THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF CRITICAL THINKING LOOKS LIKE…: THE PHENOMENOGRAPHIC APPROACH

The leading documents of regional or global level in the field of education issued by European Commission, OECD, World Economic Forum and UNESCO emphasize that critical thinking is one of the key competences of this century, highly demanded in a rapidly changing world and labour market. In higher education, a steadily growing attention to critical thinking means acknowledging the importance of this skill. Whereas growing number of researches of critical thinking in higher education indicates the development of teaching methods, technics and impact, though there is little awareness of how the teaching and learning of critical thinking looks like in everyday study context.

In ongoing four-year study in Lithuania, among other research questions we investigate, how lecturers in institutions of higher education do experience the teaching of critical thinking and how students do experience the learning of critical thinking. Aiming to answer to these questions, phenomenographical approach was employed. It was chosen as a tool opening the personal point of view and relation to present and past, ensuring the coherence of research questions. Detailed information was captured through semi-structured qualitative interviews with 20 lecturers and 20 students from institutions of higher education in Lithuania covering the variety of the fields (social sciences, arts, sciences, technologies). Participation in the study was voluntary. With permission of research participants, interviews were audio-recorded and then transcribed.

Using data of qualitative interviews, this presentation highlights the similarities and differences of lecturers and students experiences in critical thinking education. It presents results on how the teaching and learning of critical thinking is perceived, experienced, and interpreted by them, how do they identify that they teach or learn critical thinking, how does the teaching or learning of critical thinking manifests during classes. The results may be useful for better understanding the processes and contexts of critical thinking education, for educators working with curricula design, professionals engaged in the methods of critical thinking education as well as for practitioners interested in the development of critical thinking skill.