are actually able to explain ‘10’ through using practical resources and the fact that they know their number bonds – and how numbers/amounts work. Many children will, if challenged, be able to demonstrate this through practical equipment or through using their fingers to count. This conversation needn’t be long (indeed I would not advocate the ‘how do you know?’ strategy to every question asked during the school day!) however I believe it is a simple way to begin to enable children to think critically.

This can also be applied to any subject – how do you know Mount Everest is the highest mountain? How do you know that a word is an adjective? By employing this approach day to day, children are developing their ability to question what they know  and think deeply. Further up the school, this skill is explored more literally through studies in propaganda relating to World Wars, advertising and other more ‘obvious’ lessons that teach children to be critical in their thinking. I believe this simple approach not only adds value to learning but helps prepare our children for a future life where they will question what they are told and have the skills to avoid being manipulated and coerced, whether by media, politics or otherwise.

• Developing critical thinking through play
• How individuals can avoid sharing mis- and disinformation
• The Martyr Complex and Conspiracy Theorists
• The global risk of misinformation and disinformation
• How to SCAMPER

• Our Mission

A Critical Thinking Framework for Elementary Students

Guiding young students to engage in critical thinking fosters their ability to create and engage with knowledge.

Critical thinking is using analysis and evaluation to make a judgment. Analysis, evaluation, and judgment are not discrete skills; rather, they emerge from the accumulation of knowledge. The accumulation of knowledge does not mean students sit at desks mindlessly reciting memorized information, like in 19th century grammar schools. Our goal is not for learners to regurgitate facts by rote without demonstrating their understanding of the connections, structures, and deeper ideas embedded in the content they are learning. To foster critical thinking in school, especially for our youngest learners, we need a pedagogy that centers knowledge and also honors the ability of children to engage with knowledge.

This chapter outlines the Critical Thinking Framework: five instructional approaches educators can incorporate into their instruction to nurture deeper thinking. These approaches can also guide intellectual preparation protocols and unit unpackings to prepare rigorous, engaging instruction for elementary students. Some of these approaches, such as reason with evidence, will seem similar to other “contentless” programs professing to teach critical thinking skills. But others, such as say it in your own words or look for structure, are targeted at ensuring learners soundly understand content so that they can engage in complex thinking. You will likely notice that every single one of these approaches requires students to talk—to themselves, to a partner, or to the whole class. Dialogue, specifically in the context of teacher-led discussions, is essential for students to analyze, evaluate, and judge (i.e., do critical thinking ). 

The Critical Thinking Framework

Say it in your own words : Students articulate ideas in their own words. They use unique phrasing and do not parrot the explanations of others. When learning new material, students who pause to explain concepts in their own words (to themselves or others) demonstrate an overall better understanding than students who do not (Nokes-Malach et al., 2013). However, it’s not enough for us to pause frequently and ask students to explain, especially if they are only being asked to repeat procedures. Explanations should be effortful and require students to make connections to prior knowledge and concepts as well as to revise misconceptions (Richey & Nokes-Malach, 2015).

Break it down : Students break down the components, steps, or smaller ideas within a bigger idea or procedure. In addition to expressing concepts in their own words, students should look at new concepts in terms of parts and wholes. For instance, when learning a new type of problem or task, students can explain the steps another student took to arrive at their answer, which promotes an understanding that transfers to other tasks with a similar underlying structure. Asking students to explain the components and rationale behind procedural steps can also lead to more flexible problem solving overall (Rittle-Johnson, 2006). By breaking down ideas into component parts, students are also better equipped to monitor the soundness of their own understanding as well as to see similar patterns (i.e., regularity) among differing tasks. For example, in writing, lessons can help students see how varying subordinating conjunction phrases at the start of sentences can support the flow and readability of a paragraph. In math, a solution can be broken down into smaller steps.

Look for structure : Students look beyond shallow surface characteristics to see deep structures and underlying principles. Learners struggle to see regularity in similar problems that have small differences (Reed et al., 1985). Even when students are taught how to complete one kind of task, they struggle to transfer their understanding to a new task where some of the superficial characteristics have been changed. This is because students, especially students who are novices in a domain, tend to emphasize the surface structure of a task rather than deep structure (Chi & Van Lehn, 2012).

By prompting students to notice deep structures—such as the characteristics of a genre or the needs of animals—rather than surface structures, teachers foster the development of comprehensive schemata in students’ long-term memories, which they are more likely to then apply to novel situations. Teachers should monitor for student understanding of deep structures across several tasks and examples.

Notice gaps or inconsistencies in ideas : Students ask questions about gaps and inconsistencies in material, arguments, and their own thinking . When students engage in explanations of material, they are more likely to notice when they misunderstand material or to detect a conflict with their prior knowledge (Richey & Nokes-Malach, 2015). In a classroom, analyzing conflicting ideas and interpretations allows students to revise misconceptions and refine mental models. Noticing gaps and inconsistencies in information also helps students to evaluate the persuasiveness of arguments and to ask relevant questions.

Reason with evidence : Students construct arguments with evidence and evaluate the evidence in others’ reasoning. Reasoning with evidence matters in every subject, but what counts for evidence in a mathematical proof differs from what is required in an English essay. Students should learn the rules and conventions for evidence across a wide range of disciplines in school. The habits of looking for and weighing evidence also intersect with some of the other critical thinking approaches discussed above. Noticing regularity in reasoning and structure helps learners find evidence efficiently, while attending to gaps and inconsistencies in information encourages caution before reaching hasty conclusions.

Countering Two Critiques

Some readers may be wondering how the Critical Thinking Framework differs from other general skills curricula. The framework differs in that it demands application in the context of students’ content knowledge, rather than in isolation. It is a pedagogical tool to help students make sense of the content they are learning. Students should never sit through a lesson where they are told to “say things in their own words” when there is nothing to say anything about. While a contentless lesson could help on the margins, it will not be as relevant or transferable. Specific content matters. A checklist of “critical thinking skills” cannot replace deep subject knowledge. The framework should not be blindly applied to all subjects without context because results will look quite different in an ELA or science class.

Other readers may be thinking about high-stakes tests: how does the Critical Thinking Framework fit in with an overwhelming emphasis on assessments aligned to national or state standards? This is a valid concern and an important point to address. For teachers, schools, and districts locked into an accountability system that values performance on state tests but does not communicate content expectations beyond general standards, the arguments I make may seem beside the point. Sure, knowledge matters, but the curriculum demands that students know how to quickly identify the main idea of a paragraph, even if they don’t have any background knowledge about the topic of the paragraph.

