Critical Thinking in the English Content Area: A Case Study of Teacher Perceptions of Instructional Strategies

As part of the National Common Core Curriculum, critical thinking skills are expected to be taught by teachers in every subject and at every grade level. Teachers will also be evaluated on teaching critical thinking skills to students to a mastery level as part of the educators' annual evaluations. However, there is not a common definition for critical thinking established by the National Governors Association for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers. Nor is there equitable training on how to teach critical thinking skills to students to mastery level. The following qualitative case study consists of survey question, interviews, and observations of one English department in a rural county to determine the answer to the overarching research question, "What do teachers know about critical thinking?" Paul and Elder's Critical Thinking Model (2007) was used as benchmark to determine what knowledge and what gaps were present amongst the teachers. Teachers defined critical thinking individually, determined what activities encouraged good critical thinking practices, discussed obstacles that deterred the teaching of critical thinking skills in the classroom, and suggested how to prepare teachers to better teach critical thinking skills to meet national expectations. Although the definitions and activities often varied between educators, all agreed that a common definition was necessary. Lack of time and lack of training were the biggest obstacles perceived by the participants