In this article, we investigate what characterises the international research literature on critical thinking in social studies, science education and language education in primary schools. Through a systematic review of 105 articles published in English between 2010 and 2021, we answer two research questions: 1) What characterises the research literature on critical thinking in primary schools regarding publication rate, geographical origin, method, grade level and school subject? 2) What characterises the studies focusing on classroom practices to develop critical thinking? The latter question includes three sub-questions, focusing on research methods, theoretical grounding and types of classroom approaches. The results from the review show an increased research interest in critical thinking in primary schools since 2017, especially in language education and science education. The publications were unevenly geographically distributed. The bulk of them were conducted in grades 4–6, with grades 1–2 representing the lowest number. A variety of theoretical approaches were represented, but several studies lacked a firm theoretical grounding in critical thinking theory. Through an inductive analysis, classroom approaches were categorised as textual, dialogic, digital or practical. Through the review, we show that the careful selection of subject content that can activate students in critical dialogue can be a fruitful approach to developing young learners’ critical thinking skills to foster well-rounded thinkers with a critical spirit. Further research is needed from a broader range of geographical contexts to probe the connections between different theoretical perceptions of critical thinking and their related concepts and to add knowledge about the development of critical thinking in grades 1–2. • Careful selection of subject content that can activate learners in critical dialogue can develop critical thinking. • Studies on critical thinking for grades 1 and 2 are underrepresented. • Teaching approaches for critical thinking are categorised as textual, dialogic, digital or practical. • Several studies lack a firm grounding in critical thinking theory.

Over the past 20 years there has been a growing international focus within early childhood education sectors on the potential benefits of neuroscience-informed approaches. This has resulted in a burgeoning of initiatives that draw upon neuroscience to influence early childhood educator practice and, in turn, children's learning and development. This study reports an international scoping review of professional learning programs for early childhood educators that are based on the translation of neuroscience research to practice. A total of 15 studies were included with the professional learning approaches documented variously aiming to build educator knowledge, support educators to embed specific practices, and/or deliver a structured intervention with children. There were largely positive reports across studies of boosts in educator knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and self-efficacy in relation to neuroscience. In several studies, educators also reported changes to their practice, improvements in the quality of their relationships with children, and reduced stress levels. Child outcomes were less often reported, with two of the three studies reporting these documenting enhanced child social-emotional development from delivery of a specific intervention by educators. Implementation fidelity was an important aspect with high fidelity linked with better documented outcomes. Overall, the robustness of the evidence for neuroscience-based professional learning for early childhood educators is mixed, with the majority of included studies not including a comparison group, and thus causality cannot be claimed. We propose a theory of change model for this field of work, and note the current limited research focussed on outcomes beyond initial changes in educator attitudes and knowledge. There is potential for design of more comprehensive approaches to embed neuroscience in early childhood education. Future scaling up of effective programs, and design of new ones, requires deeper understanding of program implementation and points to the need for comprehensive evaluations incorporating both process and outcomes assessment.