Critical Thinking or Thinking in Critical Condition: The Quality of Thought in High School Philosophy Classrooms

Critical thinking has saturated the educational landscape. While many educators have heard this educational buzzword, and while many might know what critical thinking is in theory, my study offers a unique look at how actual teachers apply their individuated understanding of critical thinking in everyday practice. Specifically, this small-scale qualitative study seeks to understand how individual teachers conceptualize and promote critical thinking in Ontario high school philosophy classrooms. Critical thinking is, at its core, thinking that formulates some sort of judgement. Embodying criterial reasoning, metacognition, sensitivity to context, background knowledge and habits of mind, critical thinking calls for students and teachers to engage in intellectually rigorous activity. But a question remains: how are actual teachers embedding these facets of critical thinking in high school philosophy? As a subject rooted in critical thought, this study seeks to uncover the various pedagogical techniques teachers use to implement critical thinking, as well as the challenges, barriers and issues that arise from said implementation. This study not only discusses the ways in which teachers promote communities of inquiry, but the problems that stand in the way of making critical thinking a constant element of everyday class