Teachers’ Views and Strategies for Improving Children’s Critical Thinking Skills

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate preschool teachers' perceptions regarding the enhancement of children's critical thinking skills, as well as their employed strategies for fostering such skills. The study was designed as a case study, a qualitative model. The sample group consisted of 30 preschool teachers from Turkey. Data were collected using online interviews and examined using descriptive and content analysis. According to the preschool teachers, the study findings showed that Turkish-language and science-math activities are the activities that contribute most to improving children’s critical thinking skills. Furthermore, the preschool teachers stated that they mainly used the strategy of asking open-ended questions during book reading activities and least used the strategy of promoting the interaction/collaboration among students to improve children’s critical thinking skills.