SPECIFIC SKILLS
These are discrete skills that can be taught. The goal is to help students detect and avoid bad reasoning in school, career, and personal life, especially to detect false claims and avoid being fooled and manipulated, even when some information is unknown. These skills are exercises toward that goal. Most of these require ongoing practice, not just a one-time unit.
Fact / Opinion — Too many people, including adults, assume their opinion is a “correct” fact, or that facts are opinions subject to debate. Curriculum apps can give students practice distinguishing facts from opinions, like FactOpy.com. CCSS requires this in grades 6-8 only, but students can learn this much younger and practice it through high school, and since adults struggle with this, we recommend grades 4?-12.
Logical Fallacies — People are prone to flawed reasoning in personal arguments, business decisions, and political debate, both unintentionally and as intentional manipulation. Fallacies can get very abstract, and they have archaic names, so they’re usually reserved for college philosophy courses. But curriculum can simplify fallacies and layer them by grade level, like Foolacy.com. CCSS requires students to detect “fallacious reasoning” in grades 9-10 only, but students can start learning this much younger, and since adults struggle with this, we recommend grades 5-12.
Ad Techniques, Labeling Tricks — Marketers know how to manipulate us to spend and vote against our own interests. Knowledge of these techniques is good armor: Lifestyle ads (halo effect), FUD (fear uncertainty doubt), Endorsement (false authority), Appeal to Nature, Appeal to Tradition, etc. These are like visual fallacies, and they are covered in Foolacy.com
Correlation / Causation — Our human intuition naturally confuses correlation with causation, and misinterprets coincidences as proof, which undermines personal arguments, business decisions, and political debate. Usually this is taught only in Statistics courses, which is all CCSS requires. But it is also part of logical fallacies (post hoc, cum hoc) and a tenet of the scientific method, which helps students distinguish rigorous scientific studies from junk science. The NGSS does not name this skill specifically. We recommend it be taught and practiced as part of the scientific method, grades 7?-12.
Credibility, Bias, Motive — Too many adults fall for misinformation. The CCSS has good requirements in grades 6-12 to assess the credibility of sources, and in grade 8 to evaluate their motives. However, these standards still have relatively low coverage compared to other subjects. And specific skills are often overlooked, like how to read a URL to detect impersonation (e.g., www.goodguy.xyz.com and [email protected] look like a trusted source but are not). We recommend the CCSS requirements be broadened to include detecting bias, motive, and qualifications for claims in all media, grades 5?-12.
Plausible vs Possible — We sometimes forget to ask ourselves if a potential event is probable, not just possible. This is why so many people believe the most convoluted, cartoonishly evil conspiracy theories, or woo-woo pseudosciences with no plausible explanation (like how exactly do the planets affect your personality and future). This Neglect of Probability bias is not covered in the CCSS or NGSS. We should ask students to evaluate the plausibility of various claims of conspiracies, pseudoscience, and miracle cures. We developed a lesson for this in ThinkKeen.com
Statistics & Probability — Probability is not intuitive to the human mind, which causes many false assumptions. Statistics and probability is perhaps the most practical math topic for critical thinking (and a job skill in demand for algorithms, polling, and market research). Ideally, there should be extensive units on statistics and probability over multiple years, not just an elective course. So much medical misinformation, especially for vaccines, is because of Base-Rate Neglect and a lack of understanding of Bayesian Probability, which the CCSS and NGSS do not cover.
Lying with Statistics — Liars know how easy it is to trick us with statistics and graphs taken out of context. The CCSS/NGSS does not explicitly require students to detect these. We recommend it be taught not only in Statistics courses but also repeated in math and science classes. We developed lessons for this — see ThinkKeen.com
Controlled Studies — Experimental Design is a subset of the Scientific Method and Nature of Science; however, the NGSS does not explicitly require students to learn about randomized control groups, placebos, sample sizes, etc., which are needed to distinguish junk science from rigorous research. Many science skeptics dismiss research as “biased”, unaware of how the experimental design controls for bias, coincidence, and correlation. This comes up in everyday ads and scams, so we recommend this be required in grades 9-12. Curriculum can test students to identify what would be required to prove a given claim. We developed lessons for this — see ThinkKeen.com
Distinguishing Pseudoscience — Learning science is not enough to unlearn pseudoscience, alternative medicine, and quackery. It helps to debunk specific examples, showing how the false claims lack randomized control groups, placebos, large sample sizes, and blinded studies. This is not mentioned or required in the NGSS (only Florida requires this). We recommend this be required in grades 8-12. We developed lessons for this — see ThinkKeen.com
Cognitive Biases — Human intuition is riddled with cognitive biases that lead us to irrational decisions. Self-awareness of these biases could help students make better decisions, like avoiding loss aversion and the sunk-cost fallacy. Currently, no standards cover cognitive biases. Some biases are directly related to fallacies, so they could be taught similarly, like Your Bias Is.
