The concept of critical thinking according to Chilean preservice teachers

This paper analyzes the concept of critical thinking according to the perspective of a group of preservice teachers from a Chilean university; they are currently in the fourth year of their program. Twenty future teachers participated in a focus group discussion in which they expressed their perspectives on the subject. The answers collected were analyzed using the content analysis technique, which allowed the creation of different categories. Among the most recurrent concepts about critical thinking, we could find: analyzing, reflecting, reasoning, change generation and problem solving. The students defined a critical thinker in their different dimensions: as someone competent, both cognitively and socially, and, at the same time, as someone who takes personal and collective aspects into account. The interviewees also mentioned their role of educating critical thinkers, and explained some of the key elements for making that possible. Some of them were: teaching the importance of feeding on reliable information sources, and accepting feedback from their peers. After a comparison between the interviewees' conceptualizations and the existing literature, it is found that the students' perspectives are closely related to those of theory.