Early critical thinking in a Mandarin-speaking child : an exploratory case study

Critical thinking in children is a growing concern for early childhood educators; however, few studies have examined children’s critical thinking in an out‐of‐class context. This case study aimed toward filling this research gap by examining the critical thinking of a Mandarin‐speaking child aged 5 years and 8 months in an out‐of‐class context. The child’s natural utterances produced in free conversation and story‐readings have been audio‐ and video‐taped twice a week over two months. The recordings have been transcribed and analyzed according to the Delphi Report and ‘level of questions’ to examine the child’s critical thinking level. Findings revealed that the child demonstrated critical thinking, and two indicators, ‘spontaneous statements’ and ‘continuous questions,’ reflected children’s critical thinking level. It also found that these categories were reasonable and practical to identify young children’s critical thinking levels

(Current situation of English teaching based on critical thinking in China's higher education : an investigation)

This study aims to explore the current situation of English critical thinking teaching in China. 135 English teachers from universities and colleges in China have participated in the questionnaire. The research finds that positive attitudes cannot be held toward current situation of English critical thinking teaching in Chinese universities and colleges. The critical thinking ability of both English teachers and students should be further improved. The teachers also reported that English teachers’ proactive transformation into the critical thinking teachers and education reform could be two key factors when promoting critical thinking teaching in China. With such findings, this paper puts forward the theory framework of critical thinking teaching levels and critical thinking teaching development in order to promote critical thinking teaching in China