Oral Storytelling as a Medium for Stimulating Critical-Thinking Skills in Preschool Children (Poster 36)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Seven
  In Poster Session: Early Education and Child Development SIG Posters

Abstract

This research explored preschoolers' critical thinking skills through the traditional art of oral storytelling. A design-based research approach was employed to investigate how oral storytelling within a preschool setting could stimulate critical thinking in children aged 3 to 5 years. Seventeen children from two classrooms participated. Each group participated in 10 storytelling sessions over 10 weeks. The classroom educators’ took the role of storyteller and the children listened with some interaction; following the storytelling, the group engaged in critical discussions; the children were then invited to interpret the story through art. Findings showed that children exhibited critical thinking under the categories of describing, inquiry, constructing, problem solving and reasoning. Conditions supporting critical thinking were affective, cognitive and language scaffolding.

Authors

• Catherine O'Reilly, Trinity College Dublin
  Presenting Author

• Ann Devitt, Trinity College Dublin
  Non-Presenting Author