Importance of being critical readers in higher education

Abstract

This investigations paper is to describe an investigative teaching experience related to the identification of the level of critical reading of the students of sixth semester of the Bachelor in Basic Education that belongs to the Faculty of distance learning of the UPTC. It’s started a theoretical discussion of some principles related to thinking skills, critical thinking and critical reading of authors as Cassany Frank Serafini, Lipman, Klooster and Cooper, among others. A descriptive methodology research was used to analyze the level of critical reading of the target population of study, and that accounts the different findings that were generated during this study. The main instrument of analysis was a diagnostic test in which the competences and dimensions of the critical reading proposed by the ICFES identified for the Saber Pro tests. The results allowed to determine that most of the students who join the program do not have the thinking and communication skills needed to assume the role of a critical reader in different areas of knowledge within the qualifications required for professionals so it is necessary to reate academic spaces that lead to reflect on how the reading practices have been implemented in the classroom to propose alternative solutions that cross all the areas and allow the formation of truly critical readers that reflect through the interpretation and production of speeches in different settings and contexts.