Abstract:

In an era marked by mis- and dis-information, shifting notions of truth, and complex global crises, including climate change and the rise of generative AI, critical thinking is essential for empowering learners to interrogate information, consider diverse perspectives, and engage meaningfully with societal challenges. Amid these crises a focus on critical thinking within education prompts learners to be pre-disposed to ask questions, a crucial factor in ensuring critical thinking development can have a transformative societal impact and attending to the need for future-oriented educational approaches. Within the context of Global Citizenship Education (GCE), critical thinking fosters dispositions of inquiry, reflexivity, and democratic engagement.

This paper presents findings from 'Get Critical', a project funded by Research Ireland which explores the adaptation of an established conceptual and pedagogical framework for teaching critical thinking within the context of GCE. Originally developed for initial teacher education, the framework was collaboratively reimagined with STAND, a national organisation promoting GCE across Irish third-level education. This project responds to the need for context-sensitive pedagogical innovation, highlighting the importance of conscious consideration of the unique settings learning takes place within when exploring how to adapt and implement others’ approaches.

The study employed a three-phase sequential design:
1 Professional Development: STAND staff members engaged in CPD to explore the original framework and reflecting on its relevance to their pedagogical context.
2 Framework Adaptation: STAND staff independently modified the framework to suit their learners and the unique educational settings they work within.
3 Stakeholder Engagement: The adapted framework was reviewed by students and educators who were familiar with the work of STAND and their feedback was used to inform the final iteration of the framework.

Data sources included reflections during all three phases, focus group interviews during phase three, and iterative framework drafts developed during phases two and three.

Findings highlight the importance of contextual responsiveness when implementing pedagogical models and offer insights into collaborative adaptation processes. Furthermore, the reimagined framework developed by STAND during this project represents the most significant outcome of this project, offering a research-informed insight into how critical thinking development can be fostered with higher education students to promote future-oriented dispositions and skills necessary to navigate the multiple interconnected global crises they are living through and must learn to navigate and respond to.

This research contributes to the discourse on educational innovation by demonstrating how established frameworks can be meaningfully adapted to promote critical thinking in higher education. Ultimately, the findings from this study remind us that pedagogy must not be static, but that as educators we must consider how our practice can be informed by current research and adapted to be responsive to ongoing global crises.

Keywords:

Critical thinking, framework adaptation, pedagogy, global citizenship education.