ABSTRACT
Critical thinking and judgement are human faculties of the highest order, enabling human beings to conduct their lives in a personal, well-founded, free and responsible manner, in relation both to each individual’s life project and to the challenges imposed by society from time to time. Regarding the operational aspect, during the twentieth century, the elementary school developed interesting educational and didactic practices, specifically related to primary teaching and the formation of critical thinking and judgement. The issues that children confront fall into every field of the human ecosystem from justice and rights, citizenship and relations with the social community, environmental sustainability, digital, health and well-being, movement, play and sport. The promotion of critical thinking and judgement requires a formative method that refers to three principles: the principle of formative diffusion, the principle of formative transversality and the principle of formative sytematicity.
