Fostering Critical Thinking Skills in Preschool Education: Designing, Implementing and Assessing a Multiliteracies-Oriented Program Based on Intercultural Tales

This paper outlines a pedagogical programme that aimed at developing critical thinking skills of very young learners. More specifically, an educational programme was designed and implemented within the context of the preschool education, in a school of Larissa during the school year 2018-2019. The programme lasted for seven months and it was applied to 25 children. Following the principles of multiliteracies pedagogy, various activities were implemented towards developing critical thinking skills to children, as they are prioritized as important assets for the citizens of the 21st century. Folk stories, fairytales and games constituted the basic tools employed by the teachers throughout the programme which was carried out through three phases of implementation. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme, the researchers made use of a) journals in every session of the programme and b) portfolios of each child individually. Through the qualitative analysis of the data, it was shown that the children exhibited an increased level of critical thinking while they developed creative and communicative aspects of their behavior while coming into contact with other-culture elements.