Contributions of the philosophy of education to the development of critical thinking

Abstract

The critical thinking of learners is in crisis, mainly because they are continuously exposed to immediate and unverified information, which weakens the processes of analysis and reflection. In this context, philosophy of education, from its humanistic-critical basis, analyzes the state of the educational fact and builds a conceptual normative framework. This framework evaluates and proposes philosophical methodologies and strategies for the development of critical thinking. The following philosophical methodologies were identified in this work: the Socratic method, the pragmatic approach, the critique of existing conditions, the pedagogy of liberation, philosophy for children, the competency approach from the humanities, and the approach based on the natural capacities of the learner. The article is divided into six parts: the first establishes the relationship between philosophy of education and educational transformation; the second reflects on the contribution of philosophy of education to meaningful learning; the third describes the methodology of this research; the fourth presents the analysis of the data collected; the fifth develops the discussion of the results obtained through interviews with professionals in education and philosophy; and finally, the sixth part presents the conclusions of this research.