It is crucial that elementary practitioners be connected to both evolving research on learning and the limiting realities we teach within. Unfortunately, I can provide no easy answers beyond saying that teaching is a balancing act. The tension, while real and relevant to teachers’ daily lives, should not cloud our vision for what children need from their school experiences.

I also argue it is easier to incorporate the demands of our current standardized testing environment into a curriculum rich with history, science, art, geography, languages, and novels than the reverse. The Critical Thinking Framework presents ways to approach all kinds of knowledge in a way that presses students toward deeper processing of the content they are learning. If we can raise the bar for student work and thinking in our classrooms, the question of how students perform on standardized tests will become secondary to helping them achieve much loftier and important goals. The choice of whether to emphasize excellent curriculum or high-stakes tests, insofar as it is a choice at all, should never be existential or a zero-sum game.

From Critical Thinking in the Elementary Classroom: Engaging Young Minds with Meaningful Content (pp. 25–29) by Erin Shadowens, Arlington, VA: ASCD. Copyright © 2023 by ASCD. All rights reserved.

• Primary Hub
• Art & Design
• Design & Technology
• Health & Wellbeing
• Secondary Hub
• Citizenship
• Primary CPD
• Secondary CPD
• Book Awards
• All Products
• Primary Products
• Secondary Products
• School Trips
• Trip Directory
• Trips by Subject
• Trips by Type
• Trips by Region
• Submit a Trip Venue

Trending stories

Top results

• Critical Thinking What Is Enquiry Based Learning And Why Is It Important

Critical thinking – What is enquiry-based learning and why is it important?

Gavin McLean explores five ways to improve primary pupils' critical thinking skills

Critical thinking is an educational methodology that has truly withstood the test of time.

Casting our minds back to Ancient Greece, Socrates created the Socratic method to establish the foundations of critical thinking.

What is critical thinking?

Stemming from a determination to provide a mechanism through which pupils were presented with questions (not answers), this method asks pupils to draw upon inquiry, curiosity, reasoning and self-reflection to define the most suitable answer or way forward.

Skipping forward to more contemporary thinkers, it is relevant to draw upon examples like Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, even Martin Luther King, as advocates of critical thinking and inquiry-based learning.

Today though, in our modern and technologically-driven age, and an era of automation where machine-learning does most of the work, a concerted effort needs to be made to ensure this vital skill set continues to be taught in schools.

Yet, how, in the face of education technology can this be achieved and why is it still relevant when automation and AI reigns supreme?

The importance of critical thinking

Developing critical thinking skills among pupils has a wide range of benefits.

My experience has proven time and again that the earlier this is taught in schools, the better equipped pupils are as they progress through their educational experience.

But why is this? What are the skills and traits that critical thinking develops among learners that makes it so valuable?

First, critical thinking encourages curiosity. Pupils who are taught to think critically inherently have a deeper curiosity about the subjects and topics presented to them in class.

It encourages them to ask important questions about even the simplest of topics, questioning the status quo and discovering a richer level of understanding.

Critical thinking questions

Asking these ‘curiosity questions’ like, ‘What’s happening?’, ‘Why is it important?’, and ‘What’s hidden?’ develops lifelong learners who go on to have a greater appreciation for others’ perspectives and explore issues with a critical eye.

Secondly, and somewhat surprisingly, critical thinking enhances pupils’ creativity.

This follows critical analysis of issues and problem-solving that often calls for creative solutions and thinking ‘outside the box’, which transcend more conventional boundaries.

With critical thinking comes a freedom from obstacles that may hinder those who haven’t developed critical thinking skills, allowing for more constructive outcomes.

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of critical thinking is the well-honed problem-solving skills that follow.

Developing critical thinking allows us to make better-informed decisions and use reason to achieve the most effective results.

Assessing problems from all manner of angles and perspectives allows pupils to strategically work through the problem or challenge, consider the pros and cons of different solutions and rationally select the path most likely to succeed.

Keeping the ‘curiosity questions’ in mind, these also apply to the critical thinking approach to problem-solving which considers additional questions such as, ‘Where did this come from?’; ‘How do I know this?’; ‘Why should I trust this source?’; ‘What other information should I consider?’.

All told though, each of these benefits of critical thinking work in tandem to develop independent learners who are empowered to think and make decisions for themselves – an objective that I’m sure all teachers will agree, is central to our job as educators.

How to improve critical thinking skills in primary school

Understanding the importance of introducing critical thinking to primary pupils is one thing, but effective implementation is another.

To help you and your pupils succeed, I’ve compiled five quick and easy ways to place critical thinking at the centre of your classroom:

Plan for critical thinking time

As with all aspects of teaching, planning is key so keep this in mind when planning future lessons by allowing extra time for pupils to test their analytical and critical-thinking skills.

Make connections to the real world

We all know that real-world examples help give pupils greater purpose to their learning, so integrate practical applications and activities that will allow them to see how they can apply their knowledge and skills in real life.

Encourage reflection to think about concepts

Critical thinking isn’t restricted to critiquing the knowledge and views of others, it is also about discovering our personal bias.

For this, I recommend creating an online space where questions, thoughts and ideas can be shared.

This also creates a safe sharing space for pupils who are reluctant to speak up in front of their peers. Pose questions

Develop your own set of ‘curiosity questions’ and challenge pupils at the end of each class.

This leaves them with something to think about overnight and creates a valuable way of connecting the dots during future lessons.

Equally, you can ask the same question at the beginning of the class, and pupils can use the duration of the lesson to come up with solutions and suggestions, as individuals or collectively.

Read a statement to your class that has two opposing views. Ask pupils to stand on either side of the room to represent their opinion and move around as their views evolve with each subsequent ‘curiosity question’.

Gavin McLean is international business development director at Edmentum International .

Sign up to our newsletter

You'll also receive regular updates from Teachwire with free lesson plans, great new teaching ideas, offers and more. (You can unsubscribe at any time.)

Which sectors are you interested in?

Early Years

Thank you for signing up to our emails!

You might also be interested in...

Why join Teachwire?

Get what you need to become a better teacher with unlimited access to exclusive free classroom resources and expert CPD downloads.

Exclusive classroom resource downloads

Free worksheets and lesson plans

CPD downloads, written by experts

Resource packs to supercharge your planning

Special web-only magazine editions

Educational podcasts & resources

Access to free literacy webinars

Newsletters and offers

Create free account

I would like to receive regular updates from Teachwire with free lesson plans, great new teaching ideas, offers and more. (You can unsubscribe at any time.)

