Pixel International Conferences

The study analyses the identified teaching strategies for the development of critical thinking and the extent of their use by teachers of lower secondary education in the Slovak Republic. We have identified a significant relationship between the application of individual strategies by teachers and the level of critical thinking regarding the factors, such as interpretation, assumption recognition, deduction, self-regulation and argument evaluation – therefore, this study focuses on whether there is a significant difference in application of strategies for development of critical thinking by teachers. We have identified the level of application of strategies for self-regulation, development of systematic and interpretative skills, strategies for argumentation, drawing conclusions and problem-solving, strategies for evaluation development and development of reading skills in teaching. Based on the results, we found that the application of strategies for development of critical thinking by teachers differs statistically significantly. The most widely used strategies are strategies for developing systematic and interpretative skills (leading to the summary of learning content, application of practices for understanding, identification and definition of basic concepts and relationships by teachers, making notes, using associations, preferring cognitively challenging tasks, encouraging pupils to create original ideas, using categorizations, leading pupils to deduction). Less often used strategies are those aimed at the development of argumentation skills, strategies for drawing conclusions and problem solving, and the least used strategies in teaching are those for the development of assessment and reading skills. We assume that the representation of individual strategies in teaching is related to the performance of Slovak pupils in reading comprehension tests within PISA measurements.

Keywords: Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Management of Strategies Selection, Teacher’s Managerial Competence, Teaching Strategies for Development of Critical Thinking.