Modern lessons from traditional tales: using stories to develop critical thinking skills

With Susannah Reed. Storytelling is one of the oldest teaching tools we and our ancestors have used through the centuries. So how can we apply this tool to teach the skills we need for life in the 21st Century? In this talk we will look at how we can use stories to develop critical thinking, one of the key skills for 21st Century learning, and identified as one of the six key competencies in the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework. We will look at some key strategies to enhance learners’ critical thinking skills when reading or working with stories, and look at some activities for then applying and developing these same thinking strategies to other contexts.