Abstract:

The ability of teachers to utilize strategies to teach learners critical thinking is a major concern in contemporary education. Doubt has been cast on the teachers’ understanding of critical thinking and subsequently the use of strategies to enhance it. This study looked at Physical Sciences teachers’ understanding of the concept of critical thinking and the strategies they employ in their teaching learners to develop the competency of critical thinking in the Physical Sciences. A qualitative study was conducted to explore the Physical Sciences teachers’ understanding of critical thinking and the strategies they employed in the teaching of Physical sciences in the Mashishila circuit in the Mpumalanga Province. Data was collected through self-reporting open ended questions from a purposive sample of 12 Grade 10 Public School Physical Sciences teachers. Data were analyzed using content analysis concurrently with data collection. The findings of the study have revealed that the teachers understood critical thinking as a way of observing, analyzing, and assessing a problem in order to arrive at a solution. However, the participants left out the fact that critical thinking is self-corrective and that the learners need evidence to support their decisions to arrive at solutions for each problem statement. Although the participants showed an understanding of critical thinking, they reported teaching strategies that did not clearly imply a relationship with the development of critical thinking. This paper is part of an ongoing study that will develop strategies that would teach critical thinking to Physical sciences learners; hence this forms the basis of the study.

Keywords:

Understanding, Critical thinking, Instructional strategies, Qualitative study, Physical sciences.