Habilidades y estrategias para el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico y creativo en alumnado de la Universidad de Sonora

Abstract

This research aims to determine to what extent the tools and the language (terminology) of critical thinking have come to play an important role in the different ways of student learning, the study was done by interviewing students at the University of Sonora. The basic questions look for the use of critical thinking in the school and in everyday life. As a result, it is possible to propose �where appropriate� methods, techniques and strategies for teaching critical thinking to them. The tested model is the one proposed by Richard Paul and Linda Elder (2003). This is a designed study from a qualitative and quantitative approach. It is an exploratory-descriptive design based on three basic assumptions: a) the assumption that it is necessary that school systems foster the students critical thinking, b) the assumption that critical thinking should be taught explicitly and c) the assumption that it is possible to improve critical thinking skills of students. If pre-university levels has followed one of these previous assumptions, then surely students entering the University must have a critical thinking that allows them to analyze, evaluate and generate reasoning, among other skills. The research process was conducted in three phases: The first one involve the working with a sample of 217 students enrolled in the subject "Strategies for Learning to Learn". The model proposed by Richard Paul and Linda Elder (2003) was used. For this purpose we used different types of texts (descriptive, informative, argumentative), the second phase involve the design of an instrument to measure the study variables (elements of thought, intellectual standards, intellectual virtues, egocentric and rational thought). In this phase we use an article that met all the requirements needed to implement the strategies, and in the third phase, we assess the results of the research. It was concluded that it is necessary to modify the teaching and learning strategies to develop in students critical thinking skills and creative thinking. Due to the deficiencies found in the results, this research presents a proposal to teach critical thinking in the classroom.