21st century pedagogy: a classroom perspective on critical thinking

The current study aims to gain a classroom perspective on one of the core 21st century skills: critical thinking. Teachers from London, England and Toronto, Ontario (N=24) were surveyed and interviewed (N=10) and asked about their conceptualizations of critical thinking and their classroom practices. Teachers surveyed believe that critical thinking is a skill, that it can be taught, and that it should be infused throughout the curriculum. Furthermore, they require more time, resources, and training to encourage these skills effectively. The interviews revealed that although teachers have varied definitions, they share common practices to encourage critical thinking such as group work and class discussion, the use of open-ended questions, and the encouragement of questioning and multiple perspectives from students. Given teachers' concerns about testing and curriculum restraints, it is recommended that a greater focus be put on training teaching strategies, rather than on assessment or curriculum content.