Building Critical Thinking Skills in the context of Active Citizenship Education The e-Reflect appro

A central aim of education is the development of children’s critical thinking and participatory skills towards society change initiatives. One of the educational approaches which addresses the cultivation of critical thinking skills within the framework of active citizenship is the e-Reflect approach. The e-Reflect approach combines the contemporary educational technology practices with the emancipatory pedagogy ideas of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. The approach is designed by the 1st primary school of Rafina in cooperation with three European universities and a research institute. A teacher training e-course has been developed and implemented in which teacher participants from Greece, Cyprus, England and Finland exchange ideas and cooperate in designing lesson plans and implementing the approach in classroom settings. The e-course takes advantage of the possibilities of contemporary digital technology to cultivate democratic spaces of communication, cooperation and action. It also encourages dialogue, so that teachers can develop freely, creatively and cooperatively their own teaching material, systemize their personal knowledge and build upon their own experience and their teaching context.