Doctor's Learning Environment: Fostering Critical Thinking in 4-Year-Old Children

Abstract

The development of critical thinking from an early age is essential in science education, and despite its importance, there is still little research in early childhood education. This exploratory study presents a learning environment around a daily life problem faced by preschoolers, related to the human body and health, carried out through role-play and inquiry, aimed at developing critical thinking within the knowledge application domain in 4-year-old children. The study involved a sample of 9 children from a preschool in Málaga (Spain). Data were collected through observations, dialogues, field notes, and children’s productions. The assessment of progress in the application of scientific knowledge and understanding of science encompassed a comprehensive set of criteria aligned with Bloom’s revised taxonomy. The findings indicate greater progress in the remembering compared to understanding. Specifically, 76.18% of the children reached the achieved level in listing, 72.21% in explaining, 62.50% in relating, and 58.33% in identifying. This suggests that, at early ages, learning environments designed around daily-life health contexts can contribute to the development of certain aspects of critical thinking.