284

After a week of far-right rioting fuelled by online misinformation, the British government is to change the school curriculum so English schoolchildren are taught critical thinking skills to tackle it (www.telegraph.co.uk)

submitted 3 months ago by Lugh@futurology.today to c/futurology@futurology.today

37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 months ago

Kiwi here, WTH is critical thinking, anyway?

We don't get taught shit, now they just present some content or ideas and hope we magically absorb it

[-] FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io 17 points 3 months ago

Critical thinking is being able to question things and figure out if it's bullshit basically.

[-] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 months ago

Like the accented farter said, critical thinking is a set of skills and the practice necessary to learn them that allows one to examine any given idea and judge the credibility, usefulness, and accuracy present (or lack thereof).

It also involves a minor degree of language and reading comprehension as an underlying prerequisite. You don't have to be more than basically literate, and close to fluency with a given language to make use of the skills. That's important because some people think that critical thinking can't be effectively taught before a given age (usually stated as early as tweens and as late as high school). But as long as the person can process language well enough to understand basic questions, you can lay the groundwork for it as early as kids start school anyway.