Risk / Reward — Calculating financial decisions is a practical life skill for students, like credit card debt, extended warranties, gambling, and savings plans, etc. (cost-benefit analysis). The same concept applies subjectively to short-term sacrifices vs long-term benefits, and to qualitative pros and cons (e.g., when should police call off a high-speed chase that might injure or kill innocent bystanders). The CCSS and NGSS do not cover this explicitly.
Pros & Cons — Debate skills are useful, but they trap people in binary thinking and partisan politics by arguing “my side” is correct and perfect while “your side” is wrong about everything. Real life isn’t so black and white, and perfect solutions are rare, so we usually must choose from multiple imperfect solutions to find the best compromise. Instead of debating, we recommend students analyze the pros & cons of both sides, especially for emotional hot-button topics, where this is more challenging.
Ethics & Moral Dilemmas — Discussing and debating moral dilemmas helps students question assumptions and absolute rules (e.g. is it ever okay to steal, even if it saves a life?), and what is “fair” for whom. This understanding is very relevant to policy debates (e.g. when should social media platforms ban a repeat offender). Surprisingly, the CCSS/NGSS do not explicitly mention morality, ethics, or fairness.
Scams — While it is unlikely a student will ever need to solve a murder mystery, it is highly likely they will be scammed in their lives — fake products, charity fraud, catfishing, IRS impersonators, crypto scams, password phishing, malware downloads, and more. Students can practice critical thinking by identifying suspicious clues in example scams — too good to be true, get rich quick, flattery, scare tactics, unsolicited messages from unknown senders, lookalike URLs, etc.
Propaganda — Government propaganda campaigns throughout history reveal many tactics of manipulation.
Game Theory — Game theory teaches strategic thinking, including probabilities, risks, and rewards. It forces you to consider how other people would react, which is relevant in policy debates to avoid unintended consequences. (e.g., Paying a bounty for snakes killed led to profiteers breeding more snakes.)
Reality vs Fiction — In fiction, the underdog always wins, the hero never gets hurt or pays any consequences, the enemy has no virtue, conspiracies abound, and everyone lives happily ever after. Most kids intuit how reality is different, but for some, it might distort their perception and decision-making toward magical thinking. Perhaps teachers should ask students to analyze and discuss what parts of each story are unrealistic.
Manipulative Characters &mash; In fiction, students can analyze how antagonists trick and emotionally manipulate others, from the sly fox in fairy tales, to Mother Gothel in Tangled, to Iago, Cassius, and Marc Antony in Shakespeare’s plays.
Brain Teasers, Trick Questions, Riddles — These teach students to ignore irrelevant clues, which may help them analyze misleading claims in the real world.
Other? — Please contact us with suggestions.
BROAD CONCEPTS Critical thinking is a broad and abstract concept, so below are the related components. While the skills above are more specific and not taught often, these concepts below are broader and are taught to varying degrees, though inconsistently. Logic — Formal logic is the application of objective rules to determine an answer. There is no subjectivity, so there is only one correct answer. This is well taught in schools through math, natural sciences, and computer programming, as well as logic puzzles. Analysis — Breaking something down into its components. This is taught in many subjects, e.g. literary analysis is breaking down a story into setting, protagonist, antagonist, conflict, resolution, exposition, theme, motif, etc. Reasoning — Broadly, reasoning is synonymous with critical thinking. More specifically, it is an extension of logic involving analysis, often subjective. This is well covered in many subjects, especially writing. Knowledge — Knowledge helps inform our judgment, e.g., knowledge of biology helps you detect quack cures. Education covers knowledge well, though it is a fair criticism that several topics have little practical use beyond school. Objectivity — Objectivity is not the lack of biases or opinions. It is your self-awareness of your feelings and biases, and your ability to set them aside when making decisions. This is a component of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), which is taught to varying degrees. Open-Mindedness — Willingness to consider new information and change your mind — rather than adhering to a group identity, fearing it would make you look inconsistent, and being too proud to admit you were wrong. Open-minded people may have strongly held opinions, as long as they have considered both sides and acknowledged the pros and cons before coming to a conclusion, and they are still willing to hear new information to reconsider their conclusion. This is a tenet of the scientific method, and a component of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). Morality — Critical thinking requires fair and ethical decisions. While morality is not formally structured in the curriculum, it is discussed often, especially in literature and social studies. Problem Solving — This can range from very narrow (e.g. puzzles) to very broad (e.g. fair compromises), and use any of the above skills. Narrow problem-solving is well taught, but broad problem-solving is inconsistent in the curriculum. Judgment — Making good decisions is the culmination of all of the above. This is exercised through class discussions and opinion essays.
