Fostering Critical Thinking across the Primary School’s Curriculum in the European Schools System

Abstract

To develop citizens’ critical thinking (CT) abilities, schools must better integrate CT into the curricula. Although educators, psychologists, and philosophers agree on the importance of critical thinking, there is no agreement on a common theoretical definition. The goal of this study is to define the framework for the promotion of critical thinking in the context of curriculum development. Specifically, to explore how the primary school curriculum addresses the concept of CT, and to identify characteristics, core skills, and approaches to CT in the syllabi. We conducted a document analysis of curriculum and syllabi in the European Schools system. The results show that although the primary school curriculum does not define the concept of CT, it does consider it a key skill to develop and foster among pupils across the school syllabi. Concerning the CT teaching approaches, our study detected a holistic approach in which the European Schools system supports CT as an explicit and implicit goal within a standard subject-matter content instruction. This study can be used in future educational research with different stakeholders (teachers, school principals, policymakers, researchers) involved in curriculum development.

Concepciones acerca del pensamiento crítico en la enseñanza primaria y secundaria. Una revisión bibliográfica

“…Se reconoce la importancia en la formación del pensamiento crítico en la educación actual, aunque no quede claro a qué se hace referencia cuando se habla de pensamiento crítico, cómo se debe hacer para formarlo y cómo evaluarlo en condiciones coherentes y objetivas curricularmente (Lombardi et al, 2021). Se entiende el pensamiento crítico como un grupo de habilidades necesarias para establecer juicios y evaluar información y se innova educ.…”

Critical Thinking and Effective Personality in the Framework of Education for Sustainable Development

“…Educational institutions have a responsibility to equip learners with skills and capabilities that enable them to transform themselves and society [8,60]. Consequently, the integration of specific competences linked to the development of EP and CT in the educational curriculum is crucial [61,62]. In a complementary way, it is suggested to design programmes to foster competences related to the development of EP and CT in adolescents using participatory strategies such as design thinking, service-learning, project-based learning, problem-based learning and simulation learning [63,64].…”

A Comprehensive of the Guided Inquiry Learning Model in Education: A Review

“…Critical thinking is a higher-order thinking skill. Understanding problems in-depth, being open to different points of view, and understanding the subject matter at hand are the objectives of critical thinking before making decisions in the classroom and daily life (Wilson, 2016); (Lombardi et al, 2021); (Darling-Hammond et al, 2020). Critical thinking skills include appraisal, self-control, interpretation, inference, analysis, and explanation, according to Facione.…”