The Critical Thinking Educational Policies And Its Implementation Mismatch In Primary Teacher Education

Abstract

The ultimate goals of education in Kenya is to equip children with quality knowledge and skills to enable then analyse and evaluate issues in life. The schools and colleges being implementers of curriculum are therefore mandated to produce future leaders. , teachers and manpower who can think critically and creatively at every issue to enhance country’s development (Paul1995) The major problem to be addressed in this study is to analyse the perceived mismatch between the documented educational policy on critical and creative thinking and its implementation in the teacher education program in Kenya. Kenya, through her education system and various government policies has expressed her concern about developing critical thinker. However, my observation is that teacher training colleges are neither challenging students to think critically about academic subjects nor helping them develop abilities to deal with problems. As an educator the lack of critical thinking among in-service teachers and student is of personal and professional concern, therefore this has prompted me to investigate the educational policies on critical and creative thinking in Kenya educational system to evaluate its implementation and recommend the way forward.