By signing up you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy .

Already have an account? Log in here

Thanks, you're almost there

To help us show you teaching resources, downloads and more you’ll love, complete your profile below.

Welcome to Teachwire!

Set up your account.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Commodi nulla quos inventore beatae tenetur.

Log in to Teachwire

Not registered with Teachwire? Sign up for free

Reset Password

Remembered your password? Login here

Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Eight Instructional Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking

• Share article

(This is the first post in a three-part series.)

The new question-of-the-week is:

What is critical thinking and how can we integrate it into the classroom?

This three-part series will explore what critical thinking is, if it can be specifically taught and, if so, how can teachers do so in their classrooms.

Today’s guests are Dara Laws Savage, Patrick Brown, Meg Riordan, Ph.D., and Dr. PJ Caposey. Dara, Patrick, and Meg were also guests on my 10-minute BAM! Radio Show . You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.

You might also be interested in The Best Resources On Teaching & Learning Critical Thinking In The Classroom .

Current Events

Dara Laws Savage is an English teacher at the Early College High School at Delaware State University, where she serves as a teacher and instructional coach and lead mentor. Dara has been teaching for 25 years (career preparation, English, photography, yearbook, newspaper, and graphic design) and has presented nationally on project-based learning and technology integration:

There is so much going on right now and there is an overload of information for us to process. Did you ever stop to think how our students are processing current events? They see news feeds, hear news reports, and scan photos and posts, but are they truly thinking about what they are hearing and seeing?

I tell my students that my job is not to give them answers but to teach them how to think about what they read and hear. So what is critical thinking and how can we integrate it into the classroom? There are just as many definitions of critical thinking as there are people trying to define it. However, the Critical Think Consortium focuses on the tools to create a thinking-based classroom rather than a definition: “Shape the climate to support thinking, create opportunities for thinking, build capacity to think, provide guidance to inform thinking.” Using these four criteria and pairing them with current events, teachers easily create learning spaces that thrive on thinking and keep students engaged.

One successful technique I use is the FIRE Write. Students are given a quote, a paragraph, an excerpt, or a photo from the headlines. Students are asked to F ocus and respond to the selection for three minutes. Next, students are asked to I dentify a phrase or section of the photo and write for two minutes. Third, students are asked to R eframe their response around a specific word, phrase, or section within their previous selection. Finally, students E xchange their thoughts with a classmate. Within the exchange, students also talk about how the selection connects to what we are covering in class.

There was a controversial Pepsi ad in 2017 involving Kylie Jenner and a protest with a police presence. The imagery in the photo was strikingly similar to a photo that went viral with a young lady standing opposite a police line. Using that image from a current event engaged my students and gave them the opportunity to critically think about events of the time.

Here are the two photos and a student response:

F - Focus on both photos and respond for three minutes

In the first picture, you see a strong and courageous black female, bravely standing in front of two officers in protest. She is risking her life to do so. Iesha Evans is simply proving to the world she does NOT mean less because she is black … and yet officers are there to stop her. She did not step down. In the picture below, you see Kendall Jenner handing a police officer a Pepsi. Maybe this wouldn’t be a big deal, except this was Pepsi’s weak, pathetic, and outrageous excuse of a commercial that belittles the whole movement of people fighting for their lives.

I - Identify a word or phrase, underline it, then write about it for two minutes

A white, privileged female in place of a fighting black woman was asking for trouble. A struggle we are continuously fighting every day, and they make a mockery of it. “I know what will work! Here Mr. Police Officer! Drink some Pepsi!” As if. Pepsi made a fool of themselves, and now their already dwindling fan base continues to ever shrink smaller.

R - Reframe your thoughts by choosing a different word, then write about that for one minute

You don’t know privilege until it’s gone. You don’t know privilege while it’s there—but you can and will be made accountable and aware. Don’t use it for evil. You are not stupid. Use it to do something. Kendall could’ve NOT done the commercial. Kendall could’ve released another commercial standing behind a black woman. Anything!

Exchange - Remember to discuss how this connects to our school song project and our previous discussions?

This connects two ways - 1) We want to convey a strong message. Be powerful. Show who we are. And Pepsi definitely tried. … Which leads to the second connection. 2) Not mess up and offend anyone, as had the one alma mater had been linked to black minstrels. We want to be amazing, but we have to be smart and careful and make sure we include everyone who goes to our school and everyone who may go to our school.

As a final step, students read and annotate the full article and compare it to their initial response.

Using current events and critical-thinking strategies like FIRE writing helps create a learning space where thinking is the goal rather than a score on a multiple-choice assessment. Critical-thinking skills can cross over to any of students’ other courses and into life outside the classroom. After all, we as teachers want to help the whole student be successful, and critical thinking is an important part of navigating life after they leave our classrooms.

‘Before-Explore-Explain’

Patrick Brown is the executive director of STEM and CTE for the Fort Zumwalt school district in Missouri and an experienced educator and author :

Planning for critical thinking focuses on teaching the most crucial science concepts, practices, and logical-thinking skills as well as the best use of instructional time. One way to ensure that lessons maintain a focus on critical thinking is to focus on the instructional sequence used to teach.

Explore-before-explain teaching is all about promoting critical thinking for learners to better prepare students for the reality of their world. What having an explore-before-explain mindset means is that in our planning, we prioritize giving students firsthand experiences with data, allow students to construct evidence-based claims that focus on conceptual understanding, and challenge students to discuss and think about the why behind phenomena.

Just think of the critical thinking that has to occur for students to construct a scientific claim. 1) They need the opportunity to collect data, analyze it, and determine how to make sense of what the data may mean. 2) With data in hand, students can begin thinking about the validity and reliability of their experience and information collected. 3) They can consider what differences, if any, they might have if they completed the investigation again. 4) They can scrutinize outlying data points for they may be an artifact of a true difference that merits further exploration of a misstep in the procedure, measuring device, or measurement. All of these intellectual activities help them form more robust understanding and are evidence of their critical thinking.

In explore-before-explain teaching, all of these hard critical-thinking tasks come before teacher explanations of content. Whether we use discovery experiences, problem-based learning, and or inquiry-based activities, strategies that are geared toward helping students construct understanding promote critical thinking because students learn content by doing the practices valued in the field to generate knowledge.

