Critical thinking

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking involves a combination of cognitive skills that entail:

(1) identifying the assumptions that frame our thinking and determine our actions, (2) checking out the degree to which these assumptions are accurate and valid, (3) looking at our ideas and decisions (intellectual, organizational, and personal) from several different perspectives, and (4) on the basis of all this, taking informed actions (p. 1).^[1]

It also involves dispositions such as respecting other people’s points of view.^[2][3]

This article addresses strategies for teaching students critical thinking skills and providing opportunities to practice those skills.

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How can you teach critical thinking?

1 Establish a shared understanding with your students | 2 Develop learning outcomes related to critical thinking | 3 Model critical thinking | 4 Provide students with opportunities to practice critical thinking

Establish a shared understanding with your students

It is common to ask students to engage in critical thinking activities, such as analyzing arguments, interpreting information, and making inferences. However, these activities might play out differently across disciplines. Consider: interpreting a poem is different from interpreting the law, which in turn differs from interpreting a set of numerical data. In addition, students must learn what constitutes evidence and makes a source credible in your discipline, as well as how to assess the relevance of evidence. Therefore, it is important to explain to students what you mean, in the context of your course, when you ask them to “analyze an argument” or “interpret information” or “make inferences.” Establishing this shared understanding is an essential first step in fostering critical thinking.^[4]

Develop learning outcomes related to critical thinking

Let’s say you plan to ask your students to analyze an argument. What cognitive skills are involved? Students might need to identify the evidence that is provided to support the argument and then evaluate the validity and strength of that evidence. However, students might not know intuitively how to apply the necessary cognitive skills. You can teach students what to do and a first step is to articulate critical thinking learning outcomes just as you would articulate learning outcomes for other course content.

Read more about the role of learning outcomes in learning-centered course design.

The following examples illustrate critical thinking learning outcomes related to different disciplines. They are excerpted verbatim from Nilson (pp. 46-52; additional examples appear in the book).^[4] While Nilson acknowledges that critical thinking is the same across disciplines, she suggests that incorporating critical thinking outcomes into a course may be easier to consider when using the “vocabulary and milieus” (p. 46) of the discipline. However, some examples might apply to multiple disciplines. Notice that each outcome begins with a verb that calls upon students to demonstrate the critical thinking skill in question.

Disciplinary areas	Example learning outcomes

Disciplinary areas	Example learning outcomes
Basic and Applied Sciences; technical and problem-solving disciplines	Classify problems by their types and the correct algorithms to solve them. Design and conduct an observational experiment, including deciding the variables to be measured and how to measure them. Evaluate different solutions and select the best one(s). Formulate and defend one’s positions, hypotheses, findings, or interpretations. Recognize and explain a problem, position, or question.
Humanities, Law, Social Sciences	Analyze arguments for the strength of their evidence, their internal consistency, and their logic. Assess competing interpretations, evidence, arguments, explanations, and conclusions. Distinguish facts from inferences and opinions. Isolate and assess the assumptions and contextual influences behind one’s own and others’ positions. Recognize and explain a position or argument.
Arts (e.g., visual and graphic arts, music, dance, drama, theater, film, and creative writing)	Analyze a range of works to document growth or changes in an artist or across locations, cultures, or historical periods. Create or perform a satisfactory (or better) work of art and explicate its significance. Evaluate interpretations of a work against the evidence contained in the work. Identify themes or important features in works of art. Interpret and critique a work following commonly agreed-upon criteria.
Self-regulated learning outcomes across disciplines	Set goals and preparation strategies to improve one’s performance on exams and assignments. Observe, analyze, and articulate one’s thinking process in arriving at a response or solution. Monitor and communicate, orally and in writing, one’s critical thinking while doing course activities and assignments […]. Develop strategies on how to best apply instructor and peer feedback to revise a paper or project involving critical thinking.

When planning critical thinking learning outcomes for your course:

Step 1: Consider what critical thinking means in the context of your discipline and course.

Step 2: Decide which aspects of critical thinking you will teach, have students practice, and then assess.

Step 3: Formulate learning outcomes that define how students will demonstrate that they have developed the intended skills.

Model critical thinking

Modeling for students how you approach academic activities that involve critical thinking in your discipline is one of the most effective ways to teach critical thinking.^[1][4] Not sure how to do that? Consider: What questions do you have in mind when you read a journal article? What is your thought process when looking for evidence to support a hypothesis or reject a claim? How do you grapple with uncertainty? Your answers to these questions can illustrate to students how you approach these cognitive tasks.

Provide students with opportunities to practice critical thinking

Critical thinking has to become a habit of mind.^[2] To get students into the habit, they need lots of practice and ideally this practice involves interaction with peers (e.g., small group activities) and the application of critical thinking to concrete examples (e.g., case studies, simulations).^[1]

Examples:

Depending on your course context (content, level, class size), there are different strategies you may want to employ to promote critical thinking.

Give students opportunities to engage critically with different sources such as social media postings, news articles, and research papers (e.g., Fake news assignment, Scientific source evaluation, Research paper critique).
Provide students with question prompts to encourage them to read critically or ask them to develop questions based on the readings (e.g., Admission ticket assignment).
Allow students to explore issues from different points of view (e.g., In-class debate, Letter to stakeholders).
During in-class discussions, give students space and time to think. Use minute-papers or think-pair-share to provide students with individual thinking time before engaging in discussions with the whole class.
Encourage students to think more deeply about the course content and their own learning. Pose questions that build on these questions stems. In reflection activities, engage students around course materials (e.g., Brief communication, Review and reading journal, Reflection paper).

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References

^[1] ¹ ² ³ Brookfield, S. D. (2011). Teaching for critical thinking: Tools and techniques to help students question their assumptions. Wiley.

^[2] ¹ ² Facione, P. A. (2000). The disposition toward critical thinking: Its character, measurement, and relation to critical thinking skill. Informal Logic, 20(1), 61–84.

^[3] Facione, P. A. (2023). Critical thinking: What it is and why it counts. Insight Assessment.

^[4] ¹ ² ³ Nilson, L. B. (2021). Infusing critical thinking into your course: A concrete, practical approach. Routledge.