CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEFINITION OF A CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY

Being able to value critical thinking skills represents a necessary way to
face the urgent need of renewal and innovation in education, if we want to
establish policies, aiming at increasing social welfare. As Paul and Elder
(2002, p. 230) states, “everyone thinks, it is our nature to do so. But much of our
thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or downright
prejudiced. Yet the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make, or
build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Excellence in thought,
however, must be systematically cultivated”. The research, to be developed at
the DIPED – Dipartimento di Progettazione Educativa e Didattica (Department
for Educational Design) – Università Roma Tre – is set in this context and,
besides being carried out in higher education, aims at projecting its results on
different settings, so that the results collected could contribute to improve
other areas, such as continuing education, enhancing development in various
fields of knowledge.