The coverage of socio-political issues in the liberal studies curriculum to foster students' critical thinking

Abstract

Under the advocate of political reform recently in Hong Kong, in addition to the recent social movement in our society, Liberal Studies has been accused for the current increase in adolescents’ socio-political participation. It has been criticized that such phenomenon is due to that Liberal Studies, which is now at its sixth year since the introduction into the NSS curriculum, fails to train students’ critical thinking. Therefore, this study would emphasize on the impacts on students’ critical thinking brought by the coverage of socio-political issues in the curriculum. It will describe and explore the relevance between the coverage of socio-political issues and students’ critical thinking, looking particular at how students value their learning about socio-political issues. Mixed research approach will be used in this study, results from both students’ self-report questionnaires on their critical thinking practices and the excerpts extracted from interview dialogues with HKU undergraduates who took Liberal Studies NSS curriculum will be studied. Furthermore, the research also seeks to highlight possible impacts for adolescents’ socio-political participations and relevant LS pedagogies to foster critical thinking. In sum, this study concludes by illustrating the significance of coverage of socio-political issues in Liberal Studies curriculum that foster students’ critical thinking.