Grade 9 Technology Teachers’ Explication of Critical Thinking and its Enactment in the Classroom

The South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement for Technology stipulates that Technology should provide learners with the opportunity to solve authentic problems that are embedded in real-life experiences. Solving these authentic technological problems requires learners to use critical thinking skills and teachers are expected to support learners in this regard. Questions around teachers’ perspectives of what constitutes critical thinking and their ability to support the development of critical thinking skills in Technology classrooms are rarely asked. It is in this regard that this study sought to explore Grade 9 Technology teachers’ understanding of critical thinking and how they develop critical thinking skills in their classrooms through the use of a mini-Practical Assessment Tasks. The study applied a multiple case study design, in which a literal replication strategy was used to identify consistent patterns of description of the six participants’ understanding and enactment of critical...