Developing critical thinking skills through the use of information technology

Abstract

Developing critical thinking skills has become an absolutely important requirement for all young children, to enable them to face today's dynamic and fast changing world. This dissertation aims enhancing such skills throughout philosophical discussions, based on themes elicited from the story 'The Ghost who wasn't.' Information Technology was selected as the medium for the story, since it provides today's world with a particularly flexible tool, which if correctly utilised, may grip the attention and motivation of the user ... in this case the primary school child. This work features the story 'The Ghost who wasn't' which is a 'talking book' on CD-ROM format, directed at students in the 8-10 year cohort. This dissertation also includes a Teacher's Manual, featuring various activities, which are in fact tools promoting Philosophy for Children and some general guidelines on how teachers can enact these activities in the primary classroom.