From IFL Science: How To Teach All Students To Think Critically

…Most tertiary institutions have listed among their graduate attributes the ability to think critically. This seems a desirable outcome, but what exactly does it mean to think critically and how do you get students to do it?

The problem is that critical thinking is the Cheshire Cat of educational curricula – it is hinted at in all disciplines but appears fully formed in none. As soon as you push to see it in focus, it slips away.

If you ask curriculum designers exactly how critical thinking skills are developed, the answers are often vague and unhelpful for those wanting to teach it.

This is partly because of a lack of clarity about the term itself and because there are some who believe that critical thinking cannot be taught in isolation, that it can only be developed in a discipline context – after all, you have think critically about something….

I feel this latter problem acutely. I teach critical thinking (and ethics) in a business school. But my textbook (The Power of Critical Thinking, 3rd Canadian Edition.) is a popular general critical thinking textbook, aimed at undergraduate university and college students quite generally.