As early as 1923, Jean Piaget challenged teachers to reevaluate their goals for students and to promote critical thinking rather than conformity. Piaget described two important educational goals. The first "principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done--men who are creative, inventive, and discoverers. The second goal of education is to form minds which can be critical, can verify, and not accept everything they are offered." As people move toward a global and information technology-based society, it is important that the students understand international and cultural diversity and become sensitive to different points of view. The key to this understanding and increased sensitivity is critical thinking: identifying and challenging assumptions and exploring and imagining alternatives (Brookfield, 1987). In essence, critical thinking means a student takes a holistic approach to solving a problem and assuring all dimensions of the problem have been examined. Based on these issues, the purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of classroom teachers awarded the Christa McAuliffe Fellowship and the impact the Program had on their classroom teaching and on the need of teaching critical thinking skills. (Contains 1 footnote and 4 tables.)