The role of critical thinking skills in promoting quality teaching and learning in the further education and training (FET) phase of secondary schools in South Africa

Abstract

The quality of education in especially the Further Education and Training phase (FET) is recognised as one of the most significant challenges facing the South African government. Low teacher morale, lack of parental involvement, learners' ignorance in taking responsibility for their own learning and other educational problems are all identified as contributing factors. This study was undertaken to investigate how critical thinking skills can contribute to promoting quality teaching and learning in secondary schools with specific reference to the FET phase. The study also sought to make recommendations that will assist teachers to integrate critical thinking skills into the teaching and learning experiences in the FET phase. The nature of quality teaching and learning, the nature of critical thinking skills and the correlation between the concepts to improve the quality of education were researched by means of a literature study. A quantitative research design followed, using questionnaires as research instrument. From the research conducted it was found that learners in the FET phase do not take responsibility for their learning and therefore many of these learners still do not perceive learning as important. However, effective learning could take place if learners are confident, independent, active participants and explore a variety of learning strategies. Teachers, on the other hand, should adopt particular forms of behaviour to foster certain types of learning. The ability to teach critical thinking skills to learners poses a great challenge as many teachers are not trained to do so. This has a great influence on the exposure of an integrated constructivist method of teaching and learning and therefore inflicts on the delivery of quality teaching and learning in the FET phase of secondary schools in South Africa.