Steven Herman, Ph.D.

Critical thinking is a widely accepted educational goal, but there is disagreement on the definition of critical thinking and how well critical thinking skills in one subject area or discipline can be transferred to another. Critical thinking has been defined as:

• Careful thinking directed to a goal

• The ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe

• Critical thinking is that mode of thinking — about any subject, content, or problem — in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it. Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem-solving abilities, as well as a commitment to overcome our native egocentrism and sociocentrism.

​

There are also many ways of describing the skills of critical thinking. Critical thinkers:

• Raise vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely

• Gather and assess relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively

• Come to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards

• Think with an open mind within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as needs be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences

• Communicate effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems

​

There is agreement that critical thinking must be explicitly taught, but not by itself. It must be taught in the context of specific subject areas together with the content of that area. One common thread in definitions of critical thinking is that it requires self-reflection - thinking about one's own thinking. One of the best ways to foster that in the classroom is for students to not only provide solutions to problems but explain how they arrived at their solutions.

​

Teachers can encourage critical thinking with good questions:

• Go beyond "what?" — ask "how?" and "why?"

• ​​Follow with, "How do you know this?"

  • This gives students practice in supporting their ideas with evidence and defending their ideas

• Prompt students to think about how their perspective on a topic may be different from other poeple's

• Prompt students to propose and justify solutions

​

An important step in critical thinking is to assess the reliability, quality and bias of information. This is especially important in the internet age, when nearly infinite amounts of information are immediately available, but the quality, reliability, bias, and truthfulness of the information varies widely. This topic is covered in the Evaluating Online Information page of this website.