games that promote critical thinking

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11 Activities That Promote Critical Thinking In The Class

52 Critical Thinking Flashcards for Problem Solving

Critical thinking activities encourage individuals to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to develop informed opinions and make reasoned decisions. Engaging in such exercises cultivates intellectual agility, fostering a deeper understanding of complex issues and honing problem-solving skills for navigating an increasingly intricate world. Through critical thinking, individuals empower themselves to challenge assumptions, uncover biases, and constructively contribute to discourse, thereby enriching both personal growth and societal progress.

Critical thinking serves as the cornerstone of effective problem-solving, enabling individuals to dissect challenges, explore diverse perspectives, and devise innovative solutions grounded in logic and evidence. For engaging problem solving activities, read our article problem solving activities that enhance student’s interest.

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is a 21st-century skill that enables a person to think rationally and logically in order to reach a plausible conclusion. A critical thinker assesses facts and figures and data objectively and determines what to believe and what not to believe. Critical thinking skills empower a person to decipher complex problems and make impartial and better decisions based on effective information.

Importance of Acquiring Critical Thinking Skills

Acquiring critical thinking skills was never as valuable as it is today because of the prevalence of the modern knowledge economy. Today, information and technology are the driving forces behind the global economy. To keep pace with ever-changing technology and new inventions, one has to be flexible enough to embrace changes swiftly.

Read our article: How to Foster Critical Thinking Skills in Students? Creative Strategies and Real-World Examples

Today critical thinking skills are one of the most sought-after skills by the companies. In fact, critical thinking skills are paramount not only for active learning and academic achievement but also for the professional career of the students. The lack of critical thinking skills catalyzes memorization of the topics without a deeper insight, egocentrism, closed-mindedness, reduced student interest in the classroom and not being able to make timely and better decisions.

Benefits of Critical Thinking Skills in Education

Certain strategies are more eloquent than others in teaching students how to think critically. Encouraging critical thinking in the class is indispensable for the learning and growth of the students. In this way, we can raise a generation of innovators and thinkers rather than followers. Some of the benefits offered by thinking critically in the classroom are given below:

It allows a student to decipher problems and think through the situations in a disciplined and systematic manner
Through a critical thinking ability, a student can comprehend the logical correlation between distinct ideas
The student is able to rethink and re-justify his beliefs and ideas based on facts and figures
Critical thinking skills make the students curious about things around them
A student who is a critical thinker is creative and always strives to come up with out of the box solutions to intricate problems
Critical thinking skills assist in the enhanced student learning experience in the classroom and prepares the students for lifelong learning and success
The critical thinking process is the foundation of new discoveries and inventions in the world of science and technology
The ability to think critically allows the students to think intellectually and enhances their presentation skills, hence they can convey their ideas and thoughts in a logical and convincing manner
Critical thinking skills make students a terrific communicator because they have logical reasons behind their ideas

Critical Thinking Lessons and Activities

11 Activities that Promote Critical Thinking in the Class

We have compiled a list of 11 activities that will facilitate you to promote critical thinking abilities in the students. We have also covered problem solving activities that enhance student’s interest in our another article. Click here to read it.

1. Worst Case Scenario

Divide students into teams and introduce each team with a hypothetical challenging scenario. Allocate minimum resources and time to each team and ask them to reach a viable conclusion using those resources. The scenarios can include situations like stranded on an island or stuck in a forest. Students will come up with creative solutions to come out from the imaginary problematic situation they are encountering. Besides encouraging students to think critically, this activity will enhance teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills of the students.

Read our article: 10 Innovative Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom

2. If You Build It

It is a very flexible game that allows students to think creatively. To start this activity, divide students into groups. Give each group a limited amount of resources such as pipe cleaners, blocks, and marshmallows etc. Every group is supposed to use these resources and construct a certain item such as building, tower or a bridge in a limited time. You can use a variety of materials in the classroom to challenge the students. This activity is helpful in promoting teamwork and creative skills among the students.

It is also one of the classics which can be used in the classroom to encourage critical thinking. Print pictures of objects, animals or concepts and start by telling a unique story about the printed picture. The next student is supposed to continue the story and pass the picture to the other student and so on.

4. Keeping it Real

In this activity, you can ask students to identify a real-world problem in their schools, community or city. After the problem is recognized, students should work in teams to come up with the best possible outcome of that problem.

5. Save the Egg

Make groups of three or four in the class. Ask them to drop an egg from a certain height and think of creative ideas to save the egg from breaking. Students can come up with diverse ideas to conserve the egg like a soft-landing material or any other device. Remember that this activity can get chaotic, so select the area in the school that can be cleaned easily afterward and where there are no chances of damaging the school property.

6. Start a Debate

In this activity, the teacher can act as a facilitator and spark an interesting conversation in the class on any given topic. Give a small introductory speech on an open-ended topic. The topic can be related to current affairs, technological development or a new discovery in the field of science. Encourage students to participate in the debate by expressing their views and ideas on the topic. Conclude the debate with a viable solution or fresh ideas generated during the activity through brainstorming.

7. Create and Invent

This project-based learning activity is best for teaching in the engineering class. Divide students into groups. Present a problem to the students and ask them to build a model or simulate a product using computer animations or graphics that will solve the problem. After students are done with building models, each group is supposed to explain their proposed product to the rest of the class. The primary objective of this activity is to promote creative thinking and problem-solving skills among the students.