THINKING vs FEELING Critical Thinking is the opposite of Intuitive Feeling. That doesn’t mean feelings and intuition are bad. In fact, we rely on gut feelings to make most decisions every day; otherwise, we would get stuck in analysis paralysis while choosing which peanut butter to buy. This distinction is similar to the Myers-Briggs’ Thinking vs Feeling, and Fast vs Slow Thinking (dual process theory). We need both, so the real question is: What do you do when the facts contradict your feelings? Critical thinkers trust the facts more and try to adjust their feelings. Intuitive feelers trust their gut more, so they dismiss the facts. Or, more precisely, they dismiss the scientific consensus and reliable sources, and instead cherry-pick claims from fringe minorities to retro-justify their feelings. But they are not conscious of this, so they believe they are the true critical thinkers. Therefore, we cannot simply instruct people to choose facts over feelings. Instead, we can only teach them the fundamental skills to distinguish facts from opinions, correlation from causation, empirical evidence from anecdotal experiences, etc.
FACTS ARE FUTILE Have you ever tried to change the mind of a conspiracy theorist, like someone who thinks the moon landings were faked? Or someone who believes in pseudosciences, like numerology or fortune-telling? Or someone who believes in alternative medicine, like cupping therapy or homeopathy? No matter how much evidence you present and how thoroughly you disprove each of their arguments, they still don’t change their mind. That’s because facts and logical arguments cannot convince someone with undeveloped critical thinking skills. Also, it is usually too late to correct someone after they have already formed a belief in conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, quack cures, or propaganda. For example, once someone decides that climate change is a hoax or vaccines cause autism, explaining the science to them often just causes them to double down and have even less trust in scientists and doctors. This is why it’s important to teach critical thinking skills early, starting in elementary school through high school.
BROAD CONCEPTS Critical thinking is a broad and abstract concept, so below are the related components. While the skills above are more specific and not taught often, these concepts below are broader and are taught to varying degrees, though inconsistently. Logic — Formal logic is the application of objective rules to determine an answer. There is no subjectivity, so there is only one correct answer. This is well taught in schools through math, natural sciences, and computer programming, as well as logic puzzles. Analysis — Breaking something down into its components. This is taught in many subjects, e.g. literary analysis is breaking down a story into setting, protagonist, antagonist, conflict, resolution, exposition, theme, motif, etc. Reasoning — Broadly, reasoning is synonymous with critical thinking. More specifically, it is an extension of logic involving analysis, often subjective. This is well covered in many subjects, especially writing. Knowledge — Knowledge helps inform our judgment, e.g., knowledge of biology helps you detect quack cures. Education covers knowledge well, though it is a fair criticism that several topics have little practical use beyond school. Objectivity — Objectivity is not the lack of biases or opinions. It is your self-awareness of your feelings and biases, and your ability to set them aside when making decisions. This is a component of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), which is taught to varying degrees. Open-Mindedness — Willingness to consider new information and change your mind — rather than adhering to a group identity, fearing it would make you look inconsistent, and being too proud to admit you were wrong. Open-minded people may have strongly held opinions, as long as they have considered both sides and acknowledged the pros and cons before coming to a conclusion, and they are still willing to hear new information to reconsider their conclusion. This is a tenet of the scientific method, and a component of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). Morality — Critical thinking requires fair and ethical decisions. While morality is not formally structured in the curriculum, it is discussed often, especially in literature and social studies. Problem Solving — This can range from very narrow (e.g. puzzles) to very broad (e.g. fair compromises), and use any of the above skills. Narrow problem-solving is well taught, but broad problem-solving is inconsistent in the curriculum. Judgment — Making good decisions is the culmination of all of the above. This is exercised through class discussions and opinion essays.
THINKING vs FEELING Critical Thinking is the opposite of Intuitive Feeling. That doesn’t mean feelings and intuition are bad. In fact, we rely on gut feelings to make most decisions every day; otherwise, we would get stuck in analysis paralysis while choosing which peanut butter to buy. This distinction is similar to the Myers-Briggs’ Thinking vs Feeling, and Fast vs Slow Thinking (dual process theory). We need both, so the real question is: What do you do when the facts contradict your feelings? Critical thinkers trust the facts more and try to adjust their feelings. Intuitive feelers trust their gut more, so they dismiss the facts. Or, more precisely, they dismiss the scientific consensus and reliable sources, and instead cherry-pick claims from fringe minorities to retro-justify their feelings. But they are not conscious of this, so they believe they are the true critical thinkers. Therefore, we cannot simply instruct people to choose facts over feelings. Instead, we can only teach them the fundamental skills to distinguish facts from opinions, correlation from causation, empirical evidence from anecdotal experiences, etc.
FACTS ARE FUTILE Have you ever tried to change the mind of a conspiracy theorist, like someone who thinks the moon landings were faked? Or someone who believes in pseudosciences, like numerology or fortune-telling? Or someone who believes in alternative medicine, like cupping therapy or homeopathy? No matter how much evidence you present and how thoroughly you disprove each of their arguments, they still don’t change their mind. That’s because facts and logical arguments cannot convince someone with undeveloped critical thinking skills. Also, it is usually too late to correct someone after they have already formed a belief in conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, quack cures, or propaganda. For example, once someone decides that climate change is a hoax or vaccines cause autism, explaining the science to them often just causes them to double down and have even less trust in scientists and doctors. This is why it’s important to teach critical thinking skills early, starting in elementary school through high school.