An Issue of Equity

Meg Riordan, Ph.D., is the chief learning officer at The Possible Project, an out-of-school program that collaborates with youth to build entrepreneurial skills and mindsets and provides pathways to careers and long-term economic prosperity. She has been in the field of education for over 25 years as a middle and high school teacher, school coach, college professor, regional director of N.Y.C. Outward Bound Schools, and director of external research with EL Education:

Although critical thinking often defies straightforward definition, most in the education field agree it consists of several components: reasoning, problem-solving, and decisionmaking, plus analysis and evaluation of information, such that multiple sides of an issue can be explored. It also includes dispositions and “the willingness to apply critical-thinking principles, rather than fall back on existing unexamined beliefs, or simply believe what you’re told by authority figures.”

Despite variation in definitions, critical thinking is nonetheless promoted as an essential outcome of students’ learning—we want to see students and adults demonstrate it across all fields, professions, and in their personal lives. Yet there is simultaneously a rationing of opportunities in schools for students of color, students from under-resourced communities, and other historically marginalized groups to deeply learn and practice critical thinking.

For example, many of our most underserved students often spend class time filling out worksheets, promoting high compliance but low engagement, inquiry, critical thinking, or creation of new ideas. At a time in our world when college and careers are critical for participation in society and the global, knowledge-based economy, far too many students struggle within classrooms and schools that reinforce low-expectations and inequity.

If educators aim to prepare all students for an ever-evolving marketplace and develop skills that will be valued no matter what tomorrow’s jobs are, then we must move critical thinking to the forefront of classroom experiences. And educators must design learning to cultivate it.

So, what does that really look like?

Unpack and define critical thinking

To understand critical thinking, educators need to first unpack and define its components. What exactly are we looking for when we speak about reasoning or exploring multiple perspectives on an issue? How does problem-solving show up in English, math, science, art, or other disciplines—and how is it assessed? At Two Rivers, an EL Education school, the faculty identified five constructs of critical thinking, defined each, and created rubrics to generate a shared picture of quality for teachers and students. The rubrics were then adapted across grade levels to indicate students’ learning progressions.

At Avenues World School, critical thinking is one of the Avenues World Elements and is an enduring outcome embedded in students’ early experiences through 12th grade. For instance, a kindergarten student may be expected to “identify cause and effect in familiar contexts,” while an 8th grader should demonstrate the ability to “seek out sufficient evidence before accepting a claim as true,” “identify bias in claims and evidence,” and “reconsider strongly held points of view in light of new evidence.”

When faculty and students embrace a common vision of what critical thinking looks and sounds like and how it is assessed, educators can then explicitly design learning experiences that call for students to employ critical-thinking skills. This kind of work must occur across all schools and programs, especially those serving large numbers of students of color. As Linda Darling-Hammond asserts , “Schools that serve large numbers of students of color are least likely to offer the kind of curriculum needed to ... help students attain the [critical-thinking] skills needed in a knowledge work economy. ”

So, what can it look like to create those kinds of learning experiences?

Designing experiences for critical thinking

After defining a shared understanding of “what” critical thinking is and “how” it shows up across multiple disciplines and grade levels, it is essential to create learning experiences that impel students to cultivate, practice, and apply these skills. There are several levers that offer pathways for teachers to promote critical thinking in lessons:

1.Choose Compelling Topics: Keep it relevant

A key Common Core State Standard asks for students to “write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.” That might not sound exciting or culturally relevant. But a learning experience designed for a 12th grade humanities class engaged learners in a compelling topic— policing in America —to analyze and evaluate multiple texts (including primary sources) and share the reasoning for their perspectives through discussion and writing. Students grappled with ideas and their beliefs and employed deep critical-thinking skills to develop arguments for their claims. Embedding critical-thinking skills in curriculum that students care about and connect with can ignite powerful learning experiences.

2. Make Local Connections: Keep it real

At The Possible Project , an out-of-school-time program designed to promote entrepreneurial skills and mindsets, students in a recent summer online program (modified from in-person due to COVID-19) explored the impact of COVID-19 on their communities and local BIPOC-owned businesses. They learned interviewing skills through a partnership with Everyday Boston , conducted virtual interviews with entrepreneurs, evaluated information from their interviews and local data, and examined their previously held beliefs. They created blog posts and videos to reflect on their learning and consider how their mindsets had changed as a result of the experience. In this way, we can design powerful community-based learning and invite students into productive struggle with multiple perspectives.

3. Create Authentic Projects: Keep it rigorous

At Big Picture Learning schools, students engage in internship-based learning experiences as a central part of their schooling. Their school-based adviser and internship-based mentor support them in developing real-world projects that promote deeper learning and critical-thinking skills. Such authentic experiences teach “young people to be thinkers, to be curious, to get from curiosity to creation … and it helps students design a learning experience that answers their questions, [providing an] opportunity to communicate it to a larger audience—a major indicator of postsecondary success.” Even in a remote environment, we can design projects that ask more of students than rote memorization and that spark critical thinking.

Our call to action is this: As educators, we need to make opportunities for critical thinking available not only to the affluent or those fortunate enough to be placed in advanced courses. The tools are available, let’s use them. Let’s interrogate our current curriculum and design learning experiences that engage all students in real, relevant, and rigorous experiences that require critical thinking and prepare them for promising postsecondary pathways.

Critical Thinking & Student Engagement

Dr. PJ Caposey is an award-winning educator, keynote speaker, consultant, and author of seven books who currently serves as the superintendent of schools for the award-winning Meridian CUSD 223 in northwest Illinois. You can find PJ on most social-media platforms as MCUSDSupe:

When I start my keynote on student engagement, I invite two people up on stage and give them each five paper balls to shoot at a garbage can also conveniently placed on stage. Contestant One shoots their shot, and the audience gives approval. Four out of 5 is a heckuva score. Then just before Contestant Two shoots, I blindfold them and start moving the garbage can back and forth. I usually try to ensure that they can at least make one of their shots. Nobody is successful in this unfair environment.

I thank them and send them back to their seats and then explain that this little activity was akin to student engagement. While we all know we want student engagement, we are shooting at different targets. More importantly, for teachers, it is near impossible for them to hit a target that is moving and that they cannot see.

Within the world of education and particularly as educational leaders, we have failed to simplify what student engagement looks like, and it is impossible to define or articulate what student engagement looks like if we cannot clearly articulate what critical thinking is and looks like in a classroom. Because, simply, without critical thought, there is no engagement.

The good news here is that critical thought has been defined and placed into taxonomies for decades already. This is not something new and not something that needs to be redefined. I am a Bloom’s person, but there is nothing wrong with DOK or some of the other taxonomies, either. To be precise, I am a huge fan of Daggett’s Rigor and Relevance Framework. I have used that as a core element of my practice for years, and it has shaped who I am as an instructional leader.

