Science teacher training on critical thinking: state of the art

Abstract

Critical thinking (CT) is a fundamental component of scientific literacy. Currently, it has regained importance in basic education in Mexico, being considered one of the main axes that make up the educational reform “The New Mexican School”, requiring that teachers integrate activities that promote CT into their teaching. The objective of this contribution is to show the results obtained from the state of the art on the training of science teachers regarding CT. The development of this documentary research is presented, as well as the analysis of the results on CT over the last ten years. The documentary review began with the exploration of different databases (Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC and Dialnet) and was built from three stages: systematic review (PRISMA model), information search and analysis of the results (using the content analysis technique). 686 publications were identified, then the inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied simultaneously, leaving 18 manuscripts. The contributions were classified based on some of the meanings of the CT concept: philosophical, cognitive psychological and educational, the theoretical-methodological framework of each of them was also analyzed. Regarding the types of research, mixed type research prevails. Regarding the methodological work, the use of activities or didactic strategies such as socio-scientific dilemmas was found for teaching CT in science classes. The instrument most used in the contributions is the pre-test and post-test type questionnaire.