How do good teachers teach for critical thinking

Abstract

An ex-post facto study was conducted to determine which teacher practices can promote critical thinking among secondary school students. A total of 1200 students in 12 schools in a district in Selangor participated in the study. The study employed an extreme group causal comparative design where students who tested high in critical thinking as measured using the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (CCTT-X) were compared with students who obtained low scores in the CCTT-X. Twelve experiences with regard to teacher practices in the classroom differed significantly between the high and the low scorers when analysed with the Mann-Whitney U Test. Implications of the study, particularly on ways to teach better to promote critical thinking are discussed.