Using fairy stories to develop critical thinking

A recent study in The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy on using fairy stories in primary schools has highlighted that such stories can be used to develop a wide range of skills, including those of critical thinking. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s44020-022-00017-z)

The approaches to using them can include developing the ability to perceive stories from multiple perspectives and to challenge stereotypes. (These approaches can include using books that see things from a different position such as Braun and Bernardini’s ‘Trust me, Jack’s beanstalk stinks!: The story of Jack and the Beanstalk as told by the Giant’ and Gunderson’s ‘Seriously, Rapunzel Needed a Haircut’.)  Some versions of fairy stories provide a focus on critical thinking in STEM, enabling students to examine science and technology issues, such that questions and hypotheses such as ‘Could Rapunzel have built a zip line using her hair to escape her prison tower?’ can be examined by students.

In general terms, the author makes frequent references to the value of using fairy stories in ways that develop and use critical thinking skills. A really good example is when a student asked why, in the story of ‘The Billy Goats Gruff’, Daddy and Mummy Gruff sent Baby Gruff first across the bridge. Now that’s a question worth asking.