Critical thinking in the Norwegian science curriculum

Sammendrag

Abstract

Critical thinking (CT) has been highlighted as a key goal of education internationally and is included in the Norwegian curriculum. Researchers from various scholarly traditions define critical thinking differently, but they agree that critical thinking in­volves both cognitive skills – or abilities – and dispositions. In this study, we examined how different aspects of critical thinking are expressed in the Norwegian core curricu­lum and science curriculum. In addition to the abilities, dispositions and knowledge aspect of CT, we included ethical, cultural and civic dimensions to build a comprehen­sive framework of CT that we applied when analyzing the curriculum. From our results, we can conclude that there are few references to CT in the Norwegian core and science curricula. Formulations of CT in the curriculum are both vague and scarce, which is unfortunate because we know that many teachers lack an understanding of what CT actually entails, and they often feel unprepared to teach CT. To support teachers, we suggest that all aspects of CT need to be elaborated and concretized in the curriculum.