Critical thinking has long since been a buzzword in education. In today’s increasingly digitalised world with vast amounts of information and the spread of disinformation, its continued relevance shouldn’t be underestimated.
The key question is, are students learning how to use the critical thinking skills they need to cope with the challenges of the 21st century?
According to a survey by the Times Education Supplement, 85% of teachers worldwide feel their students don’t have the critical thinking skills they need when they start university.
The ability to think clearly and rationally and engage in independent and reflective thinking, empowers students to form their own opinions and make better choices. It is therefore key to achieving academic success. As teachers, you play an important role in developing these skills with your students – skills that will help them navigate the ever-changing world around them.
You are no doubt aware of critical thinking but as one teacher told us, “Everybody thinks they have been teaching critical thinking in class but very few people understand what it really means and, most importantly, how to make it happen in class”. We ran a global survey to get to the heart of what teachers understand about critical thinking.
We received over 1,000 responses from teachers in 82 countries across the globe who told us what critical thinking means to them and the challenges they face when developing these skills with their students. So what did we find out?
What the research told us
93% of teachers agreed that it’s important to develop students’ critical thinking skills but only 21% agreed that they have all the materials they need to develop these skills.
Teachers cited a lack of regular training as an obstacle to teaching critical thinking, with only 17% saying that they’ve had specific coaching on teaching these skills. Another major obstacle was a lack of time: 50% agreed that they struggle to find the time to develop effective means to teach critical thinking skills.
We don’t know what the jobs of the future will be, but we do know that the ability to think critically is an essential skill that will prepare your students for success no matter what they do. By looking at the results of our survey we can clearly see that more support is required to give teachers the resources and the confidence they need to teach critical thinking effectively.
Unlock Second Edition is a six-level, skills-based English course that prepares students for their future studies by getting them to think critically right from the start of their language learning. To see how Unlock addresses the results of our survey and to find out how the course can help you teach critical thinking click here. Further resources and sample content are available here.