Teaching critical thinking skills in a Hong Kong secondary school

Hong Kong education has always been regarded as examination-oriented and students were taught only to memorize and not to think. This paper gives an account of a school project in teaching critical thinking in the junior classes of a secondary school. This project is a collaboration between lecturers in teacher education and teachers working in the frontline. As a first attempt, the topic "fact and opinion" was chosen. In this paper, both the teaching approach and the teaching materials used are presented. Teachers' feedback was obtained through informal sharing of information and student's evaluation were obtained through a simple student survey. Through this process, a number of problems and insights related to this issue were revealed. This experience had implications for ways in which critical thinking in a cultural context like Hong Kong where memorization of facts is the norm can be developed and promoted. Copyright © 2002 The Institute of Asia Pacific Education Development.