Developing Critical Thinking in the course of History and Geography
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22320/rte.vi52.7139Keywords:
Critical Thinking, Subjects in History and Geography, Critical Thinking Programme, Halpern's TestAbstract
The study evaluates the impact of a structured pedagogical programme to develop critical thinking skills in fourth year high school students, focused on the subject of History and Geography. Using a quantitative design with pre-test and post-test, we worked with a sample of 29 students from a Chilean high school. The programme was based on three dimensions of critical thinking: Hypothesis Testing, Argumentative Analysis and Verbal Reasoning, using an adaptation of Halpern's HCTAES test (2003; 2006).
The results showed significant improvements in all dimensions assessed, with an average increase of 18.76% in total scores. The Hypothesis Testing dimension showed the greatest improvement (d = 1.206), followed by Argumentative Analysis (d = 0.774) and Verbal Reasoning (d = 0.688). Although students showed remarkable progress, Verbal Reasoning proved to be the most complex and least developed skill, highlighting the need for longer interventions.
Qualitative analysis revealed that contextualised and collaborative activities were effective in integrating critical skills with curricular content. However, the study acknowledges methodological limitations, such as the absence of a control group and the small sample size, suggesting caution in generalising the findings.
References
Benavides, C. & Ruíz, A. (2022). El pensamiento crítico en el ámbito educativo: una revisión sistemática. Revista Innova Educación, 4(2), 62-79. https://doi.org/10.35622/j.rie.2022.02.004
Díaz Barriga, F. (2001). Habilidades de Pensamiento Crítico sobre contenidos históricos en estudiantes de bachillerato. Revista mexicana de investigación educativa, 6(13). 473-481. https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=14001308
Duplass, J. A. & Ziedler, D. L. (2000). Critical Thinking and the Role of Logical Argument in Social Studies Education. International Journal of Social Education, 15(1). 113-127.
Ennis, R. H. & Millman, J. (1985). Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X & Level Z. Midwest Publications.
Ennis, R. H. & Weir, E. K. (1985). The Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test. Midwest Publications.
Ennis, R. H. (2018) Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum: A Vision. Topoi, 37, 165-184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-016-9401-4
Facione, P. A. (1990). Critical thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction. California Academic Press.
Govier, T. (1987). Problems in Argument Analysis and Evaluation. Foris Publications.
Gutiérrez, M., Espinal, C. & Rubina, M. (2021). Desarrollo del pensamiento crítico en estudiantes de educación media. Revista Iberoamericana de la Educación. https://doi.org/10.31876/ie.vi.118
Halpern, D. F. (1998). Teaching critical thinking for transfer across domains: Dispositions, skills, structure training, and metacognitive monitoring. American Psychologist, 53(4), 449-455. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.53.4.449
Halpern, D. F. (2003). Thought and knowledge: An introduction to critical thinking (4th Ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Halpern, D. F. (2006). Critical thinking across the curriculum: A brief edition of thought and knowledge. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Jaimes, A. & Ossa, C. (2016). Impacto de un programa de pensamiento crítico en estudiantes de un liceo de la Región del Biobío. Pensamiento Educativo, 53(2). https://doi.org/10.7764/PEL.53.2.2016.6
Madariaga, P. & Schaffernicht, M. (2013). Uso de objetos de aprendizaje para el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 19(3). 472-484. https://doi.org/10.31876/rcs.v19i3.25637
Marin, L. & Halpern, D. (2011). Pedagogy for developing critical thinking in adolescents: Explicit instruction produces greatest gains. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 6(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2010.08.002
Ministerio de Educación de Chile [MINEDUC]. (2016). Bases Curriculares 7° básico a 2° medio. Ministerio de Educación de Chile.
Minte, A. & Ibagón, N. J. (2017). Pensamiento crítico: ¿competencia olvidada en la enseñanza de la historia? Entramado, 13(2), 186-198. https://doi.org/10.18041/entramado.2017v13n2.26228
Mota de Cabrera, C. (2010). Desarrollo del pensamiento crítico a través del discurso argumentativo: Una experiencia pedagógica en un curso de lectura y escritura. Entre lenguas, (15). 11-23. http://www.saber.ula.ve/handle/123456789/32629
Ossa, C., Palma, M., Lagos, N. & Díaz, C. (2018). Evaluación del pensamiento crítico y científico en estudiantes de pedagogía de una universidad chilena. Revista Electrónica Educare, 22(2), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.22-2.12
Ossa, C., Palma, M., Lagos, N., Quintana, I. & Díaz, C. (2017). Análisis de instrumentos de medición del Pensamiento Crítico. Ciencias Psicológicas, 11(1), 19-28. https://doi.org/10.22235/cp.v11i2.1343
Paul, R. & Elder, L. (2003). Critical thinking: Tools for taking charge of your learning and your life. Prentice Hall.
Saadé, R. G., Morin, D. & Thomas, J. D. (2012). Critical thinking in E-learning environments. Computers In Human Behavior, 28(5), 1608-1617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.03.025
Saiz, C. & Rivas, S. F. (2011). Evaluation of the Ardesos Programs: An Initiative to Improve Critical Thinking Skills. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 11(2), 34–51. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/josotl/article/view/1816
Sánchez, I. R. (2012). Evaluación de una renovación metodológica para un aprendizaje significativo de la física. Formación Universitaria, 5(5), 51-65. https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=373534506006
Silva, Cristián. (2019). El desarrollo del pensamiento crítico en la propuesta curricular de la educación del arte en Chile. Estudios pedagógicos (Valdivia), 45(3), 79-92. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-07052019000300079
Tiwari, A., Lai, P., So, M. & Yuen, K. (2006). A comparison of the effects of problem-based learning and lecturing on the development of students' critical thinking. Medical Education, 40 (6), 547-554. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2929.2006.02481.x
Torrance, E. P. (1990). Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking: Norms-Technical Manual: Figural (streamlined) Forms A & B. Scholastic Testing Service.
Watson, G. & Glaser, E. M. (1984). Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. Psychological Corporation.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Jorge Felipe Chavarría Cabezas
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The authors retain the copyright and grant Tiempo y Espacio Journal the right of first publication, with the work registered under the Creative Commons attribution license, which allows third parties to use what is published as long as they mention the authorship of the work and the first publication in this journal, and that this use is not for commercial purposes.
