Examining the Components of Critical Thinking in the Stories of the First Elementary Course Books

Objectives: The development and cultivation of critical thinking plays an effective role in the flourishing of children's talent to acquire the necessary skills to produce knowledge. It will also strengthen scientific foundations in the field of development and technology and individual and social growth, and of course, it is an important component in creating scientific transformation. Critical thinking as a cognitive skill should be included in the goals of educational systems. Along with formal education, the use of literature, especially stories, is one of the most efficient methods of developing critical thinking. Considering the important role that the organization of education plays in the growth and development of critical thinking in children, the present study aims to identify the components of critical thinking in the stories of the textbooks of the first to third years of elementary school.
Materials and Methods: A qualitative content analysis method is used in this study. Also, in this study, it has been examined through the census of all books from the first to the third grade (2022, 2023) and quantitatively through descriptive statistics (prevalence, percentage) and quality that phrases, images, and fictional poems, stories short and... which included and related to the components of critical thinking in textbooks were extracted and prepared for counting and coding, Then the codes that were very similar in terms of meaning had overlaps or were congruent and were combined and organized under a more general concept as sub-categories and the sub-categories were also categorized and placed under the more general concept as "category" in the tables and at the end according to each category and sub-category, evidence from the text, along with mentioning the page number (for elementary books) and (mentioning the educational level for books) were cited. The research tool included a checklist of critical thinking components based on the review and analysis of the theoretical background and critical thinking components of Lippman and other experts. In the first stage, this checklist was reviewed by professors and experts in the field of educational sciences, so the initial form of content analysis was provided to 5 professors familiar with this field and lesson planners for change and correction; in the second stage, after applying their opinions, the final checklist of content analysis was prepared and compiled, and it was again approved by the same professors. Its reliability has been through inter-coder reliability, and the acceptability criterion has been based on the review of supervisors familiar with this field, long-term engagement, and continuous observation.
Discussion and Conclusions: As a result of data analysis, 47 subcategories and 19 categories were extracted. The findings showed that the total number of frequencies in all first three elementary school textbooks is 1209, of which the inductive reasoning component with 282 frequencies (23.32%) has the highest frequency percentage and correct criticism with 9 frequencies (0.74%) has the lowest frequency percentage. The results show that all components and critical thinking skills have not been given equal and balanced attention both in the first three grades comparison and in the comparison of books with each other and need further attention and improvement. Based on the table of critical thinking components, it could be concluded that some categories, such as the category of inductive reasoning, have received too much attention, and some categories, such as the category of correct criticism, have received too little attention, which could be argued that it is not given the importance it deserves for teaching critical thinking to children and needs to be improved. The reason for this lack of attention can be due to various factors, including the old approach to teaching children, little attention to critical thinking in the fundamental transformation document, little information from parents about the teaching method for students, lack of facilities for teachers in teaching, lack of sufficient freedom in changing the curriculum, and the impact of Western thought on the educational system, which was examined. At the end of the study, constructive and practical suggestions were presented based on the findings of the present study, taking into account the considerations and limitations of the primary education system.