Role of Science in Developing Critical Thinking
Critical thinking, core critical thinking skills, critical thinker, education, strategies, blended learning
The 4 C’s of 21st Century learning skills are critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication. Critical thinking is an intellectual process of thinking for a purpose, and involves reflection of ideas. It is one of the fundamental life skills necessary for human survival. Inference, explanation, evaluation, self-regulation, interpretation and analysis are the six core critical thinking skills. One should be a critical thinker for solving problems. Good critical thinking decides once success or failure in life. It helps to analyze a situation or problem to most basic parts and find the truthfulness of information that we come across in everyday life. It leads to success in career and life, and boosts self-reflection. A good critical thinker would be able to make sound decisions and will be a good problem solver. Lack of critical thinking skills in society can lead to various social and personal problems. It is crucial in the field of education. It has emerged as one of the learning outcomes of education. Employers prefer to hire people who are strong critical thinkers. It prevents student from taking wrong decisions. Education is the process of acquisition of knowledge and skills and critical thinking supplements the process of education. Developing strong critical thinking skills among students helps them to analyze facts, evaluate statements, separate myths from facts and how to use information to deduce facts. Good critical thinkers make better decisions, better choices in life and contribute to the betterment of society and nation. The critical thinking skills have to be cultivated and practiced at school level itself so that students grow intellectually so as to analyze the context and deduce information without bias and form their own opinion. The lack of good critical thinking skills leads to making wrong choices and taking wrong directions in life. Critical thinking skills are vital in the field of science. Science has to be taught in such a way that it encourages critical thinking. A science teacher has to adopt different strategies while transacting the topics in regular teaching learning process in order to foster critical thinking skills among students. The science teacher has to ensure that all the six core critical thinking skills and the respective subskills are developed through the incorporating different activities and teaching learning strategies in science classrooms. Blended learning is very important in the 21st century learning. It combines the benefits of both electronic and online media along with the traditional face-to-face teaching. Blended learning has to be incorporated in science classrooms to develop the critical thinking skills among students. A science teacher can adopt the various blended learning models based on the curriculum, age of the students and the available infrastructural facilities to sharpen the critical thinking skills. Different teaching learning strategies, activities and various models of blended learning can be wisely used in science classrooms for enhancing the critical thinking skills of the students. The experts, policy makers, curriculum developers and teachers have to work in unison to mould good critical thinkers through the use of various strategies, models of blended learning and also through different activities in science classrooms.
"Role of Science in Developing Critical Thinking", IJSDR - International Journal of Scientific Development and Research (www.IJSDR.org), ISSN:2455-2631, Vol.8, Issue 3, page no.1246 - 1250, March-2023, Available :https://ijsdr.org/papers/IJSDR2303204.pdf
Volume 8
Issue 3,
March-2023
Pages : 1246 - 1250
Paper Reg. ID: IJSDR_204860
Published Paper Id: IJSDR2303204
Downloads: 000347263
Research Area: Social Science and Humanities
Country: Ernakulam, Kerala, India
ISSN: 2455-2631 | IMPACT FACTOR: 9.15 Calculated By Google Scholar | ESTD YEAR: 2016
An International Scholarly Open Access Journal, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed Journal Impact Factor 9.15 Calculate by Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar | AI-Powered Research Tool, Multidisciplinary, Monthly, Multilanguage Journal Indexing in All Major Database & Metadata, Citation Generator
Publisher: IJSDR(IJ Publication) Janvi Wave