So, in order to explain critical thought, a teacher or a leader must familiarize themselves with these tried and true taxonomies. Easy, right? Yes, sort of. The issue is not understanding what critical thought is; it is the ability to integrate it into the classrooms. In order to do so, there are a four key steps every educator must take.

• Integrating critical thought/rigor into a lesson does not happen by chance, it happens by design. Planning for critical thought and engagement is much different from planning for a traditional lesson. In order to plan for kids to think critically, you have to provide a base of knowledge and excellent prompts to allow them to explore their own thinking in order to analyze, evaluate, or synthesize information.
• SIDE NOTE – Bloom’s verbs are a great way to start when writing objectives, but true planning will take you deeper than this.

QUESTIONING

• If the questions and prompts given in a classroom have correct answers or if the teacher ends up answering their own questions, the lesson will lack critical thought and rigor.
• Script five questions forcing higher-order thought prior to every lesson. Experienced teachers may not feel they need this, but it helps to create an effective habit.
• If lessons are rigorous and assessments are not, students will do well on their assessments, and that may not be an accurate representation of the knowledge and skills they have mastered. If lessons are easy and assessments are rigorous, the exact opposite will happen. When deciding to increase critical thought, it must happen in all three phases of the game: planning, instruction, and assessment.

TALK TIME / CONTROL

• To increase rigor, the teacher must DO LESS. This feels counterintuitive but is accurate. Rigorous lessons involving tons of critical thought must allow for students to work on their own, collaborate with peers, and connect their ideas. This cannot happen in a silent room except for the teacher talking. In order to increase rigor, decrease talk time and become comfortable with less control. Asking questions and giving prompts that lead to no true correct answer also means less control. This is a tough ask for some teachers. Explained differently, if you assign one assignment and get 30 very similar products, you have most likely assigned a low-rigor recipe. If you assign one assignment and get multiple varied products, then the students have had a chance to think deeply, and you have successfully integrated critical thought into your classroom.

Thanks to Dara, Patrick, Meg, and PJ for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It’s titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching .

Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email (The RSS feed for this blog, and for all Ed Week articles, has been changed by the new redesign—new ones won’t be available until February). And if you missed any of the highlights from the first nine years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below.

• This Year’s Most Popular Q&A Posts
• Race & Racism in Schools
• School Closures & the Coronavirus Crisis
• Classroom-Management Advice
• Best Ways to Begin the School Year
• Best Ways to End the School Year
• Student Motivation & Social-Emotional Learning
• Implementing the Common Core
• Facing Gender Challenges in Education
• Teaching Social Studies
• Cooperative & Collaborative Learning
• Using Tech in the Classroom
• Student Voices
• Parent Engagement in Schools
• Teaching English-Language Learners
• Reading Instruction
• Writing Instruction
• Education Policy Issues
• Differentiating Instruction
• Math Instruction
• Science Instruction
• Advice for New Teachers
• Author Interviews
• Entering the Teaching Profession
• The Inclusive Classroom
• Learning & the Brain
• Administrator Leadership
• Teacher Leadership
• Relationships in Schools
• Professional Development
• Instructional Strategies
• Best of Classroom Q&A
• Professional Collaboration
• Classroom Organization
• Mistakes in Education
• Project-Based Learning

I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column .

The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

Sign Up for EdWeek Update

Edweek top school jobs.

Sign Up & Sign In

British Council Malaysia

• English schools
• myClass Login
• Show search Search Search Close search
• English courses
• Kids and teens
• Learning resources for parents

Critical Thinking for Primary Students

Throughout their time at school, learners are expected to compare, contrast, evaluate, understand, organise, and classify information – in other words, think critically. This empowers students to make decisions and deal with problems confidently, which are essential skills in school and the rest of their lives. But how soon can we start encouraging our children to think critically about the world around them? It seems like a lot to ask of a 6-year-old, but by taking some small steps, we can develop our children’s critical thinking skills from an early age, setting them up for secondary education, higher education, and eventually a career.

In the primary classroom, teachers use many different techniques to encourage critical thinking, especially in English language teaching, as language is a gateway for understanding other subjects which require a critical thinking mindset. One technique used is to give students tools in order to think critically, such as giving students questions that they should use when faced with a problem, like ‘How would someone else feel about this?’, ‘Is it fair?’, or ‘What can I do about this?’ These, and other questions, can be displayed around the classroom for students to see and use throughout the lesson, until they are in the habit of using them automatically.

Giving students critical challenges is often difficult, but vital in pushing children to think more critically. Teachers should ask for answers which go beyond repeating information or expressing likes or dislikes, as we want students to be challenged to think about what would make the most sense, or to decide between multiple options. This also extends to assessing performance. When making quizzes and tests, teachers need to make sure that questions are designed to show critical thinking skills, as opposed to purely memory. Sometimes, a wrong answer with an interesting explanation shows a stronger mastery of critical thinking processes than a correct answer with no explanation.

Most importantly, teachers need to create a supportive environment in which students are free to use their critical thinking ability without fear of getting the wrong answer. This is done by praising effort as well as accuracy; asking students for their opinions; and encouraging students to give reasons for their choices.

To continue the work of your child’s teacher at home, there are many things you can do as a parent to foster critical thinking skills in your child. The most important is to allow your child to try things without fear of failure. When children are scared of failure, they are more likely to turn to memorisation, which feels safer, as opposed to analysis. You can also ask, and get your child to ask, the big 6 critical questions: ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’, and ‘how’. As parents we can often be scared of being questioned, but questions show that our children what to gain a deeper understanding of their world and become independent thinkers. Finally, you can encourage your child to study a range of topics, consume media from different platforms, and play many different games. By broadening their experience, children will start to make links and comparisons, aided by your questions and encouragement.

At the British Council, our primary teachers use these techniques and many others to help your children develop a key skill they need to become successful young people. The materials for our primary courses focus not only on language acquisition, but also on analysis, making connections, and formulating opinions, in order to set our students on the path to becoming independent and critical thinkers. 

MSU Extension Child & Family Development

The importance of critical thinking for young children.

Kylie Rymanowicz, Michigan State University Extension - May 03, 2016

Critical thinking is essential life skill. Learn why it is so important and how you can help children learn and practice these skills.

We use critical thinking skills every day. They help us to make good decisions, understand the consequences of our actions and solve problems. These incredibly important skills are used in everything from putting together puzzles to mapping out the best route to work. It’s the process of using focus and self-control to solve problems and set and follow through on goals. It utilizes other important life skills like making connections , perspective taking and communicating . Basically, critical thinking helps us make good, sound decisions.

