Family literacy activities and their role in developing studens' critical thinking

Literacy activities and critical thinking are two fundamental aspects in the growth and development of primary school students.Parents also play a vital role in children's lives, as they are considered their children's first educators.The time that family members spend together is invaluable and must be used to lead to the harmonious development of children.An interactive and creative example of making the most of their time together can be joint literacy activities, which can develop essential skills for integration into society.The present study aimed to identify a possible correlation between the time allocated to family literacy activities and the development of critical thinking in primary school students.To this end, 24 third-grade students and their parents were assessed using two instruments: a test administered to the students, divided into two sections (dialogical critical attitudes: statements and situations), which focused on aspects of critical thinking, and a questionnaire addressed to parents, which aimed to measure the frequency with which they carry out certain literacy activities with their children.The results obtained from the data collection confirm our hypothesis that there is a link between the time spent on literacy activities in the family and the development of critical thinking in students, with a positive and significant correlation.In addition to this, we tried to correlate each type of activity with the score obtained in the critical thinking test, and in three of the four cases we obtained a positive and significant result.The answers given by the students helped us to observe which dimensions of critical thinking are best developed (intellectual curiosity, creativity) and which ones need more attention in the future (intellectual autonomy).