Vesna Gros, Renata Krivec, Petra Mikeln, Osnovna šola Polje, Ljubljana

As teachers we often ask ourselves how to encourage our students to think critically about what they hear and see and how to teach them to plan, monitor and assess their own progress and development.

According to many, critical thinking is one of the key competences of the 21^st century; therefore we believe that it should be fostered already in primary school. What exactly is critical thinking and how it can be developed, is the key topic of the EUfolio project, lead by the National Institute for Education. The main objective of the project is to incorporate up-to-date approach to teaching, monitoring and assessing knowledge and skills while using an e-portfolio.

This presentation will show how the students of 6^th–9^th grade at Primary School Polje have been introduced to critical thinking and encouraged to ponder about themselves as critical thinkers. Since critical thinking covers many different competences, we focused primarily on the distinction between facts and opinions; giving constructive feedback and evaluating own work and the work of others. Lessons have been carried out using the Maharaonline environment, which offers Moodle-like opportunities of connecting, opinion sharing, forums, uploading of various files etc.