Talleres de pensamiento crítico como herramienta para mejorar la comprensión lectora en bachillerato

The present study evaluated the effect of an intervention based on critical thinking workshops on reading comprehension among high school students. A total of 64 students (32 in the experimental group; 32 in the control group) from an urban institution participated. Over eight weeks, the experimental group completed 12 workshops (90 minutes per week) focused on guided argumentation, source analysis, detection of fallacies, formulation of higher-order questions, and short evidence-based writing, while the control group followed the regular curriculum. A reading comprehension test was administered before and after the intervention, including narrative and expository texts and assessing literal, inferential, and critical levels, along with a performance rubric for debates. The main instrument showed adequate internal consistency (α = .86) and content validity confirmed by a panel of experts. Results indicated significant improvements in the experimental group compared to the control in the total score (d = 0.86), especially in the inferential and critical comprehension subscales. The ANCOVA analysis, controlling for the pretest, confirmed the treatment effect (F(1,61) = 11.63; p = .001). Didactic implications are discussed: integrating mini-debates, lateral reading, and written production tasks grounded in diverse sources fosters the transfer between critical thinking and reading comprehension. Guidance is provided for the scalability of the proposal and its alignment with the Language and Literature curriculum.