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The development of critical thinking is one of the best teachings to be given to children.

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It is in our hands to provide the youngest with the necessary critical thinking in the face of the information that may reach them, and even before life itself. And it is that working on such critical thinking is a fundamental task for their personal and formative development. The ultimate goal is for children to be able to have their own opinion about a topic and to assess previously the pros and cons of it.

It is not an easy job, but it is very necessary. Work in which motivation is an excellent way to enrich your critical thinking through different approaches and questions.

Critical thinking is a process that aims to analyze, understand or evaluate the way in which knowledge is organized to interpret and represent the world, in particular the opinions or affirmations that in everyday life are usually accepted as true.

That is, critical thinking includes the ability to reason and think logically, analyze and judge situations appropriately and act on a well-founded basis. It is a skill that will not only help the child to better consolidate what he learns or to solve the exams more easily, but it will prepare him to face many moments of life in which he will have to make decisions or face with a rational spirit experiences, information or own attitudes and those around him.

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To teach children to think critically, it is very important:

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• Do not impose our criteria and let them decide autonomously.

• Teach them to differentiate the important from the secondary.

• Teach them to analyze the pros and cons, to encourage them to ask and to be well informed, and for that, we must make them develop in an environment where intellectual curiosity flows.

• We must choose topics that are of interest to children, encourage debate, provoke controversy, ask many questions and give different answers, compare and contrast stories, and of course, even if they are wrong, make them feel safe reinforcing their confidence in They.

Teaching them to look for explanations of life in general will help them to think and therefore to be aware and draw conclusions. It is essential to perform tasks in groups and make it clear that nothing happens because of having another point of view and not agreeing with the opinion of others. In addition, they will learn to develop values ​​such as equality, tolerance, empathy.

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Activities to stimulate critical thinking.

To stimulate critical thinking in children we can resort to activities such as:

1. Simple mathematical problems.

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2. Take news from the newspaper that they can value and give their opinion, for example the opening of a municipal market in their neighborhood.

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1. Encourage reading and watching movies to make a debate later.
   
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4. Comics for children. helps the child create his own stories based on the images, giving each character a personality of their own.

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4. Make activity cards and questions, open source.

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"Do not just teach your child to read, teach him to question what they read ... teach him to question everything!" George Carlin

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Source of information:

http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-promote-critical-thinking

https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/12-strategies-teaching-critical-thinking-skills

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