CRITERIA FOR THE RELIABILITY OF SCIENTIFIC DISSEMINATION TEXTS: A TOOL TO FOSTER CRITICAL THINKING
Critical Thinking, Source Reliability, Science Education, Scientific Dissemination Texts, Teacher Training
In an era marked by disinformation and the complexity of socio-scientific issues, promoting Critical Thinking in Science and Mathematics education has become essential. This thesis aims to analyze the use of reliability criteria in scientific dissemination texts to promote Critical Thinking through activities that encourage analysis and argumentative practice in Science and Mathematics education. Structured in a multi-article format, the research is articulated into three main studies. The first article reports on a theoretical review conducted to identify authors and instruments used in defining and teaching Critical Thinking. This article establishes the theoretical foundation for the others, highlighting the diversity of approaches and the relevance of Critical Thinking in science education. The second article describes the development and implementation of a teaching activity sequence grounded in the concept of Critical Thinking proposed by Jimenez-Aleixandre and Puig (2022), focusing on the evaluation of reliability in scientific dissemination texts. The third article analyzes how students use reliability criteria to evaluate these texts, emphasizing the transfer of taught criteria to new contexts. The research methodology is qualitative, with data collected through students' responses to activities and the teacher-researcher's notes. Results indicate that, while most students demonstrated progress in critical analysis and argumentation, some still face challenges in justifying their evaluations, underscoring the need for more practice. The thesis concludes that the proposed approach is effective in developing Critical Thinking and in training future teachers to evaluate scientific information in a well-founded manner, contributing to the formation of critically engaged citizens equipped to address contemporary socio-scientific challenges.