IMPACT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS ON THE READING COMPREHENSION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

The research aimed to determine, through a quasi-experimental study, the overall and differential effects of a programmatic experience in the development of critical thinking skills on reading comprehension levels of performance of 57 eight-graded elementary school students. The intervention program was designed based on the theoretical and practical postulates of authors such as Mathew Lipman, Richard Paul and Linda Elder, who give to the Socratic questioning a fundamental role in the evaluation and analysis of the reasoning that takes place in the reading comprehension process. The study unveils that only the experimental group shows a positive and statistically significant change in the overall level of reading comprehension performance and in six of the seven areas evaluated.