Teachers’ understanding of critical thinking definition

Kaliský, Ján, 1975-

Teachers’ understanding of critical thinking definition / Ján Kaliský. -- The need to develop critical thinking has been growing in the 21st century. It has become a key competence included in the school national programs also in Slovakia. The Slovak teachers’ critical thinking conceptualization is analyzed by qualitative study in this research as teachers are those ones responsible for its development in the educational system. Aim & Method: The study aim was to analyze the Slovak primary and high school teachers’ critical thinking conceptualization (N=99, 73% of females, Mage=44 years, SD 10.56) and to explore their critical thinking interpretations. Text content analysis is an important part of qualitative research. There are two basic methods – descriptive-interpretative and hermeneutic one, but the best solution is to combine them. The starting point was a basic file reconnaissance by qualitative content analysis to orient in a file, and then to start interpreting the file in the context of hermeneutic approach. The aim was to analyze data from Critical Thinking Questionnaire of our provenience on critical thinking conceptualization in 2020. Results & Discussion: The study results from the qualitative research analysis extracted 2374 words used to describe critical thinking understanding by the research participants. The qualitative frequency content analysis created data matrix decomposition. In the last phase, the synonymous and similar words clusters based on a word stem were formed to create critical thinking categories. The critical thinking “criteria dictionary” was based on frequency hierarchy. The results were compared with standardized critical thinking definitions. The results also proved 55% of respondents used wider or narrow critical thinking definition and 7% of them explained critical thinking completely incorrectly. The study was created as a part of newly established Slovak Philosophy for Children Center and of the KEGA 028UMB-4/2021 project.

In Education and new developments 2022 Carmo, Mafalda. -- Lisabon : inScience Press, 2022. -- 583 p.. -- ISBN ISBN 978-989-53614-3-4. -- ISSN 2184-044X. -- ISSN 2184-1489. -- pp. 214-217