Full Description
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.
Contents
Introduction Part 1: Reasons for Working on the Promotion of Thinking and Judgement Capacity in Primary School 1. Critical Thinking in Early Years of Education. From the Idea of School to the Shapes of Thinking 2. Creativity as a Pedagogical Premise of Critical Thinking and Judgement 3. Critical Judgement in Primary School: Roots, Shapes and New Pedagogical Perspectives 4. Teaching Constitutional Principles to Shape Democratically Aware Children 5. Reciprocal Maieutics and Conscientisation, Danilo Dolci's Ecopedagogy Part 2: Fields of Promotion of Thinking and Judgement Capacity in Primary School 6. Building Community: The Role of Third Cultural Spaces in Community Educational Agreements 7. Homo Digitalis? The New Challenges for the Development of Critical Thinking and Judgement Capacity 8. The Web as a New Space for Social Relationships. Risks and Opportunities 9. The paideia of Effort as a Drive for Critical Thinking 10. The Development of a Critical Perspective on Targets, Persecutors and Spectators of Bullying in Primary Schools: The Children's Rights and Regulatory Framework 11. Teaching Game Concepts in Primary School 12. The Importance of Power Sharing and Child Voice: Trust Building for Sustainable Peace Education 13. Health Promoting Schools and the Teaching of Life Skills: A System for Well-Being Part 3: Educational Practices 14. The Encouragement of Ethical Thinking and Caring in Children: The MelArete Project 15. The Mirto Educational Centre and Centre for Creative Development "Danilo Dolci": the Methodology of Reciprocal Maieutics 16. Intercultural Dialogue and Cooperation from Local to Global 17. 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 18. The School as a Workshop for Citizenship: Focus on the Active Educational Practices of Scuola-Città Pestalozzi 19. 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 20. Educating Agents of Change: The International Network of Ashoka Changemaker Schools Conclusion - The Promotion of Judging Capacity: Possible Project Lines
