Designing a Cognitive Empowerment Model for Children with Emphasis on Critical Thinking Skills
Keywords:
Cognitive development, Elementary education, Cognitive empowerment, Children, Critical thinkingAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to design and validate a structural model explaining the role of cognitive empowerment components in predicting children's critical thinking skills.
Methods and Materials: An exploratory–confirmatory mixed-methods design was employed; in the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews with 18 educational and child psychology experts in Tehran were thematically analyzed, and in the quantitative phase, 420 elementary students were selected via multistage cluster sampling and assessed using a researcher-developed cognitive empowerment questionnaire and a standardized critical thinking test, followed by structural equation modeling.
Findings: Structural analysis indicated that cognitive empowerment had a strong, positive, and significant effect on critical thinking (β=0.67, p<0.001), with the proposed model explaining 45% of the variance in critical thinking and demonstrating satisfactory fit indices.
Conclusion: The validated model provides a robust framework for fostering critical thinking through coordinated development of cognitive skills and offers practical guidance for educational reform in elementary education.
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