Abstract:

The study discusses the systematic and goal-oriented and facilitated critical thinking development as a key educational competence of the 21st century, for it has a fundamental importance for effective learning and productive and meaningful life. It discusses the facilitation of a didactic method of Philosophy for Children (P4C) by M. Lipmann in the Slovak education. This method has being experimentally implemented into the primary, secondary and tertiary education level in the Slovak conditions as a part of the project granted by Ministry of Education in Slovakia, KEGA 035UMB-4/2018. The study aim is to emphasize the importance of critical thinking development by this didactic method in the university education where this course has been practiced for more than eight years. The first results discuss the intentional personal and cognitive abilities development of one experimental group (N=16, AM age=21.6; SD=1.3) with an accent at the course reflexion comparison in the international context (Austria, Germany, Spain). The study stresses the critical thinking development at all educational levels in respect to also lower educational results obtained in the international and nation testing of our students in Slovakia.

Keywords:

Critical thinking development, Philosophy for Children, experimental group, personal and cognitive development.