Critical Thinking in Initial Teacher Training: An Empirical Study from Chile

The promotion of critical thinking has become a key objective for educational institutions worldwide. In this context, it is essential to continue researching and promoting pedagogical strategies that favor its development. This study aims to explore academics' perceptions of the characteristics of their academic units that could facilitate the development of critical thinking, as well as students' perceptions of their own critical thinking skills, their levels of satisfaction, and the learning outcomes achieved. To achieve this objective, questionnaires were administered to 31 academics and 150 students at a Chilean university. The results revealed that, although academics assigned high scores to the three dimensions evaluated (gender diversity, academic preparation, and value congruence), when analyzing the data disaggregated by gender and school, significant differences in their perceptions emerged. On the other hand, in the case of students, the items related to facilities and equipment (satisfaction dimension) obtained the lowest scores. Likewise, no direct and uniform relationship was identified between the characteristics of academics and the development of critical thinking when grouping the data by school. Finally, a strong and significant correlation was observed between satisfaction, learning outcomes, and students' perceived critical thinking skills. Several recommendations are presented to address the identified issues.