Análisis del fomento del espíritu crítico en el alumnado del grado de Educación Infantil

Abstract

Critical thinking has had great importance in the last century, and there have been many authors who boarded its from very different disciplines. This research stems from the basic premise that the promotion of critical thinking is an important element within the actual educational system. Thus it is important to research into the implementation of critical thinking among students, in our case students taking part in university trainings programs to become early childhood teachers. Early education is the first step into the future citizenship. The aim of this paper seeks to describe the current situation of fostering critical thinking and to lay the groundwork for developing subsequent methodological proposals. We performed a study based on a questionnaire with open questions with a sample of 126 cases among students of early childhood pedagogic in their 4th and 6th semester at the University of Valladolid (Soria, Spain). The conclusion is that students perceive their relationship with lectures and professors as hierarchical, and this reduces their chances of participation. Even when lectures and professors look to build up a personal and close relationship with their students. However, our work confirms that formal and non flexible training methodologies and learning programs are the standard.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15304/ie.25.2454