Abstract:

Critical thinking is a skill pointed as essential to students in all educational levels. In a world of increasing complexity, the capacity to think critically and react to information can avoid a passive position in making personal choices (Marin & Halpern, 2011). There is a vast literature on the importance of critical thinking in all educational levels as also on the low levels of CT in students. However, there is less agreement between educators on how CT can be taught, specially in secondary education (Moseley, et al., 2005).

In previous studies we analyzed the curricular guidelines and mother tongue teaching programs for the last year of secondary school of 7 countries (Angola, Brazil, France, England, Germany, Portugal, Spain) and five languages (Portuguese, English, French, Germany, Spanish) and found critical thinking as a common expected skill from mother tongue teaching. Beyond the guidelines programs, different international organizations such as the UN and OECD indicate in their recent reports that educational systems may provide the development of critical thinking as a transversal competence or a cognitive and metacognitive skill.

As a cognitive process, critical thinking involves the cognitive activities of:
i) interpreting,
ii) analyzing,
iii) explaining,
iv) evaluating,
v) synthesizing and
vi) creating (Facione, 2009).

This paper will present the results of an ongoing project on the role of mother tongue in the development of critical thinking in secondary schools. It is an interdisciplinary study in Education and Cognitive Neuroscience that intends to understand the role of language in learning and explicitly teaching critical thinking. Participants are secondary students in 3 countries: Angola, Brazil and Portugal. Data was collected from school context, a critical thinking assessment test (Lopes, Silva and Morais, 2018) and an Electrophysiological study.

Based on the collected results, we intend to present a pedagogical proposal based on active teaching methodologies that enhance the development of critical thinking.

Keywords:

Critical thinking, secondary education, Portuguese-speaking countries, learning process.