How Secondary Chemistry Teachers Report Fostering Critical Thinking: Practices, Motivations, and Barriers

Critical thinking is widely recognized as a core competency in science education, yet relatively little is known about how chemistry teachers report fostering its development in everyday classroom practice. This study examines how secondary school chemistry teachers in the Czech Republic report fostering critical thinking, what motivates them to do so, and what challenges they perceive. A questionnaire survey was administered to 108 in-service chemistry teachers. The results indicate that most teachers report addressing critical thinking in their lessons at least once a month, with questioning and argumentation identified as the most frequently reported instructional strategies, while inquiry-based learning and critical reading are reported considerably less often. Teachers report addressing critical thinking implicitly or only in situational contexts rather than through systematic, explicit instruction. Among respondents, motivation appears to be driven primarily by personal educational beliefs rather than institutional requirements or prior professional development. The most frequently perceived barriers include large class sizes, insufficient time, and students’ difficulties in connecting knowledge across various chemistry topics. These findings highlight a gap between teachers’ reported intentions and the more demanding instructional approaches recommended in the literature, particularly those requiring students to interpret chemical evidence, connect macroscopic, symbolic, and sub-microscopic representations, and engage in chemistry-specific reasoning.