Teaching critical thinking skills in a Hong Kong secondary school

Hong Kong education has always been regarded as examination-oriented and students were taught only to memorize and not to think. This paper gives an account of a school project in teaching critical thinking in the junior classes of a secondary school. This project is a collaboration between lecturers in teacher education and teachers working in the frontline. As a first attempt, the topic “fact and opinion” was chosen. In this paper, both the teaching approach and the teaching materials used are presented. Teachers ’ feedback was obtained through informal sharing of information and student ’s evaluation were obtained through a simple student survey. Through this process, a number of problems and insights related to this issue were revealed. This experience had implications for ways in which critical thinking in a cultural context like Hong Kong where memorization of facts is the norm can be developed and promoted.