A Comparative Study of Critical Thinking from the Viewpoint of Robert Ennis and Henry Giroux Considering Its Application for the Modification of Teacher Training System

Critical thinking is one of the major aims of education, and its prerequisite is to have thoughtful teachers with critical thinking viewpoints. There have been numerous models for critical thinking including two major psychological and socio-political ones. The present article has considered a comparative study of critical thinking from the viewpoints of Robert Ennis and Henry Giroux considering its application for the modification of teacher training system. Findings declare that although considering critical thinking, Robert Ennis has drawn a little attention to action. In contrast, Giroux claims that the target of critical thinking is social action occurring in parallel with social justice. From Giroux's viewpoint, critical thinking has been blended by culture, ethics and politics, and teachers as transformative intellectuals undertake a major mission in developing critical thinking training in pupil and, also, its expansion in society. According to Giroux and Ennis’s thinking, some of the policies of teacher training system in should be improved in the direction of: corporative and dynamic management, transformation of educational contents, critical thinking skills training, providing teachers with possibility of communication with educational policy makers, academic institutes and finally by putting some emphasis upon cultural studies.