CRITICAL THINKING WITHIN THE INFORMATICS TEXTBOOK OF THE SECOND CLASS OF THE GREEK LYCEUM

Abstract

"It cannot be denied that there are always problems societies and individuals have to deal with. To confront these problems in living conditions that seem to be constantly and rapidly changing, specific competencies are needed. Critical thinking is indispensable in developing such competencies effectively. It can support identifying, constructing and evaluating arguments. It can also contribute in improving problem solving skills. Critical thinking is essential to develop decision making competencies and communication skills. Furthermore, people can use critical thinking in order to confront their biases, prejudices and stereotypes. It is clear that critical thinking is useful and necessary in multiple areas. For that reason, critical thinking is considered to be a key pedagogical goal in many levels of education. For this reason, modern education seeks to promote the cultivation of critical thinking. In particular, education of Informatics is strongly related to critical thinking. Students cannot develop skills related to Informatics if they cannot think critically. Therefore, critical thinking is essential for teaching Informatics subjects. Consequently, within the Informatics textbooks the cultivation of critical thinking skills should be promoted. The present research aims to determine whether there are critical thinking skills whose cultivation is equally promoted within the Informatics textbook of the second class of the Greek Lyceum. The method used in this paper is Qualitative Content Analysis, which is established in the social sciences for texts analysis. The findings of the present research revealed that within the examined textbook there are no critical thinking skills whose cultivation is equally promoted."