Critical thinking in the world of new technologies and the rapid flow of information takes on special significance and becomes a key competence. It consists of the ability to process information, check facts, create and evaluate hypotheses, the ability to create logical connections, distinguish facts from opinions, the ability to recognize needs and emotions, anticipate the consequences of actions, and courage in questioning the obviousness of one's own assumptions. Critical thinking can also be regarded as one of the determinants of adulthood in the intellectual sphere because it allows a person to distinguish facts from manipulation and fake news. Thanks to critical thinking, man can better understand the problems of the modern world, define his place in it, understand himself and act more efficiently. The tool for testing critical thinking in the form of a questionnaire, built during the project, will have the advantage of being prepared by a professional team of specialists who have experience in creating tests for adult education. In addition, it will be disseminated, along with a guide and basic measures in free access, as ready for use by organizations involved in adult education. Thanks to this, it will be possible to identify areas of critical thinking that should be developed during almost every educational process in every situation. On the basis of the needs determined, there will be created e-learning courses for developing critical thinking skills. The pilot will be conducted primarily for the English version, and after the feedback received and tuning up, the courses will be translated into national languages and pilot conducted. The innovate approach will be: 1) to create a questionnaire for analyzing the critical thinking needs of adults learners and in the next stage to create a course for improvement of this sort of skills. It needs to be highlighted that yes, there are existing several psychological standardized tests for critical thinking. BUT such a solution is not satisfactory for the AE sector. Firstly, because those tests are paid what is a big obstacle for the many adult organizations (especially NGOs). Secondly, they comprise too many questions (like, for instance, 99 in Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Test). To answer so many questions is very discouraging for elderly learners as well as the younger adults that used to the fast pace of life and short and quick messages. It's also worth to mention that the created questionnaire will be disseminated, along with a guide and basic measures in free access, as ready for use by organizations involved in adult education. Thanks to this, it will be possible to identify areas of critical thinking that should be developed during almost every educational process in every situation. 2) to create an online and open access course (e-learning platform) of critical thinking development based on the real needs of adult learners defined in the survey carried out on 1000 respondents from across Europe. The final result is the creation of a user-friendly and effective tool for the development of critical thinking skills. In addition, it will be disseminated, along with a guide and basic measures in free access, as ready for use by organizations involved in adult education. Thanks to this, it will be possible to identify areas of critical thinking that should be developed during almost every educational process in every situation. The methodology proposed by the project can be implemented thanks to the collaborative work of 5 organizations from Slovakia, Poland, Turkey, Czechia and Italy. The results of the project will be exploitable on a wide basis beyond the partnership. The representatives of the educational communities, training institutions and public authorities of education policies, will be well informed about the objectives of the project. The open educational repositories with educational project’s results will be usable at European/ international level and materials produced will be available in all partner languages.
Transnational cooperation in this project was particularly needed due to the main project's objectives addressing the following priorities: HORIZONTAL: Supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences ADULT EDUCATION: Extending and developing the competences of educators and other personnel who support adult learners HORIZONTAL: Innovative practices in a digital era. The consortium wanted - create a universal questionnaire for critical thinking needs for use by AE stakeholders in Europe There are existing several psychological standardized tests for critical thinking. But such a solution is not satisfactory for the AE sector. Firstly, because those tests are paid which is a big obstacle for many adult organizations (especially NGOs). Secondly, they comprise too many questions. To answer so many questions is very discouraging for elderly learners and younger adults that used to the fast pace of life and short and quick messages. - create a critical thinking e-learning platform based on the survey results conducted in European countries and, as a result, an effective tool for developing critical thinking skills.
Critical thinking in the world of new technologies and the rapid flow of information takes on special significance and becomes a key competence. The application was written during theCovid-19 pandemic when many false theories were circulating about the spread of the virus or the side effects of vaccination. It then became clear to the consortium partners that even adults had problems with the critical assimilation and analysis of information. By reviewing the educational programmes of local organisations working for adults and the description of their courses, the project partners concluded that the issue of critical thinking is treated marginally or wholly ignored in the educational offer. On the other hand, staff from the consortium organisations noted that they and educators from other organisations lacked both specific tools for analyzing adult learners' critical thinking needs as well as tools for developing critical thinking skills. The partners decided to apply for this project in response to the diagnosed needs.