The effects of teamwork on critical thinking: A serial mediation analysis of the influence of work skills and educational motivation in secondary school students

•Social and educational realities require formative systems to be established that develop skills in students such as teamwork, critical thinking and motivational processes.•For this reason is import to analyse the direct and indirect relationships and effects produced if we take into account the influence of teamwork on critical thinking when such influence is mediated by work skills and educational motivation.•In this context, the analysis of mediation plays a key role. It focuses on trying to explain how or why (processes, mechanisms) a certain effect occurs. The present study proposed to establish an explanatory theoretical model and sought to compare a serial mediation model in order to associate the influence of teamwork, trough work skills and educational motivation, on critical thinking in secondary school student. The research design was ex post facto and cross-sectional. A quantitative methodology was applied, taking a single measurement from a sample of 1159 participating secondary school students from Spain. Outcomes provide evidence that greater teamwork is related with better developed critical thinking skills. Further, greater teamwork and higher degrees of motivation increased critical thinking, whilst better conceptions of teamwork impacted upon better future work skills. Resultantly, these outcomes imply better educational motivation and higher levels of critical thinking.