THE CRITICAL THINKING –A STRATEGY TO DEVELOP INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCES
THE CRITICAL THINKING –A STRATEGY TO DEVELOP INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCES

Summary/Abstract: The article is focused on the effect of critical thinking strategies for intercultural competences development. The competences development is the most important aim of school. The new competences that are necessary today are: the ability to select information, tolerance, critical thinking, communicational skills, empathy, to solve problems, to work in a team, to form value judgments. Kim (1991) considers that the essence of intercultural competence is the ability to change, to transform the human beings from rigid, intolerant and boring into open, flexible, creative and not closed ones. For developing intercultural competences is not enough only theoretical knowledge: there are necessarily behaviors that promote tolerance, empathy, assertive communication. A solution to develop intercultural competences is critical thinking strategies. This kind of learning strategies is focused on group and relationship. In our research, we were interested in identifying the impact of critical thinking strategies on students’ intercultural competences. The research involved 100 students who are using critical thinking strategies. The quantitative results and the qualitative analysis show that the critical thinking strategies have a major impact on developing intercultural competences. These learning strategies offered the opportunity to reflect and develop our own social behavior. The students have competences: critical thinking, tolerance, flexibility, communication skills.

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