According to Matthew Lipman, one of the founders of the Philosophy for Children (P4C) programme, critical thinking improves reasonableness and the exercise of good judgement, both of which Lipman takes to be necessary to sustaining a democratic society. Against his view, I argue that although critical thinking can be done well or badly, it does…

This paper addresses a call for teachers to promote students' knowledge of criteria and standards within curriculum domains for self-monitoring and improvement purposes. We present the case for students to develop, as part of their learning in content areas, the evaluative knowledge and expertise of the type that teachers bring to the classroom.…

Epistemic understanding of science is essential for critical evaluation of scientific claims. In principle, developing students' epistemic understanding would enhance students' capability in evaluating scientific claims. However, findings on this "expected" connection have been inconclusive. This paper seeks to examine this discrepancy…

Competencies for designing and evaluating scientific inquiries are a key emphasis in national curriculums worldwide and a focus of international large-scale assessment. Teachers globally are encouraged to provide learning opportunities for their students to explore and practice asking and conducting researchable questions. This study focused on…

Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate how teaching the discourse of critique, an integral part of the video production process, can be used to eliminate barriers for young people in gaining new media literacy skills helping more young people become producers rather than consumers of digital media. Design/methodology/approach: This paper…

Students need to apply evaluation strategies to find relevant and trustworthy information when completing open-inquiry tasks on the Internet. One such strategy, sourcing, implies attention to information about the sources of documents. This multiple-case study investigates how three small groups of secondary school students solved an open-inquiry…

The complex environmental challenges humanity faces require citizens who are scientifically and environmentally literate. Many environmental education programs are situated in the field where students are immersed in their learning. These field-based activities are engaging but may lack opportunities for students to develop critical thinking and…

There are certain threats embedded in scientific development that confront society. Gaining practical and instrumental experiences in addressing topics related to the major challenges that confront society today can be possible by tapping the socio-scientific issues as a part of science teaching and learning. This research aimed to explore…

Many alternatives exist for setting the delivery, content, direction, tone, and priorities for a Critical Inquiry/Thinking general education program. Review of our university's overall general education program indicated the need, and overwhelming faculty approval, for a program to improve critical thinking skills, to specifically include…

In this article I report on the ways that an educational philosophies course in a performance-based program enables teacher candidates to identify, reflect upon, and evaluate a wide range of educational purposes. The context for the report is an accelerated graduate program in childhood education at a small urban college where intensive fieldwork…

Packed with ideas and instructional activities that cut across all content areas, this engaging book provides a comprehensive framework for promoting vital Web literacy skills in grades 3-8. Teacher-friendly special features include helpful graphics, sidebars, practical tips, and nearly 100 reproducibles. Using a research-based, classroom-tested…

The topic of this article concerns how students make sense of categories of progressive inquiry made available to them through a discussion and inquiry type of software called Future Learning Environments 2 (FLE2). The idea behind tools of this kind is to induce approaches to school-work that build on the metaphor of learning as research. By…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…