NTLSN · Crash Course · Higher-order

Teaching critical thinking — a crash course

Every graduate profile promises critical thinking; few courses teach it on purpose. Four short lessons on doing exactly that, then a self-check.

The one thing to remember: critical thinking isn't caught, it's taught — make reasoning visible and practise it deliberately, in your discipline.
4 lessons~10 min read1 self-checkGrounded in Bloom, Paul-Elder & reasoning pedagogy

The lessons

1
Define it — in your disciplineBeyond ‘think harder’
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‘Critical thinking’ means little until you make it concrete: what does good reasoning look like in your field?

  • Name the moves: analyse, evaluate evidence, weigh alternatives, justify.
  • Make the discipline's standards of a good argument explicit.
  • Distinguish opinion, claim, evidence and inference.
2
Make reasoning visibleModel the thinking, not just the answer
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Experts hide their reasoning. Students learn to think by seeing thinking — so think out loud and show the messy middle.

  • Model your own reasoning, including dead ends.
  • Use worked examples of good (and flawed) arguments.
  • Ask ‘how do you know?’ and ‘what would change your mind?’
3
Design tasks that demand itHigher-order by design
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Recall questions can't assess thinking. Design tasks that require analysis, evaluation and judgement (Bloom's higher levels).

  • Set problems with no single right answer; require a justified position.
  • Ask students to critique, compare, or improve something.
  • Give real, messy material — not tidied textbook cases.
4
Assess & feedback on thinkingGrade the reasoning
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What you assess is what students practise. Reward the quality of reasoning, not just the conclusion.

  • Use rubrics that name reasoning criteria, not just content.
  • Give feedback on the argument, not only the answer.
  • Let students revise their reasoning after feedback.
◇ Bring it together — from the NTLSN commons
Browse “Curriculum” resourcesAuthentic Assessment courseGraduate-outcomes resources369 sector videos

To teach thinking on purpose — a quick self-check

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I've made ‘good reasoning in my field’ concrete.
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I model my own thinking, including dead ends.
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My tasks demand analysis and judgement, not recall.
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I use messy, real material, not tidied cases.
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My rubric rewards reasoning, not just the conclusion.
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Students can revise their reasoning after feedback.
Source & attribution. Curated from critical-thinking pedagogy (Bloom's higher-order levels; the Paul-Elder framework) and reasoning-in-the-disciplines practice indexed by the NTLSN commons. Practitioner synthesis, not original research.
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