Cultivating Critical and Creative Thinking Skills in Education
A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026 | Viewed by 22
Special Issue Editors
Interests: critical and creative thinking; public reasoning; education; public understanding of science
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are excited to announce this Special Issue of Education Sciences, ‘Cultivating Critical and Creative Thinking Skills in Education,’ which will explore how quality thinking can be developed, expanded, and extended within and across diverse educational contexts. We welcome the submission of original research articles and conceptual papers that investigate the various mechanisms, conditions, beliefs, and understandings that influence the uptake and evolution of critical thinking as a core competency/deliverable of educational institutions.
While critical thinking is often presented as a desired aim and commitment of 21st century schooling and industry, relatively little is known about how to build sustainable critical thinking skills across populations and contexts. Compounding this challenge are the conflicting definitions of what critical thinking is, ranging from normative to descriptive. Consequently, there is a lack of clarity and consensus regarding how to effectively cultivate critical and creative thinking—a skill central to the present and future success of individuals and society.
This Special Issue aims to explore emerging trends, methodologies, and effective practices in critical and creative thinking pedagogy, collaborative reasoning, and metacognitive evaluation. It aligns with the broader scope of Education Sciences by contributing to research on the cross-curricular skills of critical and creative thinking and related implications for classroom practice.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and conceptual papers are welcome. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following themes, centred on their relationship to critical thinking and education:
- Metacognition;
- Collaboration;
- Discipline contexts;
- Argumentation;
- Assessment design;
- Communication;
- Using Artificial Intelligenceto develop critical thinking.
We look forward to receiving your contributions and are happy to discuss the details of potential contributions.
Yours Sincerely,
Dr. Peter Ellerton
Dr. Yael Leibovitch
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- critical thinking
- creative thinking
- education
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