Perceptions of Jordanian Secondary Schools Teachers towardsCritical Thinking

The purpose of this study was to discover themes or concepts, generated from the collected data, that formed building blocks of grounded theory in the study of secondary school social studies teachers’ perspectives. This research study was conducted in Jordan, where secondary school social studies teachers were interviewed regarding their perspectives of teaching critical thinking skills in their classrooms. All interviews were audio-taped in Arabic and later translated into English. Data, including the translation of the audio, video tapes, the Ministry of Education guidelines, and textbook teacher manuals were analyzed qualitatively. The study results indicated that Jordanian secondary school social studies teachers are not familiar with the definition and teaching strategies of critical thinking; the Jordan Ministry of Education Guidelines did not require teachers to teach critical thinking. In addition, teacher manuals for the state-required textbooks provide only detailed content information, with only minor references to teaching critical thinking. Previous research, conducted by the author on middle and high school students in Jordanian public schools, supports the finding that students do not acquire critical thinking skills from their public school education in Jordan.