Meeting points between critical thinking and metacognition to rethink the teaching of ethics

Abstract

The traditional vision of critical thinking (CT) founded on a rationalist approach has been questioned since the end of the last century by the ‘second wave’ of CT, which, despite not being a fully defined movement, has included aspects such as imagination, creativity and cooperative work in its understanding and in its application to teaching. At the same time, current perspectives in moral psychology such as the ‘social intuitionist’ model proposed by Jonathan Haidt, represent a challenge to the rationalist model of morality that many of the canonical normative ethics suppose. Since both CT and the moral foundation represent essential factors in the teaching of ethics, it is made explicit that the latter also needs to be revised. That is why the present work analyses a perspective of CT alternative to the traditional one based on the potential contribution of metacognition and the social intuitionist model, in order to open new lines of research to update the moral foundation that is assumed in the teaching of ethics. To delve into this, the relevance and applicability of metacognition in the teaching of ethics will be exemplified with situations related to the current Covid-19 pandemic.