Authors of this paper draw attention to the importance of developing critical thinking in the process of education. For this purpose, we organized a research (an experiment with parallel groups) on a sample (N=246) of third-grade students of primary school, to examine if critical thinking can be developed by a better planned selection of content. The obtained results show that the selection of content can encourage and develop critical thinking of all students, and that there should be no restrictions regarding the classification of students by their overall performance at school.
This paper points out the importance of developing critical thinking in the initial teaching of mathematics and highlights some of the problems associated with its realization. In this context, the authors draw attention to the definition of critical thinking and the role of content (tasks) in its development. Starting from the specificity of initial teaching of mathematics and students' age, critical thinking is operationalized through specific skills (formulation of the problem, reformulation of the problem, evaluation, sensitivity to the problems), that become apparent in work with mathematical content. On a sample of 246 students (9.5-10.4 years old), an experimental study (experiment with parallel groups) was organized in order to examine whether, with the selection of appropriate content (tasks), critical thinking in the initial teaching of mathematics can be developed. The results show that, with the appropriate choice of content, students' critical thinking, viewed as a whole, can be developed and that, in that process, we can significantly influence the development of each of its skills (formulation of the problem, reformulation of the problem, evaluation, sensitivity to the problems).
Descriptive grading has been implemented in the first grade of primary school
in the Republic of Serbia from 2003. The monitoring of this system novelty
has been absent since research community most often dealt with teachers?
attitudes and their self-evaluation of the competences for descriptive
grading. This form of grading, which stems from the social constructivist
paradigm, is observed as the trigger of development of the formative approach
in assessment, which has been in the focus of theoreticians and practitioners
in the past thirty years, especially in the United States of America and
Great Britain. The method of content analysis was applied to 316 descriptive
grades in mathematics given to first grade primary students. The quality of
three key elements was assessed: the description of academic achievement, the
description of students? engagement and the recommendations to achieve
further progress, as well as the balance of quality between the elements of
the same descriptive grade. Research results have shown that descriptive
grades mostly lack the necessary formative capacity. This means that the
majority of students this sample of grades was prepared for did not receive
quality and comprehensive feedback, which would be conducive for their
further education. Formative assessment, as one of the implications of the
constructivist theoretical grounding, demands a high level of development of
teacher competences for monitoring the progress and assessing the students,
which has not been confirmed in the present research.
УводДанас постоји општа сагласност око тога да даровита деца пред-стављају богатство сваке нације и највећи потенцијал свaког друштва. То богатство је неопходно благовремено откривати, неговати и обезбе-дити му адекватну подршку. То значи да је потребно створити концепт образовања и васпитања који ће бити усмерен на развој потенцијала сваког појединца, јер "напредак сваког друштва у великој мери зависи од тога какав је однос према његовим најспособнијим члановима и бри-* Рад је резултат рада у оквиру пројекта Настава и учење: проблеми, циљеви и перспекти-ве, бр. 179026, чији је носилац Учитељски факултет у Ужицу, а који финансира Министар-ство просвете и науке Републике Србије. УДК 37.016:51-028.31 37.042:159.928 -оригинални научни рад-
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