How to Teach Critical Thinking in Schools

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A lot of people form these identities pretty early on and then sort of have these issue positions. If you're growing up in a conservative church that is pro-life you know you're going to be a republican so which kind of comes first it's hard to tease out sometimes but there are many Americans who aren't ideological about the issues they care about. I think three things have to happen one we need to teach critical thinking in schools uh and i i but that is not a panacea um i i do it i have a critical thinking class that i teach and the kids love it but there's another great study that was done on the death penalty but lord ross and leper

The democratic ideal demands that the citizenry think critically about matters of public import. Yet many Democrats and Republicans in the United States have fallen short of that standard because political tribalism motivates them to acquire, perceive and evaluate political information in a biased manner. The result is an electorate that is more extreme, hostile and willing to reject unfavorable democratic outcomes.

Shermer and Redmond discuss: why we have political duopoly (Duverger’s law) • parties vs. policies • Are we living in a post-truth, fake-news, alternative facts world? • How do we know political polarization is worse now than in the past? • acquiring, perceiving, and evaluating political information • evaluating: false political information, political numbers and arguments, claims of rigged election • whataboutism • cognitive responsibilities of citizenship • cognitive biases • political polarization • myside bias • numeracy vs. innumeracy • solutions to the polarization problem.

Timothy J. Redmond received his PhD in political science from the University at Buffalo. He is an award-winning educator and author of over one hundred articles on critical thinking and politics. He is a professor at Daemen University where he teaches a political science and history course for education students.