ABSTRACT

This edited volume promotes the capacity for critical thinking and judgement in primary school-aged children in the face of the challenges that schools encounter in today’s society.

Foregrounding critical thinking and judgement as essential capacities for children to develop, each chapter offers a space for reflection on the formation of the ability to think and judge in primary school. While presenting a robust conceptual and foundational framework, chapters focus on the educational-didactic practices deemed most authoritative due to their impact on, and their innovative qualities within, the educational landscape today. Themes affecting schools in both the global north and south are discussed, such as social relationships, children’s voices, life skills and digital education, well-being and health, as well as matters of social plurality, inequalities and discrimination, ecology, global economy and the decolonising of education from various international perspectives.

Foregrounding real-world experience within the education system, this book will be of relevance to researchers, scholars and post-graduates in the fields of philosophy of education, moral education and child development. It will also be of interest to pre- and in-service primary education practitioners.

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

part 1|59 pages

Reasons for working on the promotion of thinking and judgement capacity in primary school

chapter Chapter 1|10 pages

Critical thinking in early years of education

From the idea of school to the shapes of thinking

chapter Chapter 3|16 pages

Critical judgement in primary school

Roots, shapes and new pedagogical perspectives

part 2|84 pages

Fields of promotion of thinking and judgement capacity in primary school

chapter Chapter 6|11 pages

Building community

The role of third cultural spaces in community educational agreements

chapter Chapter 8|8 pages

The web as a new space for social relationships

Risks and opportunities

chapter Chapter 12|12 pages

The importance of power sharing and child voice

Trust building for sustainable peace education

chapter Chapter 13|11 pages

Health Promoting Schools and the teaching of life skills

A system for well-being

part 3|64 pages

Educational practices

chapter Chapter 14|11 pages

The encouragement of ethical thinking and caring in children

The MelArete project

chapter Chapter 15|4 pages

The Mirto Educational Centre and Centre for Creative Development “Danilo Dolci”

The methodology of reciprocal maieutics

chapter Chapter 17|10 pages

Informed health choices project

An international validated curriculum to disseminate critical health literacy to the public, starting from primary school-piloting activities in Italian primary schools

chapter Chapter 18|11 pages

The school as a workshop for citizenship

Focus on the active educational practices of Scuola-Città Pestalozzi

chapter Chapter 19|9 pages

The Educational Cooperation Movement, democratic dialogue and the emancipatory power of speaking

The formation of critical thinking at the Centre for Arts and Play – Mario Lodi

chapter Chapter 20|10 pages

Educating agents of change

The international network of Ashoka Changemaker Schools

part |17 pages

Conclusion

chapter |15 pages

The promotion of thinking and judging capacity

Possible project lines