95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Sociological Theory
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1526437
This article is part of the Research Topic Academic Freedom: Embracing Diverse Voices View all 3 articles
The development of critical thinking in the classroom: The construction of historical discourse and the historical method in the teaching of Social Sciences
Provisionally accepted- 1 Universidad de Atacama, Copiapó, Chile
- 2 University of Tarapacá, Arica, Tarapaca, Chile
The article examines ways to transform the teaching of History and Social Sciences through pedagogical strategies that go beyond memorization. It integrates the historical method and the construction of historical discourse to promote critical thinking. It proposes using the hermeneutic circle as a tool to interpret historical sources and challenge dominant narratives, fostering critical and reflective competencies among students. The study, based on a hermeneutic and critical-reflective bibliographic approach, identifies pedagogical strategies such as historical debates, research projects, and collaborative analysis. Additionally, it highlights categories like contextualization, causality, and change analysis, supported by educational technologies and source comparison. The conclusion suggests that a socio-critical approach could help transform the classroom into a space of active reflection, contributing to critical citizenship education. It also underscores the need for future empirical research and teacher training to apply these methodologies in diverse educational contexts.
Keywords: Critical Thinking, Historical Thinking, historical discourse, historical method, Social Sciences
Received: 11 Nov 2024; Accepted: 04 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Burgos-Videla, Parada-Ulloa and Martínez-Díaz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Carmen Gloria Burgos-Videla, Universidad de Atacama, Copiapó, Chile
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.