Critical thinking

In her book, “Mind in the Making: The seven essential life skills every child needs,” author Ellen Galinsky explains the importance of teaching children critical thinking skills. A child’s natural curiosity helps lay the foundation for critical thinking. Critical thinking requires us to take in information, analyze it and make judgements about it, and that type of active engagement requires imagination and inquisitiveness. As children take in new information, they fill up a library of sorts within their brain. They have to think about how the new information fits in with what they already know, or if it changes any information we already hold to be true.

Supporting the development of critical thinking

Michigan State University Extension has some tips on helping your child learn and practice critical thinking.

• Encourage pursuits of curiosity . The dreaded “why” phase. Help them form and test theories, experiment and try to understand how the world works. Encourage children to explore, ask questions, test their theories, think critically about results and think about changes they could make or things they could do differently.
• Learn from others. Help children think more deeply about things by instilling a love for learning and a desire to understand how things work. Seek out the answers to all of your children’s “why” questions using books, the internet, friends, family or other experts.
• Help children evaluate information. We are often given lots of information at a time, and it is important we evaluate that information to determine if it is true, important and whether or not we should believe it. Help children learn these skills by teaching them to evaluate new information. Have them think about where or who the information is coming from, how it relates to what they already know and why it is or is not important.
• Promote children’s interests. When children are deeply vested in a topic or pursuit, they are more engaged and willing to experiment. The process of expanding their knowledge brings about a lot of opportunities for critical thinking, so to encourage this action helps your child invest in their interests. Whether it is learning about trucks and vehicles or a keen interest in insects, help your child follow their passion.
• Teach problem-solving skills. When dealing with problems or conflicts, it is necessary to use critical thinking skills to understand the problem and come up with possible solutions, so teach them the steps of problem-solving and they will use critical thinking in the process of finding solutions to problems.

For more articles on child development, academic success, parenting and life skill development, please visit the MSU Extension website.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension . For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu . To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters . To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts , or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

Did you find this article useful?

Early childhood development resources for early childhood professionals.

new - method size: 3 - Random key: 0, method: tagSpecific - key: 0

You Might Also Be Interested In

MI Parenting Resource

Bees, Building Early Emotional Skills, for Early Childhood Professionals

Self-paced Positive Discipline Online Course

AC3 Podcast episode 3

Published on June 30, 2021

ac3-pod-cast-episode-5-families-against-narcotics

Published on December 17, 2021

• approaches to learning
• child & family development
• cognition and general knowledge
• early childhood development
• life skills
• msu extension
• rest time refreshers
• approaches to learning,
• child & family development,
• cognition and general knowledge,
• early childhood development,
• life skills,
• msu extension,

Primary School Teachers’ Understanding of Critical Thinking in the Context of Education for Sustainable Development

• First Online: 28 February 2022

Cite this chapter

• Eli Munkebye 20 &
• Niklas Gericke 20 , 21  

Part of the book series: Contributions from Biology Education Research ((CBER))

739 Accesses

4 Citations

Critical thinking (CT) has been defined as an important goal in education for sustainable development (ESD). In recent curricula, reform for primary education CT has been reinforced as a new key competence. Primary school teachers are struggling to enact CT in their classrooms, and previous research cannot provide the answers to this problem because it has focused on higher education. To implement CT in ESD, first, more must be known about primary school teachers’ understanding and teaching practices of CT. In this study, 10 Norwegian fifth- to seventh-grade teachers were interviewed to capture these aspects. The interview transcripts were subject to thematic analysis. The findings show that the primary school teachers view CT as a cognitive strategy aimed at outlining the multidimensional aspect of ESD, but they leave out many aspects of CT relating to the disciplinary, multidisciplinary, and emotional factors of ESD. Furthermore, they do not teach CT in a way that facilitates the overarching goal of ESD, which is to promote action competence for sustainability. Therefore, suggestions about how to organize teacher professional development are discussed.

• Critical thinking skills
• Dispositions
• Education for sustainable development
• Primary education
• Teachers’ understanding

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Alazzi, K. F. (2008). Teachers’ perceptions of critical thinking: A study of Jordanian secondary school social studies teachers. The Social Studies, 99 (6), 243–248.

Article   Google Scholar  

Ampuero, D., Miranda, C. E., Delgado, L. E., Goyen, S., & Weaver, S. (2015). Empathy and critical thinking: Primary students solving local environmental problems through outdoor learning. Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning, 15 (1), 64–78.

Bailin, S., Case, R., Coombs, J. R., & Daniels, L. B. (1999). Conceptualizing critical thinking. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 31 (3), 285–302.

Beilin, R., & Bender, H. (2010). The getting of interdisciplinarity: The everyday practice of environmental curriculum design. In Interdisciplinary higher education: Perspectives and practicalities (pp. 181–193). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Boeve-de Pauw, J. B. D., Gericke, N., Olsson, D., & Berglund, T. (2015). The effectiveness of education for sustainable development. Sustainability, 7 (11), 15693–15717.

Bråten, I., Brante, E. W., & Strømsø, H. I. (2019). Teaching sourcing in upper secondary school: A comprehensive sourcing intervention with follow-up data. Reading Research Quarterly, 54 (4), 481–505.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (2), 77–101.

Britt, M. A., & Aglinskas, C. (2002). Improving students’ ability to identify and use source information. Cognition and Instruction, 20 (4), 485–522.

Choy, S. C., & Cheah, P. K. (2009). Teacher perceptions of critical thinking among students and its influence on higher education. International Journal of teaching and learning in Higher Education, 20 (2), 198–206.

Google Scholar  

Davies, M., & Barnett, R. (2015). Introduction. In M. Davies & R. Barnett (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of critical thinking in higher education (pp. 1–25). Springer.

Eilam, E., & Trop, T. (2010). ESD pedagogy: A guide for the perplexed. The Journal of Environmental Education, 42 (1), 43–64.

Ennis, R. H. (1985). A logical basis for measuring critical thinking skills. Educational Leadership, 43 (2), 44–48.

Ennis, R. H. (1989). Critical thinking and subject specificity: Clarification and needed research. Educational Researcher, 18 (3), 4–10.

European Commission. (2016). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: EU Action plan against wildlife trafficking . European Commission.

Facione, P. (1990). Critical thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction. The Delphi report . The California Academic Press.

