Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Early Years through Early Childhood Care and Education

Abstract

Today’s children need to learn how to filter useful information
from a plethora of information. For this purpose they need to learn critical
thinking skill. Our educational practices do not allow children to think and
express their ideas, as the teachers in our schools consider themselves
authority on the knowledge. Moreover, the main purpose of teaching is to
complete the syllabi and enable students to pass examination. The National
Curriculum of Early Childhood Care and Education 2017 provides
guidelines for developing critical thinking skills in young children. This
study was an attempt to find out whether the classroom environment and
instructional strategies used at ECCE level are appropriate for developing
critical thinking skills in young children. The sample included 15 ECE
classrooms in Muzaffarabad city. These classrooms were observed and
informal interviews were taken from the teachers of these classes. It was
concluded that the teachers at ECE level were not fully aware of an
important objective of the national curriculum suggested for this level. The
activities and strategies required for developing critical thinking skill are
rarely adopted by the teachers. Their basic focus remains on reading,
writing and numeracy. Teachers mostly use the traditional methods of
teaching that make the kids passive learners.