Critical thinking in Initial teacher education

Supporting staff, Teaching strategies, Research Methodologies Early childhood education

Completed

Completed: 30 September 2015

A project, completed in 2016, to develop critical thinking skills in final year Early Childhood Education (ECE) student teachers. A collaboration of New Zealand College of Early Childhood Education (now New Zealand Tertiary College), Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand and University of Canterbury.

Aims:

The project aims were to:

trial a new approach to developing and supporting critical thinking in student teachers through 'learning circles' and 'shared circles'
investigate sustained improvement in student teacher critical thinking skills across two initial teacher education providers
create opportunities for the students to network within the wider ECE sector in Christchurch and learn to provide critical thinking feedback on their own and others practices
build capacity in, and bring innovation to, the field of early childhood education in a chosen topic area of Initial Teacher Education (ITE)
develop an effective tool/model for supporting critical thinking in initial teacher education students
recommend strategies for implementing critical thinking development with early childhood teachers beyond the project.

Methodology:

A participative action research evaluative approach was used to gather data through:

videos of 'learning circles' and 'sharing circles'
summarised narratives of the circle discussions
student interviews
journaling (by academic staff)
reflective conversations.

Tui Summers

Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand

Rikke Betts

Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand

(the late) Professor Judith Duncan

University of Canterbury

Completed

$30,735.00 (excl GST)

$10,000.00 Regional Hub Project Fund

$20,735.00 Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand

Next section: Insights and Impacts

Key Findings

Five main themes that are considered to promote critical thinking emerged from the project:

Open-mindedness: the importance of being open-minded to other people’s perspectives is seen as pivotal to critical thinking.
Time: participants identified the need for sufficient time to engage with readings and material in order to better reflect on and consider their perspective.
Relationships: are key to working relationships with colleagues and being able to negotiate these relationships in terms of challenging assumptions and stereotypes
Changes: in practice and behaviours are centred on the in-depth thinking and refection that took place for participants in their teaching, which in turn, translated into their practice and behaviour when interacting with children and colleagues.
Confidence: increased confidence supported the participants’ sense of achievement and value of their contributions.
Other factors: that supported critical thinking and challenged technical responses to teaching and learning experiences included: building participant confidence in the process; introducing readings on topics to support critical thinking; and linking and applying emerging thinking to teaching practice.