Gericke, N., & Ottander, C. (2016). On the issue of ‘research in didactics of biology’: Definitions and demarcations. In T. Tal & A. Yarden (Eds.), The future of biology education research; A selection of papers presented at the 10th conference of European Researchers in Didactics of Biology (pp. 155–162). The Technion Israel Institute of Technology and The Weitzmann Institute of Science.

Gericke, N., Boeve-de Pauw, J., Berglund, T., & Olsson, D. (2019). The Sustainability Consciousness Questionnaire: The theoretical development and empirical validation of an evaluation instrument for stakeholders working with sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 27 (1), 35–49.

Gericke, N., Huang, L., Knippels, M. C., Christodoulou, A., Van Dam, F., & Gasparovic, S. (2020). Environmental citizenship in secondary formal education: The importance of curriculum and subject teachers. In A. C. Hadjichambis, P. Reis, D. Paraskeva-Hadjichambi, J. Činčera, J. Boeve-de Pauw, N. Gericke, & M. C. Knippels (Eds.), Conceptualizing environmental citizenship for 21st century education (pp. 193–212). SpringerOpen.

Gough, S. (2002). Right answers or wrong problems? Towards a theory of change for environmental learning. The Trumpeter, 18 (1), 1.

Gough, S., & Scott, W. (2003). Sustainable development and learning: Framing the issues . Routledge.

Book   Google Scholar  

Hopkins, C., & McKeown, R. (2002). Education for sustainable development: An international perspective. In Education and sustainability: Responding to the global challenge (p. 13). IUCN.

Howe, E. R. (2004). Canadian and Japanese teachers’ conceptions of critical thinking: A comparative study. Teachers and Teaching, 10 (5), 505–525.

Jickling, B., & Wals, A. E. (2012). Debating education for sustainable development 20 years after Rio: A conversation between Bob Jickling and Arjen Wals. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 6 (1), 49–57.

Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2009). Interviews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing . Sage.

Lai, E. R. (2011). Critical thinking: A literature review. Pearson’s Research Reports, 6 , 40–41.

Lijmbach, S., Van Arcken, M. M., Van Koppen, C. A., & Wals, A. E. (2002). ‘Your view of nature is not mine!’: Learning about pluralism in the classroom. Environmental Education Research, 8 (2), 121–135.

McPeck, J. E. (1981). Critical thinking and education-issues and ideas in education . Martin Robertson Co.

Minestry of Education. (2017). Overordnet del – verdier og prinsipper for grunnopplæringen [Overarching part – Values and principles of primary and secondary education]. https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/53d21ea2bc3a4202b86b83cfe82da93e/overordnet-del%2D%2D-verdier-og-prinsipper-for-grunnopplaringen.pdf

Minestry of Education. (2020). Facts and analysis of kindergarten, primary and secondary education in Norway . http://utdanningsspeilet.udir.no/2016/en/

Mogensen, F., & Schnack, K. (2010). The action competence approach and the ‘new’ discourses of education for sustainable development, competence and quality criteria. Environmental Education Research, 16 (1), 59–74.

Moore, T. (2013). Critical thinking: Seven definitions in search of a concept. Studies in Higher Education, 38 (4), 506–522.

Munkebye, E., Scheie, E., Gabrielsen, A., Jordet, A., Misund, S., Nergaard, T., & Øyehaug, A. B. (2020). Interdisciplinary primary school curriculum units for sustainable development. Environmental Education Research, 26 (6), 795–811.

Ojala, M. (2013). Emotional awareness: On the importance of including emotional aspects in education for sustainable development (ESD). Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 7 (2), 167–182.

Olsson, D., Gericke, N., Sass, W., & Boeve-de Pauw, J. (2020). Self-perceived action competence for sustainability: The theoretical grounding and empirical validation of a novel research instrument. Environmental Education Research, 26 (5), 742–760.

Sass, W., Boeve-de Pauw, J., Olsson, D., Gericke, N., De Maeyer, S., & Van Petegem, P. (2020). Redefining action competence: The case of sustainable development. The Journal of Environmental Education , 1–14.

Sund, P., & Gericke, N. (2020). Teaching contributions from secondary school subject areas to education for sustainable development—A comparative study of science, social science and language teachers. Environmental Education Research, 26 (6), 772–794.

UNESCO. (2018). Issues and trends in education for sustainable development. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000261445

Vare, P., & Scott, W. (2007). Learning for a change: Exploring the relationship between education and sustainable development. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 1 (2), 191–198.

Vieira, R. M., Tenreiro-Vieira, C., & Martins, I. P. (2011). Critical thinking: Conceptual clarification and its importance in science education. Science Education International, 22 (1), 43–54.

Wiek, A., Withycombe, L., & Redman, C. L. (2011). Key competencies in sustainability: A reference framework for academic program development. Sustainability Science, 6 (2), 203–218.

Willingham, D. T. (2008). Critical thinking: Why is it so hard to teach? Arts Education Policy Review, 109 (4), 21–32.

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was conducted within the project CriThiSE ( https://www.ntnu.no/ilu/crithise ), which is supported by The Research Council of Norway, project number 302774.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Teacher Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway

Eli Munkebye & Niklas Gericke

Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden

Niklas Gericke

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eli Munkebye .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Facultade Ciencias da Educación, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Blanca Puig

María Pilar Jiménez-Aleixandre

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Munkebye, E., Gericke, N. (2022). Primary School Teachers’ Understanding of Critical Thinking in the Context of Education for Sustainable Development. In: Puig, B., Jiménez-Aleixandre, M.P. (eds) Critical Thinking in Biology and Environmental Education. Contributions from Biology Education Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92006-7_14

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92006-7_14

Published : 28 February 2022

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-92005-0

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-92006-7

eBook Packages : Education Education (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Primary School Teachers' Understanding of Critical Thinking in KSSR Classroom and Its Importance to Students

2018, International Journal of Engineering & Technology

Critical thinking is one of the 21st century skills that should be equipped to students to prepare them with the challenges ahead. Teachers should be prepared to teach them these skills and their understanding of the concept itself should be explored. Thus, the objectives of the study are to investigate teachers' understanding of critical thinking in KSSR (Kurikulum Baru Sekolah Rendah: New Primary School Curriculum) classroom and to explore their perception on the importance of the skills to student. Six primary school teachers were interviewed and transcriptions were made. The data was analyzed through colour coding and themes were emerged from the analysis. The findings found that teachers view critical thinking as the ability to gather information, express thoughts, solve problems and analyze. They were found the skills are important for students as it helps them apply knowledge and make decisions. It is hoped that in future research, the definition of critical thinking could be collected quantitatively from teachers. The study will be benefited to teachers to improve teaching method by understanding the concept itself.

