Abstract
More and more, education programs from many countries consider Critical Thinking (CT) to be an essential 21st century competency. Our conception of CT corresponds to a socio-constructivist epistemology and the context of our research is situated in the Philosophy for Children approach. This text presents a study, in which we compared results from two exchanges, one which was conducted with closed anecdotal-type questions, and the other with open philosophically-oriented questions. The analysis tool was the operational model of the developmental process of Dialogical Critical Thinking (DCT), developed and validated in previous studies. Participants were five groups of Moroccan pupils aged 10 to 15 years. Results indicate that in the exchange conducted with closed anecdotal-type questions, the overall epistemology of groups of pupils aged 10 to 15 years was simple, and the dominant epistemological perspective was post-egocentricity. In the exchange conducted with open philosophically-oriented questions, the overall epistemology for the majority of pupil groups was simple with a tendency toward a complex epistemology, and the dominant perspective for the majority of groups was relativism.
Highlights
In contemporary industrialized societies, education is increasingly oriented toward neo-liberalism
Results indicate that in the exchange conducted with closed anecdotal-type questions, the overall epistemology of groups of pupils aged 10 to 15 years was simple, and the dominant epistemological perspective was post-egocentricity
In the exchange conducted with open philosophically-oriented questions, the overall epistemology for the majority of pupil groups was simple with a tendency toward a complex epistemology, and the dominant perspective for the majority of groups was relativism
Summary
Our position is situated in a perspective which some refer to as social-constructivist (for a definition, see Meyer et al, 2003; Wertsch, 1997), according to which the school’s responsibility is to guide pupils toward the shared construction of their knowledge and skills with collective and individual emancipation in mind (Dewey, 19831; Freire, 1970). In this view, educational goals should be oriented toward the development of ethics and collective citizen consciousness (among others: Lenoir, 2016). Education programs should emphasize transversal and disciplinary competencies that are likely to stimulate within pupils’ values associated in particular with questioning, dialogue and critical thinking (CT)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
