Critical thinking in the national curriculum and teacher education in South Korea: a missing link

Abstract

Critical thinking (CT) is an essential quality promoted in educational policies across diverse education systems, yet there has been little effort to clarify its meaning and significance at the policy level. Because such clarification is essential to derive meaningful implications for preparing teachers for CT, this study critically analyses the conceptualisation of CT in two interrelated key policies-the national curriculum and teacher education (TE), focusing on the South Korean context. From a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analyses on pertinent policy documents, a serious inconsistency is found between the national curriculum and TE in terms of their understanding and presentation of CT. Although CT is presented in several subject syllabi as an important skill in attaining the curriculum vision, it is greatly marginalised in TE. This study contends that because the meaning of CT is ambiguous and has a lower status than other curriculum-based skills, this could lead to ignorance of it in TE. To identify the specific knowledge and skills that would build teachers' capacity for teaching CT, further clarification of CT regarding its definition, pedagogical meaning and relationship with other comparable skills is thus necessary at the policy level.