THE DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING AS THE PRIMARY GOAL OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS

Abstract

The study was conducted to find out the development of CT (Critical Thinking) as the primary goal of the educational process. The objectives of this study were; to investigate the elements as a primary goal of critical thinking, to explore the importance of CT, to identify different instructional strategies that are used to develop CT among students, and to find out the barriers that create hindrances in the development of CT. A descriptive quantitative survey design and simple random sampling technique were selected for this study. The population of this study is all colleges (i.e. 20 Government and Private) of district Rahim Yar Khan. 380 students (girls and boys) and 120 teachers (males and females) participated as a sample. For data collection, two self-structured questionnaires were used; one for students contains 40 items, and one for teachers contains 30 items. After data collection, it was analyzed by SPSS. Results reveal that critical thinking develops with the help of different instructional strategies. 90.5% agreed that CT is particularly important in education. 86.6% agreed that during the discussion, teachers gave them the opportunity to express their viewpoints. 91.7% agreed that they use a teamwork strategy that helps them to develop CT.