Critical Thinking for Education Students: How to Argue, Analyse and Reflect

Critical thinking isn’t just about doing what’s needed to score higher marks in your assignments; it’s about developing a questioning mindset and an ability to question and interrogate information. The ability to weigh up arguments and make informed judgements is a skill that will benefit students in their academic work, in their placements, and in their professional lives.

This book outlines what critical thinking and critical reflection mean in the context of studying Education or Childhood Studies. It begins by defining what critical thinking means, and shows readers how to get into a critical mindset. Subsequent chapters chart how to go about the process of critical analysis at each stage of working on an assignment, including how to read critically, how to analyse sources and how to write critically. The book also contains guidance on critical reflection and how to demonstrate critical thinking in professional life. Delivering presentations is a common form of assessment and the book contains a dedicated chapter on how to present critical thinking in spoken communication. In addition to a glossary, the book also features critical thinking sentence starters which help students to convey critical analysis using appropriate language in their assignments.

Charlotte Barrow is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Central Lancashire, UK.

Rebecca Westrup is an Associate Professor in Education at the University of East Anglia, UK.