Problematizing Notions of Critical Thinking with Preservice Teachers: A Self-Study Imparting Critical Thinking Strategies to Preservice Teachers: A Self-Study

ABSTRACT

Critical thinking remains a challenge for students even at the undergraduate level. In this article, I describes how he utilized the tenets of self-study to explore introducing critical thinking instructional strategies to preservice teachers. Frustrated and curious, I attempted to better understand the group’s reluctance to using these methods with their own elementary students during internship. To collect and triangulate my data, I asked the preservice teachers to respond to weekly electronic surveys, engaged in focus groups with them, kept reflection notes, and presented his dilemmas and findings to colleagues. Using a narrative analytical process, I uncovered assumptions that affected my relationship and results with the teachers and questioned identities held by himself and the preservice teachers as possibly being unhealthy. The need to consider how the instruction of critical thinking is presented to preservice teachers as well as studying ways to support positive, empowering identify formation in emerging teachers is discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical thinking
• preservice teachers
• self-study
• teacher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steve Haberlin

Steve Haberlin is a PhD candidate in the elementary education department and graduate assistant at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. A K-12 teacher for more than a decade, Steve has worked extensively with gifted students, serving on the Hillsborough County school district gifted education advisory board and helping to train teachers in gifted education across Florida. Steve’s research agenda involves gifted education within teacher preparation programs, the use of innovative qualitative research methods, such as arts-based inquiry, in education, and applying Eastern thought, such as mindfulness, to educational practices. His work has been published in academic journals across various fields. Currently, Steve supervises PSTs in the teacher education practicum at USF.