Abstract

This article takes as reference the problems that exist due to the lack of reading, mathematics and science skills, according to the reality of the Mexican public education system, as well as the results obtained in the evaluations promoted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The research was based on a quantitative study, which was conducted from a diagnostic evaluation on the development of information and thinking skills in children in basic education school. This research designed and applied three instruments on thinking skills, mathematical thinking, and information, language and communication skills in children. The research aimed to know the level of skills developed prior to joining the program of the new educational model proposed by the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) of Mexico when applying the method of the diagnosis of educational situation (DS) that has the following components: i) an examination of 20 exercises to measure the level of development of each skill under study; ii) a rubric to evaluate the children’s responses; and iii) a table to record the results of each skill. The diagnostic evaluation concluded that students, who are in the preoperative stage, have some development in their thinking skills (observation, comparison, classification, ordering, inferences, memory and storytelling), linguistic skills (they write their name, without surnames, communicate emotions, tell short stories, oral language stands out), and informative skills (there are no notions of concepts that intervene).

Keywords: Evaluation; information literacy; thinking skills; language; elementary education