THE PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS FOR DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN STUDENTS

Abstract

Critical thinking is a multifaceted process which requires a higher level of cognitive skills. Teachers’ perceptions and practices to develop critical thinking skills among students influence their behavior in the class. This study intended to explore the perceptions and practices of secondary school teachers in developing the critical thinking skills of students. Four secondary teachers were conveniently selected for data collection by using a semi-structured interview followed by classroom observation and document analysis. The collected data was analyzed by using a thematic approach. The findings of the research study indicated that some of the secondary school teachers lack the basic knowledge about critical thinking; therefore, they were unable to define the concept of critical thinking and way to develop these skills in their students. Most of the teachers (i.e., 66.6%) were aware that it is important to develop student's critical thinking skills but except one, other teachers were unable to provide evidence of using effective classroom strategies needed to develop critical thinking skills among students. Moreover, it was observed that students were unable to analyze and apply their knowledge in new situations. Based on the findings, it was recommended that schools need to train teachers on pedagogies to enable them to create interactive classrooms to lead students to think critically. Keywords: critical thinking, reasoning skills, rote learning, teaching approaches