Examining Pre-Service Teachers’ Critical Thinking Competences within the Framework of Education for Sustainable Development: A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

Empowering teachers with Critical Thinking and an understanding of sustainability is vital for guiding students’ informed decisions and actions in today’s world. Higher education needs innovative, student-centered methods like case-based teaching in order to promote Critical Thinking and the principles of Education for Sustainable Development. The aim of the study was to explore and evaluate pre-service teachers’ Critical Thinking when engaged with case studies in a practicum preparation course centered on Education for Sustainable Development. Nine undergraduate students in teacher education participated in the study and answered four case studies. The case studies’ responses were analyzed through a bottom-up content analysis revealing eight higher-order categories. While approaching the case studies, student teachers followed thinking processes similar to the processes proposed by the iterative models of Critical Thinking. Nevertheless, in some cases, pre-service teachers’ disengagement was evident. The rubric assessment highlighted that the responses fell under three profiles, namely the “Deficient Critical Thinker”, the “Emerging Critical Thinker” and the “Competent Critical Thinker”. The findings emphasize the need for targeted and individualized teaching interventions in teacher higher education programs aiming at Education for Sustainable Development complying with the learning needs of student teachers’ Critical Thinking profiles.

Organizational Learning within the Context of the Functioning of Educational Teams: The Progressive Emergence of a Professional Metamorphosis

“…We therefore conclude that, despite the use of new technologies and some very specific practices of exploration and research pedagogy, there is a weakness in the implementation of student-centered pedagogical approaches geared to promoting active learning and decision-making-with teaching based on specific problems and cases-and capable of promoting critical thinking, which is necessary to face the challenges of the future [70].…”