The Evolution of Critical Thinking in the Classroom: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Education systems have recognized the importance of strengthening students' critical thinking skills in order to develop critical thinkers. However, teachers must better integrate critical thinking into their curricula in order to achieve this. Therefore, this study aims to provide a review of past literatures related to "critical thinking in teaching education".  The data from Scorpus was used to conduct a bibliometric analysis in this study. The papers in this database were checked without a time limit in all categories, restricted to the keywords of "critical thinking" and "teaching." For further analysis, 605 publications published between 1944 and 2019 were retrieved. Microsoft Excel was used for frequency analysis, VOSviewer was used for data visualization, and Harzing's Publish or Perish was used for citation metrics and analysis. Standard bibliometric indicators such as research productivity, document types and sources, document language, subject area, keywords analysis, country productivity, authorship, and citation analysis are used to report the findings in this study. Since 2014, the rate of growth of critical thinking has increased, according to the findings. Meanwhile, 362 documents (59.83%) were multi-authored, with an average collaboration index of 2.87 authors per article. According to analysis by country, the United States of America (USA) is ranked first productive, with 205 (33.88%) published documents. In terms of citation frequency, D.F. Halpern (1998)'s article is the most cited, with an average of 23.91 % citations per year. Overall, the rise in the number of works on critical thinking in education reflects a growing awareness of its importance and specific requirements in 21st-century education.