Abstract:

In education, the development of critical thinking is a long-term process, which needs to start in early childhood. The state educational program of the primary education in Slovakia defines the establishment of critical thinking foundations as one of its main target requirements. In connection with improvement of pupils’ level of critical thinking in the educational process, it is important to focus primarily on the development of higher cognitive processes, which are hierarchically arranged within the revised Bloom's taxonomy of educational goals. The prerequisite for the development of cognitive processes is the knowledge of the relevant active verbs, which define the individual categories of Bloom’s taxonomy. Based on these active verbs, we can identify which cognitive abilities should be developed and what level of cognitive processes is needed to master the learning content.

With help of a questionnaire survey, the aim of this paper is to find out the degree of development of cognitive processes by teachers in primary school pupils in Slovakia. Based on the assessment of the frequency of active verbs used in the creation of educational activities, we identify which cognitive processes have a specific representation in the educational process. In the paper we will also point out the current challenges in the development of cognitive processes in primary education.

Keywords:

Critical Thinking, Cognitive Processes, Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy.