Facilitating Teaching Critical Thinking Skills, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Education is a social construct that is aimed at preparing individuals for life in society, starting with basic skills necessary to maintain the fundamental functions and conduct the simplest operations, like counting, reading or writing. Simultaneously, education instills in members of a community the rules and regulations ensuring efficient communication and productive participation in society’s events and undertakings. It is a powerful tool of developing people’s identities and shaping sets of values and opinions consistent with the harmonious development of individuals and society.

However, there is no unity of opinion as to which mode of education is the most effective to this end. The history of pedagogy is a record of strategies and techniques that are often contradictory but at the same time, widely used all over the world. Moreover, educational modes differ with regard to the age of those who receive education and cultural specificity of the country he/she is born into. I would also argue that the individualized approach to education lies far beyond matching students’ tempos, achievement levels, and backgrounds (though these components are essential in defining numerous aspects of the educational process in class). Personality characteristics of children may also constitute a crucial domain of research in the field of education. Such specific features are the student’s temperament, leadership skills, readiness, and ability to cooperate and feel comfortable within a group, willingness to respond to interactive methods of education, being intro- or extrovert, or personality type. When planning an educational strategy to utilize in the academic background, a teacher should be well aware of all these characteristics in order to ensure that the education methodology he/she suggests is not, first, harmful or stressful to students. Studying the aspects of group work and individual study sessions might be of critical importance, since they may strongly influence the efficiency of a student’s efforts, creating either favorable or depressing surroundings and, therefore, facilitate or arrest his/her progress.

Problem Statement

A group of elementary school students (5^th grade) is faced with the necessity of applying critical thinking skills at their literature classes. The age of children ranges from 10 to 12 years, and the group is heterogeneous in terms of gender, as there are 9 girls and 6 boys. The children also show varying levels of achievement. The majority of the students can be characterized as making consistent progress in their studies, not showing any outstanding academic performance, however. There are three strong achievers in the group, one of them being a boy with no evident leadership skills and two girls who enjoy popularity among their classmates and compete with each other in both the academic sphere and extracurricular activities. There are also three weak achievers in the group who constantly have difficulty in communicating with the rest of the group, especially with the popular and academically successful girls.

The group, regardless of the level of their academic achievement, demonstrates a lack of critical thinking skills that are essential for the interpretation of literary works identified in the curriculum. The children are able to conduct the factual analysis on the texts without any substantial difficulty, but fail to interpret the facts they elicit. Evidence that supports this learning problem results from a number of assignments based on the interpretation and critical analysis of literary works on the curriculum, which showed the students’ inability to analyze statements and inferences and assess them. The possible source of this problem may be the enormous variety of information messages children are exposed to on a daily basis (for example, on television or on the Internet) which offer them ready-made solutions requiring no effort. Consequently, the students have no motivation to process the information themselves in order to draw their own conclusions. However, the development of critical thinking skills appears to be central in the students’ education as it impossible to perceive the phenomena and events taking place in the surrounding information society and maintain objectivity of opinion and judgment without them.

Rationale

Society is now undergoing drastic changes, which results in challenging traditional values and attitudes. Education, as one of the powers fostering the development of technology and knowledge, should be able to respond to changing needs of society members as soon as possible. Describing the situation with education in the USA, Morgan (1994) noted that the urge to make education compliant with the requirements of the modern society has become an essential part of the concept of education, as “terms like paradigm shift, break-the-mold schools, total quality management, and more have become part of the educational development lexicon” (p. 44).

However, now the necessity of finding new sources of enhancement for school education has become extremely acute, as children and adults have developed new attitude to information and new ways to absorb and process it, being born to and raised in an information society. Reigeluth and Garfinkle (1994) stressed the need for a new paradigm in education stipulated by the radical shifts in the educational needs of society members and the conditions affected by the information society. Though the issue was not so acute back then, the authors foresaw the inevitability of modifications to educational process, since the development of information society was sure to entail technological advances and emergence of new media. Reigeluth and Garfinkle (1994) suggested an educational framework called LearningSphere 2000 aimed at active learning consisting in meaning construction:

“Tasks that are vehicles for such learning will be “authentic” tasks, often in real-world environments, rich for learning. As students seek to solve real-world challenges, they will find the need for mathematical and communication skills and will then be more motivated to learn them. Most tasks will be interdisciplinary, drawing on both specific knowledge and such general skills as transfer of information across settings, negotiation and interpersonal skills, and decision-making skills” (p. 60).

Reigeluth and Garfinkle (1994) also challenged the role of the teacher who should act as a non-interfering consultant instead of offering ready-made decisions to students and demanding that they copy the previously lived, processed and generalized experience. The teacher should be “an instructional manager and facilitator” providing assistance in identifying instructional goals, analyzing the existing range of means to achieve these goals and implementing the chosen strategy (Reigeluth & Garfinkle, 1994, p. 60).

Since information is changing society, the ability to process it quickly and effectively and make use of the obtained results has become a priority skill for modern people. Consequently, communication is becoming the central concept in the process of both defining goals of education and choosing techniques to achieve these goals. However, with the advances in technology people have become arrested in their own informational space, spending increasingly more time in the virtual reality instead of maintaining contacts with the surrounding real-life people. According to Power (2012), social media like Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter provide convenient and overwhelming connection space to people from all over the world, going far beyond the envisioned “global village” framework developed in the 1960s. The abstract concept has become material, and as the author emphasizes, “since education has always been about exposing people to new ideas, it’s not surprising that the impact of social media is being felt in the education sector” (Power, 2012, para. 1-2).

More specifically, electronic and online media have already become parts of educational process, and in various countries all over the world, early children’s education includes introduction of concepts of social media. Though primary school students are not adult enough to join social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook, they may be taught with the aid of fun learning sites like Pixton that utilize the majority of the ideas found operating for the popular social networks. In addition, children receive training in the ways to connect and communicate with people and access information existing outside the educational framework (Power, 2012, para. 3-4).

Another development producing an effect on the way modern education is carried out is the “gamification” of education. As children grow older, they tend to become interested in using the computer at home for entertainment and communication. Modern children are now referred to as “digital natives”, as they have not lived in a world that would not provide them with an easy access to any kind of information they want through the Internet. They tend to quickly develop computer skills, and in many classes, educators carry out activities that are based on these skills in order to make children more interested in education (Power, 2012, para. 6). Power gives an example of quite a controversial approach, noting that:

“… the theory is that by changing at least some of the curriculum to adopt familiar social media activities like checking in or collecting incremental rewards for completing various tasks, the education system will become more relevant to students, more comfortable with the “gamification” culture” (Power, 2012, para. 7).

Teachers also employ new methods of sharing knowledge and discussing methodology with their colleagues all over the world through blogs, encouraging comments from teachers and students (Power, 2012, para. 9). Communication routinely becomes quite impersonal, being restricted to a set of symbols in a small post (on Twitter, up to 140 characters). At the same time, it becomes as important as never before, since any interaction among society members involves communication on a global scale within the framework of the globalized e-society.

However, another question emerges – does the radical change in the way children communicate affect the traditional modes of group and individual work? Previously, progressive teaching techniques concentrated on learning through cooperation, stressing the importance of group work for the development of a healthy personality and achievement of educational and social goals. A prominent example of such a methodology is Lave and Wenger’s communities of practice, which presupposed a collaborative educational framework outside the formal classroom.

According to Hara (2009), communities of practice are “collaborative, informal networks that support professional practitioners in their efforts to develop shared understandings and engage in work-relevant knowledge building” (p. 3). The approach, or rather the principles consistent with it, is quite popular with progressive teachers wishing to develop strong and healthy relationships within a class. However, individual education also has numerous proponents claiming that educational requirements and techniques should be defined not only in accordance with the sought aims, but also with the individual peculiarities of every student. According to Chandra & Sharma (2004):

“Kindergarten, Montessori and Project methods, all of which are modern methods of child education, attempt to provide the highest degree of individual attention possible. But where education is to be provided to a very large number of individuals, it is the most expensive kind of education yet devised since one educator can pay attention to the specific needs of only a very small number of students” (p. 8).

There are objective financial reasons why a sufficient amount of attention is at times impossible to allocate to all students. However, individual tasks accomplished by modern students show that the modern society has created a unique framework, where children obtain knowledge through communication without performing an active role in this process. Trei (2006) produced an example of a real-life classroom situation, when a teacher asked students to read Elie Wiesel’s Night and express their thoughts in a creative way, by writing an essay or otherwise. One student who happened to be among weak achievers, was studying digital music as part of an experimental educational program aimed at establishing the effect of digital technologies on students’ progress.

The student read the book and brilliantly expressed his ideas pertaining to it through rap, making the teacher recognize that the student had far more potential than the teacher might have ever suspected. What is more, this potential might have never been exposed but for this creative task (Trei, 2006, para. 8). Though Trei emphasizes the role of digital media in the student’s success, another trend becomes notable – education in the age of digital technology should not regard the individual attention towards students. With the development of technology, students have obtained a new range of means to express their personalities.

The example with the weak-achieving student who managed to impress his teachers with his creativity through rap suggests that there is much to explore about students’ personalities. Firstly, the effect of individual work on educational activities should be studied because new aspects and sides of students’ personalities may be revealed in the information society. Secondly, the changes in the behavioral and developmental patterns of children  that might affect group work, too, as communication is now viewed by students as an internet-based activity, and they may find it challenging to perform even a simple task having to take into consideration interests and abilities of other members of a group.

The results of the research aimed at finding out how group and individual work might affect the learning process in the identified group will be instrumental. On the one hand, it will allow one to establish if students experience communication and critical thinking problems when engaged in any kind of collective work, due to growing absorption into the life online and increasing gap between real and virtual life. Forming homogeneous and heterogeneous groups with regard to the level of the students’ academic performance might give a chance to understand if students feel more psychologically comfortable when they are on the same level of achievement with all group members.

It is extremely important to maintain the equal focus on both individual and collective work. The results of this investigation may be used to modify the learning process with regard to the students’ objective achievements in group assignments. Presently, the students are grouped into heterogeneous circles for the completion of group tasks. This is done in pursuit of the goal of ensuring collaboration within a team, as stronger achievers are supposed to share their knowledge with weaker team members.

However, it is possible that working in heterogeneous circles will cause additional stress for students. Virtual communication is fully controlled by them, as they may filter their friends, correct their ideas and ignore or delete those messages that they find disturbing or useless. Real-life communication maintained in order to achieve a common goal does not give one much space or time, a student has to process information quickly and produce ideas taking into account other group members’ interests. Communicating with an academically superior or inferior counterpart might make a students feel uncomfortable or impatient. The objective data is expected to show which approach is more efficient to enhance the development of critical thinking skills in students.

In addition, personal characteristics of students need to be studied thoroughly. Logical thinking suggests that students’ ability to participate productively in teamwork differs from one personality to another. The relevant characteristics that might influence the learning process are leadership skills, student’s temperament, personality type, etc. One may assume that children who possess leadership skills, born or developed, are more likely to show outstanding achievements in the group work than those children who prefer executive functions do. The speed of response and reactions and the ability to withstand stress and pressure may also differ for group members, hampering the successful accomplishment of a task. On the other hand, these characteristics may produce a benevolent effect on teamwork, in case the members of the group have distinct functions that do not overlap and stress every participant’s strength. For example, two apparent leaders within one group are likely to have conflict situations, whereas distributing functions between leaders and subordinates with regard to the individual characteristics and preferences of students may just as well facilitate the learning process. Thus, the relevance of this study is conditioned by the shifts in communication and collaboration patterns, the change of the concept of education and continuing interest towards individualized and collaborative education methodologies among educators and theorists.

Objectives

The overall goal of the present study can be defined with regard to the children constituting the focus group of the study. The goal for these learners is to develop efficient critical thinking skills while reading literature (within the academic background) and referring to various sources of information (both within and beyond the education sphere). Presently, the students experience difficulties in the application of their own judgments and attitudes to the ideas offered for their consideration by the school curriculum.

The ultimate goal may be achieved through gradual achievement of the following objectives, which comply with the essence of critical thinking:

• Developing rationality through reliance on evidence rather than emotion;
• Learning how to give evaluation to all the reasonable inferences;
• Learning to be open to a range of perspectives instead of sticking to one’s own viewpoint;
• Adopting an active approach to the analysis of facts;
• Developing the ability to abstain from radical and subjective judgments;
• Learning to see the complexity of motives, causes and consequences (Kurland, 2000).

Now, only few students are able to see the difference between the objective reality and their subjective perception of it; they are also ready to actively analyze the facts in order to draw conclusions. However, the development of these skills in all the students of the group, as well as the extension of the insufficient critical thinking skills possessed by some students remains a challenge. The adoption of an active approach constitutes the biggest obstacle now, as it is the precondition to the achievement of all other objectives. The analysis of the facts obtained from reading exercises is the basis for the development of other critical thinking skills.

Children are able to read the text at approximately the same pace, but lack interpretation skills necessary to obtain facts for processing from the text. In general, they tend to perceive the text through the prism of their own emotions summarizing their impressions with the variations of the phrases, “I liked it” or “I didn’t like it”. After mastering the skill of noticing essential facts and drawing important inferences from the text, the children should learn how to give evaluation to them, operating the categories of cause and consequence, ethical or unethical and basing their judgment on explicit or implicit evidence. At this point, the majority of students stop being interested in the material. Consequently, this learning objective should be given additional attention in order to make the students involved into the learning process.

Another objective that requires considerable effort and attention is learning to be open and susceptible to other students’ perspectives. This objective is critical, as the correlating skill refers to not only critical thinking, but also the general ability of a student to maintain a polite and efficient conversation. As mentioned above, modern students lack real-life communication skills, being unable to respond to some ideas quickly and feeling pressurized when exposed to several opinions at a time and forced to react to them. One of the beneficial outcomes of the achievement of this objective is the ability to elicit useful information or an overlooked fact from other people’s viewpoints.

In the reality, children are not interested in each other’s perspectives and lose their interest in the topic as soon as they have expressed their viewpoint. When a student’s classmate goes on to share his/her viewpoint, the former is unlikely to be following in order to obtain some information. In case there is a dialogue between students related to an exchange of opinions, it is frequently devoid of tolerance, as the students tend to consider their own beliefs and judgments correct, accepting the teacher’s words as possibly correct if they contradict their views and rejecting their classmates’ opinions as incorrect.

Learning to see the complexity of motives appears to be the most challenging objective, as the students require simple explanations and unequivocal causes and motives, though the task lies in exactly the opposite outcome. The children are frustrated when they fail to receive a simple answer and find it hard to adjust to the thought that there might be none. Accepting indefiniteness as an ultimate result of work makes them confused. However, the collaborative research approach implied by the present study may give them the motivation to make efforts to understand clearly what their ultimate goal is and how they can achieve it.

The critical thinking skills that I seek to develop in my students, according to Lavery and Hughes (2008), help children determine if the arguments presented are logically strong and if there is a sound basis for such a judgment. The task itself is quite complex, which is conditioned by three circumstances. Firstly, the exact meaning of an argument must be determined before passing judgment as to the soundness of an argument (p. 22). However, this stage is especially problematic:

“It would be convenient if the meaning of arguments were always clear, but unfortunately this is often not so. An argument may be unclear because the meaning of one or more of its statements is unclear or because the nature of the connection that is being asserted between the premises and conclusion is unclear. This means we have to learn how to interpret statements and arguments in a way that makes their meaning as clear as possible” (Lavery & Hughes, 2008, pp. 22-23).

This range of critical thinking skills can be collectively referred to as interpretive skills. There is also another complication, as it frequently quite a challenging task to determine whether some given statements are true or false. Even though one may be certain as to the meaning of a statement, one may find it impossible to decide if it reflects the objective reality or not. The group of skills necessary to develop in order to differentiate between true and false statements can be called verification skills. Finally, when it comes to assessing arguments, one faces a new range of issues, as different types of inferences require different assessment kinds. Therefore, it is crucial to develop the ability to recognize and distinguish between the different types of inferences, as well as awareness of the corresponding assessment methods (Lavery & Hughes, 2008, p. 23).

The three groups of critical thinking skills – interpretive, verification and reasoning – are instrumental not only for the literature classes. They may be successfully applied in work with information of any kind. As Lavery and Hughes (2008) put it,

“We are inundated with information of all sorts, but this information is useless unless we know how to use it in our thinking to draw out its implications and consequences. Much of it is incomplete and one-sided in ways that are often not apparent and if we are not on our guard, we may be misled” (p. 23).

Moreover, critical thinking skills are crucial in dealing with arguments imposed on members of society by preachers, politicians, editorial writers, as they make efforts to persuade people of the truthfulness and validity of their views in order to pursue their own interests. Though literary analysis reveals students’ potential in critical thinking only in certain aspects, without giving them a comprehensive picture of how these skills may be utilized in real-life situations, such classes are aimed at creating the basis for the development of children’s awareness of the variety of existing views on many issues and the ability to make reasonable choices on the basis of the information they receive from a variety of media channels.

The results of this research may facilitate the development of critical thinking skills in literature class, as they should show what kind of work – group or individual – is more efficient for the development of interpretive, verification, or reasoning critical thinking skills. Probably, it is a balanced combination of group assignments and individual feedback on them that ensures the best result. However, it is also possible that focusing on individual work in the development of such skills will be the best strategy, as critical thinking cannot be offered to students for emulation or imitation. It is also impossible to envision a collective pattern of critical thinking arising as a result of group work. Overall, the research will also help find out if group work is efficient in the development of highly individual critical thinking skills.

Literature Review

Educators have been interested in ways to facilitate education of children and youths for a long time. Children learn from their earliest days, developing basic skills at the beginning and more complex ones later. Making educational activities consistent with children’s natural behavior is viewed as an efficient approach. Theorists and practitioners of education have referred to the children’s cognitive processes in order to understand how children perceive ideas, what enhances, and what hampers the process. An interest in the cognitive basis of learning helps educators understand more clearly their goals and influence the process of education more profoundly. Nutbrown (2006) mentioned that there is a connection between how children develop the simplest skills and absorb knowledge during school years: “The early schemas of babies form the basis of the patterns of behavior which children show between the ages of 2 and 5 years, and these in turn become established foundations for learning” (p. 10).

This idea is supported by Athey who claimed that children tend to notice elements of the surrounding world if they are interested in them and develop patterns of behavior manifest in their play, thinking and language. These repeated patterns are assumed to be the basis for later learning (Nutbrown, 2006, pp. 10-11). It is logical to suggest that these patterns are very individual in every case, as it is impossible to think of two children who have developed exactly the same pattern of thinking and behaving in society. However, education is normally provided within a group; consequently, a question arises – how can a teacher cater for a variety of “schemas” (patterns of thought and behavior) if they are assembled within a small group?

This issue is a central concern for teachers, playgroup workers or kindergarten officers, as the objective fact is that “all children have their own individual learning styles, and their patterns of learning make up part of this learning style” (Nutbrown, 206, pp. 13-14). One of the aspects of the problem is how group work can be conducted with regard to the different schemas, as the surrounding world is equally important in the development of patterns of thought. Thus, giving children an opportunity to contact their peers and work on assignments together may be equally important in education activities. The present research focuses on the study of the influence of group work and individual work on the development of basic critical thinking skills in elementary school students, which may be a contribution to the field.

First, individual and group work has long been the focus for educators. Pollard (1994) indicated that there was a change in the sociology of primary schooling at the end of the 20^th century. Maintaining an emphasis on issues of social differentiation concerning class, race and gender, such researchers as Hartley, Pollard, Sharp and Green, Lubeck and King extended the sphere of their interests to include the consequences of this differentiation, typification and group formation (Pollard, 1994, p. 12). Moreover, as the author indicated,

“The previously dominant model, which implicitly conceptualized children as individual ‘active scientists’, has begun to be superseded by an image of children as social beings who construct their understandings (learn) from social interaction within socio-cultural settings. They are thus seen as intelligent social actors who, although their knowledge base may be limited in absolute terms, are capable in many ways” (Pollard, 1994, p. 13).

According to Farrell (1999), however, there is no opposition between the two modes of work, as they are aimed at developing different skills. Individual work is regarded as efficient for helping students work autonomously, thus fostering and enhancing the skills of independent work and thinking. At the same time, group work, or learning together, is instrumental for the development of language and social skills and utilizes the social setting of the learning process to facilitate it (Farrell, 1999, p. 54). At this point, it is important to realize what group the sought skills belong to. It appears that critical thinking skills can be referred to both groups, as it is impossible to assess ideas without individual thinking, which requires a degree of independence of thought. At the same time, these skills may be and should be utilized in the social surroundings. Therefore, it is of no assistance to disregard either group or individual work. However, the proportion may vary.

To understand how individual and group work may influence the educational process, one should look at the essence of what is learnt. Critical thinking skills may be developed through problem-solving activities. Hmelo-Silver (2004) paid special attention to the process of problem-based learning and its basis. According to the author, problem-based approaches have a long history of application and emphasize practical experience in learning, which means that students learn by solving issues and reflecting on the results of their work (Hmelo-Silver, 2004, p. 236). Problem-based learning (PBL) has proved effective in helping students to become active participants in the process of their education, as “it situates learning in real-world problems and makes students responsible for their learning” (Hmelo-Silver, 2004, p. 236). This aspect is extremely important, as active participation and interest of students are a precondition to the successful achievement of educational aims.

PBL presupposes work in small collaborative groups in order to elaborate strategies to solve a problem. The goals of such a learning mode are the following:

• To develop a wide and adaptable knowledge base;
• To develop efficient problem-solving skills;
• To establish a pattern for self-directed and lifelong learning;
• To become team players and collaborators;
• To develop an intrinsic motivation for continuing learning (Hmelo-Silver, 2004, p. 240).

It appears that the goals of PBL are consistent with the objectives of this study, as critical thinking skills are applied not only in the classroom, but in everyday life, since children are exposed to enormous amounts of information that may and should be analyzed. The ability to utilize these skills contributes to daily learning, as children learn how to analyze their experience and draw relevant conclusions from it. Fostering team work is essential because of the lack of casual communication between children outside the academic background, which is stipulated by the development of social networking and Internet-based communication.

However, there are restrictions to the application of the approach that Hmelo-Silver (2004) mentioned, one of them being lack of skilled facilitators (teachers). There are more students in classrooms than one teacher can facilitate effectively. The situation can be ameliorated through the use of video-, audio-, and visual equipment (a hypermedia textbook, a whiteboard, videocassettes, etc.) (Hmelo-Silver, 2004, p. 261).

University Teaching Development Center (2004), giving recommendations for the enhancement of group work, emphasized, “well-designed and conducted group work leads to greater retention and understanding of what is taught” (p. 2). Simultaneously, a list of benefits of group work is presented:

• Well-developed cooperation and organization skills;
• Opportunities to realize students’ leadership potential and exercise shared leadership within a group;
• Promotion of active participation in educational activities and the given course in particular;
• Improvements in students’ academic performance;
• Opportunity to engage in complex projects provided for students;
• Fostering students’ independence and autonomy through partially transferring responsibility for learning and teaching to students (University Teaching Development Center, 2004, p. 3)

Another benefit provided by group work is the opportunity to receive peers’ feedback on the ideas expressed by the student, discuss his /her personal understanding of a problem, and, therefore, contribute to the development of critical thinking skills, which is essential for the present study.

Pang, Tong and Wong (2011) also studied the effect of team work on individual satisfaction of participants. According to this research, though students may be working on certain group assignments on a temporary basis, they develop patterns of behavior observed in permanent teams, which shows that students regard themselves as part of a team whose interests are important. The study also indicated that learning how to work in a team is as essential as what is learnt in the process (Pang, Tong, & Wong, 2011, p. 101).

Sage (2007), however, indicated not only the benefits, but also the risks of group work that should be taken into account. First, if the task is not accomplished properly, the group may blame the failure on one person causing enormous pressure and discomfort to him/her. Another undesirable outcome may be fostering unnecessary conformist behavior and induction of apathy, passive attitude, withdrawal from participation, boredom. On a personal plane, a group may consist of opposing members, for example, competitors fighting for the group’s attention and approval. This may result in personality clashes and overall destructive atmosphere. Some members may impose dominance that is unpleasant and uncomfortable for other group members, hampering the productive work of a team. In case a group member is not skilled in discussions and negotiations, he/she may appear to be excluded from the activity. In addition, creating a group where personality balance is observed is extremely difficult (Sage, 2007, p. 23).

Individual work, according to Hurwitz and Day (2007) should be combined with group activities, providing varying types of tasks. However, the authors claim that individual work involving self-expression will always be primary, as children need opportunities for artistic expression and the chance to respond individually to their peers’ ideas (Hurwitz & Day, 2007, p. 304). Peklaj & Levpuš?ek (n.d.) linked the two types of work together in their research, concentrating on motivation and academic success of students influenced by the quality of individual and collaborative work. The results of their study showed that the most important factor affecting students’ performance was the subjective task value for the studied subject (Peklaj & Levpuš?ek, n.d., p. 158). However, this applies to older students, as children at elementary school have simple motivation without far-reaching perspectives in the view. What is applicable to elementary school is the authors’ finding that psychological comfort is extremely important for the accomplishment of both individual and group tasks, though the aspect of anxiety experienced by students is adaptive (Peklaj & Levpuš?ek, n.d., p. 158). This evidence allows one to assume that differentiation should be one of the main principles that define how the present research will be conducted. Though the difference in the effectiveness of application of group work and individual work for the development of critical thinking skills remains the main focus of the research, distinguishing between strong and weak achievers, extrovert and introvert personalities, leaders and subordinates appears relevant, as psychological comfort is equally important for successful study activities in both cases. A teacher should employ a variety of methods to ensure optimum comfort for the students in either mode of work, whereas every student has his/her own criteria for defining comfort.

Differentiation, or the individualized approach to education, presupposes paying special attention to learning needs of particular individuals rather than conducting teaching activities as if all the students in class were approximately alike. Conklin (2009) indicated, however, that despite the existing variety of guidance and recommendations on how to ensure individualized approach, there is no uniform strategy and teachers have difficulty in applying the approach in practice. Students of the same class may be categorized according to their academic achievements, special needs, talents, etc. (Conklin, 2009, p. 19). Therefore, it is impossible to choose a strategy in class that would work satisfactorily for every student. According to Conklin, “students have differing learning styles, come from different cultures, experience a variety of emotions, and have varied interests. For each subject, they also differ in academic readiness” (2009, p. 19).

The necessity to differentiate curricula is supported by the data of the National Research Council that suggest that students make inferences as to the information they receive in class referring to their prior attitudes, beliefs, understandings and learning styles. Differentiated curricula are made with regard to this fact. The data showed that to trigger the real learning process, the students have to be pushed beyond their independence levels (Conklin, 2009, p. 20). According to Piaget’s perspective shared by Conklin (2009),

“Differentiated curriculum provides an avenue by which lessons can challenge, but not overwhelm, students based on their ability levels. Both emotions and movement enhance the learning process, and when students have opportunities to study their interests, their motivation for learning increases” (p. 20).

Differentiation allows the teacher to employ numerous grouping techniques and assign varying tasks in order to reach every student, regardless of his/her background, perspectives, achievements, etc. Several strategies might simplify the task of differentiating curricula for students:

• To find out what interests students have; allocate enough time and effort to establish the students’ readiness levels and learning styles;
• To study a range of possible teaching strategies and possible contexts they apply to; to analyze the actual setting and select the strategy that is likely to be the most efficient;
• To identify those instructional activities which are flexible and easy to differentiate; to try them in class;
• To be open to innovations and changes, as the learning process is likely to provide unique new facts and criteria for differentiation (Conklin, 2009, p. 21).

Overall, the review of literature concerning the focus of the present study has shown that differentiation should be the central principle of innovation in class, as it agrees with the ideas on children’s differing schemas of learning. In addition, a balanced combination of individual and group work is likely to be the most efficient teaching strategy for the development of critical thinking skills in elementary school students who lack their own experience to base their learning on it. The problem-solving tasks may appear instrumental for the achievement of the research objectives, as the predicted results of the completion of such tasks reflect the essence of the critical thinking skills.

Conclusion

The development of critical thinking skills is extremely important in the education of elementary school students as it impossible for children to perceive the phenomena and events taking place in the surrounding information society and maintain objectivity of opinion and judgment without well-developed analysis, reasoning, and evaluation skills. The relevance of the present research is determined by the necessity to work in compliance with a new paradigm in education stipulated by the radical shifts in the educational needs of society members and the conditions affected by the information society. The major goal of the present research is to establish the efficiency of individual and group work aimed at the development of critical thinking skills while reading literature and processing information inflowing from various sources on a daily basis.

The review of literature concerning the focus of the research has shown that differentiation should be the starting point for innovation in class, as it is consistent with the ideas on children’s differing schemas of learning. These schemas are the cognitive basis for every learning activity; they are formed in the early childhood as a result of lived experiences. The schemas are manifest not only in behavior, but also in thought, that is why it is crucial to develop education strategies with regard to the existence of these schemas. As all thought patterns are unique, education should be differentiated. It may presuppose group work, individual work, or a combination of the two. There is no opposition between the two modes of work, because they are aimed at developing different skills. Individual work may be stressed to help students work autonomously, which fosters and enhances the skills of independent work and thinking. At the same time, group work, or learning together, is highly effective for the development of language and social skills; it utilizes the context and social setting of the learning process to facilitate it. As critical thinking is not restricted to forming individual judgments but implies interpretation of the incoming signals from the surrounding world, one may assume that a balanced combination of individual and group work is likely to be the most efficient teaching strategy for the development of critical thinking skills in elementary school students who lack their own experience to base their learning on it. The problem-solving tasks may appear helpful for the achievement of the research objectives, as the predicted results of the completion of such tasks reflect the essence of the critical thinking skills. Problem-based learning locates the learning process within the real-life setting, which motivates students to study and makes them active participants in the study activities.

The data obtained from previous research suggests that psychological comfort is equally important for successful study activities in both individual and group work, which means that the teacher should conduct careful planning of study activities in terms of grouping. He/she should take into account a wide variety of psychological and cultural factors that affect students’ self-identification and relationships within a group. Though the difference in the effectiveness of group work and individual work for the development of critical thinking skills remains the focus of the research, it is also necessary to take into account the characteristics of students as individuals and, at the same time, members of a group.

The results of this study should show what kind of work – group or individual – is more efficient for the development of interpretive, verification, or reasoning critical thinking skills. It is likely to be a balanced combination of group assignments and individual feedback on them that ensures the best result, which agrees with the findings outlined in the literature review. However, it is also possible that focusing on individual work in the development of such skills may be the best strategy, as critical thinking cannot be offered to students for emulation or imitation, it can only be developed from the life experience the students have. It is also impossible to envision a collective pattern of critical thinking arising because of group work. Nevertheless, individual work is likely to provide some of the students with the sought psychological comfort if they need to express their personalities. The research may also help establish if group tasks can be used for the development of highly individual critical thinking skills.

References

Chandra, S.S., & Sharma, R.K. (2004). Principles of Education. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors.

Conklin, W. (2009) Basics of Differentiation. In W. Conklin, & C. Sorrell (Eds.) Applying Differentiation Strategies (2^nd ed.) (pp. 19-25). Huntington Beach, CA: Shell Education.

Farrell, M. (1999). Key Issues for Primary Schools. London: Routledge.

Hara, N. (Ed.) (2009). Communities of Practice: Fostering Peer-to-Peer Learning and Informal Knowledge Sharing in the Work Place. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

Hmelo-Silver, C.E. (2004). Problem-based learning: what and how do students learn? Educational Psychology Review, 16(3), 235-266.

Hurwitz, A., & Day, M. (2007). Children and Their Art: Methods for the Elementary School (8^th ed).Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education.

Kurland, D.J. (2000). What Is Critical Thinking? How the Language Really Works: The Fundamentals of Critical Reading and Effective Writing. Retrieved 30 October 2012 from http://www.criticalreading.com/critical_thinking.htm.

Lavery, J., & Hughes, W. (2008). Critical Thinking (5^th ed). Peterborough, Ontario: Broarview Press.

Morgan, R.M. (1994). Educational Reform: Top-Down or Bottom-Up? In C.H. Reigeluth & R.J. Garfinkle (Eds.), Systemic Change in Education (pp. 43-52). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications,

Nutbrown, C. (2006). Threads of Thinking: Young Children Learning and the Role of Early Education (3^rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Pang, E., Tong, C., & Wong, A. (2011). Key determinants of student satisfaction when undertaking group work. American Journal of Business Education, 4(10), 93-104.

Peklaj, C., & Levpuš?ek, M. P. (n.d.). Students’ motivation and academic success in relation to the quality of individual and collaborative work during a course in educational psychology. Retrieved October 17, 2012, from http://www.pef.uni-lj.si/atee/978-961-6637-06-0/147-161.pdf

Pollard, A. (1994). Towards a sociology of learning in primary schools. In A. Pollard & J. Bourne (Eds.) Teaching and Learning in the Primary School (pp. 12-27), London: Routledge.

Power, D. (2012, January 10). How Social Media Is Changing Education, Sprout Insights. Retrieved 30 October 2012 from http://sproutsocial.com/insights/2012/01/social-media-education/.

Reigeluth, C.M., & Garfinkle, R.J. (1994). Envisioning a New System of Education. In C.H. Reigeluth & R.J. Garfinkle (Eds.), Systemic Change in Education (pp. 59-70). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.

Sage, R. (2007). Inclusion in Schools: Making a Difference. New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Trei, L. (2006, November 15). Researchers look at how technology is changing the concept of traditional education. Stanford News Service news release. Retrieved 30 October 2012 from http://news.stanford.edu/pr/2006/pr-barron-111506.html.

University Teaching Development Center. (2004). Improving teaching and learning: group work and group assessment. Retrieved from http://www.utdc.vuw.ac.nz/resources/guidelines/groupwork.pdf.