The power of problem‐based learning in developing critical thinking skills: preparing students for tomorrow’s digital futures in today’s classrooms

Abstract

This article describes problem‐based learning as a powerful pedagogical approach and an aligned teaching and learning system to explicitly and directly teach critical thinking skills in a broad range of disciplines. Problem‐based learning is argued to be a powerful pedagogical approach as it explicitly and actively engages students in a learning and teaching system, characterised by reiterative and reflective cycles of learning domain‐specific knowledge and doing the thinking themselves. At the same time, students are guided and coached by the problem‐based learning teacher, who models critical thinking skills in the acquisition of the domain‐specific knowledge. This article will explore what critical thinking actually means. What are critical thinking skills? How best to teach such skills? What is the potential role of problem‐based learning in teaching critical thinking skills? Finally, the article reflects on how critical thinking can be developed through problem‐based learning as a pedagogical approach in an aligned learning and teaching context.

Keywords:

• constructively aligned teaching and learning
• critical thinking
• deep learning
• digital futures
• problem‐based learning
• student‐focused approach to learning