PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS OF NEL NODDINGS ON SUPPORTING CRITICAL THINKING IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

We as teachers and teacher educators are the first to critique the practice of rote memorization which we find our students indulging in. However we seldom care to look into the causes of the same. We hardly reflect upon our own classroom practices as teachers .In order to nurture a thinking individual it is imperative that we provide ample opportunities in the classrooms and outside to engage in meaningful conversations, create an environment to raise questions fearlessly, motivate students to reflect on their own experiences and above all let dialogue on critical burning issues be important part of classroom discourses .Nel Noddings is an American Feminist Philosopher who has written extensively on Care Ethics ,Happiness and Education ,Peace Education ,Critical thinking etc. This paper is an attempt to analyse the writings of Noddings on Critical thinking in order to cull out educational implications in the form of strategies which may be adopted by us teachers to nurture students who critical thinkers.