Is critical thinking (not)available to pupils of early school education?

Abstract

The modern world needs people who think, those who think critically, who can function well in a rapidly changing reality. In order to educate such people, their education should be started as early as possible, preferably at the early school education stage. Are the pupils at this stage capable of critical thinking? The article presents the results of research on the development of critical thinking of pupils of third grade of primary school. Children from the experimental class during the preliminary tests did not show high mathematical competences related to the ability to solve unusual tasks and thus did not demonstrate the ability to think critically. During the experimental classes, the experimenter constantly provoked pupils to think using atypical tasks with a deficit or contradiction of data, with an ambiguous solution or with an unrealistic content (senseless in life). As a result of these exercises, in final tests children critically analysed the content of the tasks and data and were reflective at the same time: they perceived the data shortage, they saw the contradiction of data, they noticed the ambiguity and looked for any possible solution, they saw the lack of realism, they completed the missing data and corrected contradictory data and they changed the unreal data to the real ones. Therefore, critical thinking is available to pupils of early school education. Only we have to allow them do it.