Active didactic strategies for the development of critical thinking in Basic General Education: a systematic review

Abstract

In Basic General Education, the development of critical thinking has been identified as an essential component for the comprehensive training of students; however, its promotion has been limited by the insufficient application of active methodologies, the lack of teacher training, and the shortage of adequate resources to enhance the teaching–learning process. In order to provide evidence to guide educational practice, the research focused on analyzing recent studies on the implementation of active didactic strategies at this educational level. The study was conducted following the PRISMA 2020 methodology, which ensured a systematic process of identification, selection, and synthesis of scientific information. Articles published between 2020 and 2025 were included, in open access, written in Spanish or English, indexed in recognized academic databases, and explicitly addressing the relationship between active methodologies and critical thinking in basic education. The search strategy combined keywords in both languages in ScienceDirect and Google Scholar, which led to the final selection of ten studies for analysis. The findings showed that approaches such as project-based learning, cooperative learning, critical reading, flipped classroom, and the integration of ICT significantly fostered the development of critical thinking and, complementarily, transversal competencies such as collaboration, communication, and metacognition. These methodologies represent an effective pedagogical resource, although their implementation faces limitations related to teacher training, resource availability, and adaptation to different educational contexts.