Developing Critical Thinking Skill among Prospective Teachers at the Undergraduate Level: An Experimental Study

The present study aimed to develop critical thinking skills among prospective teachers at the undergraduate level. The present study was experimental in nature. The population of the present study consisted of all prospective teachers from the Department of Education at the University of Lahore. The study sample comprised eight students from the B.Ed. (Hons) Elementary 2nd semester. The experiment consisted of 16 weeks. The researcher used an A-B-A withdrawal design of single-subject research, which is an adaptation of the basic time series design. The experiment consisted of three phases: an initial baseline phase without treatment, a treatment phase introducing critical thinking strategies, and a withdrawal phase reverting to baseline conditions. Findings indicated that treatment significantly developed the critical thinking skills among prospective teachers at the undergraduate level. Moreover, visual analysis indicated the same results during the withdrawal phase. The present study recommends embedding critical thinking goals in all education courses, with emphasis on teaching, lesson planning, and assessment. Focus on developing critical thinking skills in students to analyse, evaluate, and synthesise ideas.