Related Papers

Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn)

Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn) , Suratmi Suratmi

Knowledge, skills, and attitudes of teachers in developing critical thinking skills are very much needed to train students' basic thinking skills. This descriptive quantitative study described the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of teachers in developing critical thinking skills in elementary school students. The data collection employed a questionnaire with a Likert scale. The questionnaire was distributed online using Google Form during teacher professional development training. Respondents in this study were 366 elementary school teachers spread across 23 provinces in Indonesia. The data obtained were analyzed descriptively and quantitatively. The results of this study indicated the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of teachers in developing critical thinking in elementary school students are a good category. Description knowledge, skills, and attitudes of a good teacher impact the designed learning process. However, this study only described teachers' knowledge, skills, and attitudes in developing critical thinking skills, which the basis for implementing learning in elementary schools. The application of critical thinking learning by elementary school teachers can be used for further research.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

Lubna Alshamrani

Ryan Pecson

The study aimed to assess the development of students' critical thinking skills by Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies) teachers at public secondary schools of Dinalupihan District, Division of Bataan during the School Year 2015-2016. Included in the study are the profiles of the respondents in terms of age, sex, highest educational attainment, length of service, and relevant seminars and trainings attended; the methods utilized in developing critical thinking skills such as asking questions, analyzing situations, interpretation of data, and panel discussion; the difficulties encountered in developing the critical thinking skills of the students; and the measures to develop the students' critical thinking skills. The study used the descriptive method of research with the utilization of survey questionnaire and unstructured interview as the main data gathering instruments. The data gathered were organized, tallied, tabulated and subjected to statistical tools such as frequency counts, percentage, ranking, and mean. From the gathered data, the following conclusions were withdrawn: majority of teacher-respondents were within the 45 to 47 years age bracket and with a mean age of 37.25 years old, females, graduates of Baccalaureate Degree with Master's Degree units, have rendered service from 1 to 9 years, and have attended 1-3 seminars and training relative to critical thinking; teachers always developed the critical thinking skills of the students in terms of asking questions, analyzing situations, interpretation of data, and panel discussion, especially the analysis of data; sometimes encountered difficulties in developing students' critical thinking skills; and always chose their best options and took necessary measures in developing students' critical thinking skills.

Bitman Manullang

The purpose of this research is (1) identify and explain the categories of student teachers think the level of primary school; (2) illustrate and describe the critical thinking skills teacher candidates; (3) illustrate and describe the basic mathematical problem-solving skills. This type of research is a mixed research methods and the sample is limited (total) 39 teacher candidates (students) Study Program Elementary School 1st semester of academic year 2016/2017. The data collection is done by observation, questionnaires, interviews, and tests. Data were analyzed descriptively persentatif. Conclusions obtained (1) the level of critical thinking students are mostly located in the moderate category level thinking. and a small portion at the level of thinking both categories on problem solving systems of linear equations and linear inequality.

Parviz Karimisani

Recently, research on critical thinking and related factors as one of the professional qualities of teachers has attracted the attention of many education experts. This study aimed to assess the critical thinking of primary school teachers and its role in their preferred teaching style. The research method was descriptive and correlational. The statistical population included all primary school teachers in the academic year 2014-2015 in city of Shabestar, which were based on the result of inquiry of the Education Organization of Azerbaijan (city of Shabestar) 4115 in number. 110 teachers were selected according to Cochran’s formula using multiple stage randomized cluster sample and were evaluated using teaching style questionnaire and critical thinking disposition assessment scale of Ricketts. Data analysis was conducted using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and dependent t-test. The findings of the research showed that teachers were better disposed towards active teaching style c...

International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies [IJELS]

Elif Öztürk

What is intended in today's renovated and updated sense of education is not to bring up individuals who merely memorize the information units without questioning, but to bring up enterprising asking, questioning, wondering, problem-solving, and researching individuals, who are equipped with decision-making skills, who may make use of information technologies, and who may think scientifically, creatively, and multi-dimensionally. It is thus intended in this study to determine the levels of critical thinking skill levels of the primary education students, and to examine whether they vary as per the grade levels thereof. Screening design, which intends to describe an existing situation as it is, is therefore used herein. This is a study having been conducted with a total of 173 students from a primary education school in Ankara, which is registered to the Ministry of National Education, 84 of whom are from 6 th Grade, 43 of whom are from 7 th Grade, and the remaining 46 of whom are...

Journal of Education and Practice

Mehboob Ali Dehraj SBBU

Academia Industry Networks

Raziana Che Aziz

This study aims to develop the teacher's perceptions of critical thinking in science learning in elementary schools. The samples in this study were 50 elementary school teachers in Central Java. Selection of samples employed convenience sampling. The instruments in this study used a modified Likert Scale. The validity tests used in this research were content validity and construct validity. Content validity was measured using CVR (Content Validity Ratio) and construct validity was measured using EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis). By using SPSS, reliability estimation was obtained with the Cronbach Alpha formula 0.83 and it can be stated that the instruments for evaluating teacher perceptions of critical thinking in science learning are reliable.

RELATED PAPERS

CALL WA 0812-99078-2665 Jual Kasur Busa Inoac Royal Central di Tapin

Agen Kasur Busa Awet Murah

PARALELLUS Revista de Estudos de Religião - UNICAP

Riccardo Burigana

Revista Eletrônica em Gestão, Educação e Tecnologia Ambiental

Jaqueline Guse

The Journal of the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers

Philosophical Studies

Lucimara Chiari

Pharmaceutical Biology

Şevki Özgener

Marius ADJAGBA

Nova prisutnost

Jadranka Rebeka Anić

Jurnal Khazanah Ulum Ekonomi Syariah (JKUES)

Febri Kusuma

Korean Journal of Orthodontics

PLANT PHYSIOLOGY

Esteban Alcantara

Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Management of Data

Mazhar Hameed

Creative Construction Conference 2018 - Proceedings

Nokulunga Mashwama

Culture, Health & Sexuality

Pierre Brouard

Global Change Biology

Kelly McConnaughay

Steven Tidrow

Russell Coleman

Pesquisa e Ensino em Ciências Exatas e da Natureza

Gustavo Benitez Alvarez

Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry

PIERRE ALEXANDRE DOS SANTOS

Egypte ancienne

Estelle BERLAIRE GUES

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

Sebastian Besold

Tại Sao Sinh Xong Không Được Nói Nhiều

chamsocbau sausinh

原版的成绩单制作 大学毕业证成绩单学位证留信网认证

See More Documents Like This

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024