Critical Sense in History Lesson: Difficulties in Management and Evaluation

Abstract

All official policy and educational frameworks in Morocco have emphasized the importance of enabling learners to acquire critical thinking skills. Social studies in general, and history in particular, are among the subjects that provide an appropriate context for developing and reinforcing this type of competency. However, a number of factors create considerable challenges for the two main participants in the teaching and learning process, namely teachers and learners, as confirmed by the findings of the field study. Among the challenges hindering the development of this competency are difficulties in managing it due to several constraints, most notably the limited presence of critical thinking skills in school textbooks, the lack of sufficient instructional time, and inadequate teacher training in the field of critical thinking. Furthermore, this competency poses challenges in terms of assessing it and evaluating the extent to which it develops among learners. Given the significant importance of this competency, as it contributes to equipping learners with a mode of thinking that plays a fundamental role in the learning process, this study sought to propose a set of practical measures. These measures were tested on a sample of third-year lower-secondary students, as this stage is associated with the acquisition of competencies before learners move to the qualifying secondary stage, where these competencies are further consolidated. The study demonstrated, through the proposed measures, an improvement in the development of this competency among learners. Nevertheless, these proposals remain limited in scope and cannot be generalized without providing a set of essential and appropriate conditions for developing learners' core competencies, particularly critical thinking skills in history education.