Scientific Thinking Skills in the Classrooms: Theoretical and Methodological Contributions to Promote and Develop Higher-Level Learning Competences

Sixteen years ago, I pointed out that a fundamental issue for understanding the current process of rapid economic, political, social, cultural, and scientific transformation of developing countries was, among other relevant phenomena, the exponential growth of knowledge, along with the impact of new information and communication technologies (ICT) on the modalities of appropriation, use, and management of knowledge, as well as the various and complex changes in national and regional productive systems (Quintanilla, 2006).