8. Select from Alternatives

This activity can be used in computer science, engineering or any of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) classes. Introduce a variety of alternatives such as different formulas for solving the same problem, different computer codes, product designs or distinct explanations of the same topic.

Form groups in the class and ask them to select the best alternative. Each group will then explain its chosen alternative to the rest of the class with reasonable justification of its preference. During the process, the rest of the class can participate by asking questions from the group. This activity is very helpful in nurturing logical thinking and analytical skills among the students.

9. Reading and Critiquing

Present an article from a journal related to any topic that you are teaching. Ask the students to read the article critically and evaluate strengths and weaknesses in the article. Students can write about what they think about the article, any misleading statement or biases of the author and critique it by using their own judgments.

In this way, students can challenge the fallacies and rationality of judgments in the article. Hence, they can use their own thinking to come up with novel ideas pertaining to the topic.

10. Think Pair Share

In this activity, students will come up with their own questions. Make pairs or groups in the class and ask the students to discuss the questions together. The activity will be useful if the teacher gives students a topic on which the question should be based.

For example, if the teacher is teaching biology, the questions of the students can be based on reverse osmosis, human heart, respiratory system and so on. This activity drives student engagement and supports higher-order thinking skills among students.

11. Big Paper – Silent Conversation

Silence is a great way to slow down thinking and promote deep reflection on any subject. Present a driving question to the students and divide them into groups. The students will discuss the question with their teammates and brainstorm their ideas on a big paper. After reflection and discussion, students can write their findings in silence. This is a great learning activity for students who are introverts and love to ruminate silently rather than thinking aloud.

Read our next article: 10 Innovative Strategies for Promoting Critical Thinking in the Classroom

7 Puzzles to Challenge Your Critical Thinking

Can you spot the connections and sort these items.

Posted March 5, 2015 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

The theme of this post is critical thinking—and the kinds of puzzles that can be constructed around it. This term is used frequently in psychology and education . There are various definitions, but the one that best suits our purpose and which is, in the end, perhaps the best, is the ability to comprehend the logical connections among ideas, words, phrases, and concepts . In the relevant scientific literature, of course, the term is used much more broadly as a framework for understanding human cognition . But in my opinion, the best way to understand things is to construct puzzles to illustrate their basic essence.

Critical thinking involves skill at recognizing a pattern in given information and especially recognizing how the information is connected to the real world. Here are a couple of very simple examples. First, consider the five words below:

Cruise ship
Walking on foot
Automobile (not a race car)

Now, put them in order from the slowest to the fastest, when they are going at maximum speed. The solution, of course, is: 4-2-5-1-3.

As with all such puzzles, there might be slightly different solutions—one could claim that some automobiles go faster than cruise ships. This “indeterminacy” characterizes this kind of thinking. However, some puzzles are straightforward. For instance, what do the following five things have in common?

The answer? These are all words referring to shades of blue.

The seven puzzles below are to the ones above, though hopefully more challenging. Some involve knowledge of facts, but critical thinking is still involved in such cases because the organization of the facts according to some principle is always involved—for example, a puzzle may ask you to put five items in order of their dates of invention.

The following tongue-in-cheek definition of critical thinking by Richard W. Paul, a leading expert on critical thinking theory, says it all: “Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking while you’re thinking in order to make your thinking better.”

I. What do the following 5 things have in common?

Orange juice

II. Put the following buildings or structures in order of height, from the shortest to the tallest.

Typical camping tent

III. What do the following animals have in common?

IV. Put the following inventions in order from earliest to most recent.

V. What feature do the following words have in common?

Imagination

VI. Put these bodies of water in order in terms of volume, from smallest to largest .

VII. What do the following landmasses have in common?

I. They are all drinkable liquids. II. 5-1-4-3-2 III. They all have a tail. They are also all quadrupeds. IV. To the best of my knowledge: 5-4-3-1-2 V. They start with a vowel: a, e, i, o, u VI. 4-2-1-5-3 VII. They are all peninsulas.

Marcel Danesi, Ph.D. , is a professor of semiotics and anthropology at Victoria College, University of Toronto. His books include The Puzzle Instinct and The Total Brain Workout .

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10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking

10 Team-building games for critical thinking | Future Education Magazine

Students may improve their capabilities in critical thinking and other skills that will help them be successful in the contemporary job by participating in Team-building games for critical thinking. Students who value collaboration (and who will go on to become employers!) have higher levels of motivation and creativity.

It is common knowledge that kids like collaborating in groups very lot. Why don’t we make it into a game instead? Games are often a better option than brain training activities for helping children develop lateral thinking. However, brain training activities may be employed. Implementing these strategies in your classes can help students become more critical thinkers and more successful collaborators.

Here are 10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking;

1. minefield.

Minefield Team-building games for critical thinking is a time-honored exercise that has been shown to foster better communication and a sense of trust among participants of all ages. It requires the construction of an obstacle course as well as the grouping of the students into different teams. Students take turns navigating the “minefield” while wearing blindfolds and relying only on the support of their classmates to find their way. You might also encourage kids to use certain terms or hints in order to make it more challenging for them or to utilize information that is related to the topic in order to make it more interesting to them.

2. If You Build it

This exercise in establishing teams may easily be adapted to fit your needs. To get started, separate the children into teams and give each group an equal quantity of a certain substance. Some examples of this material are pipe cleaners, bricks, dried spaghetti, and marshmallows.

After that, you should assign them a project to work on. The challenge may take on a variety of forms, such as “which team can build the biggest castle that is also structurally sound?” Which side has the capacity to build the greatest number of castles in the least period of time? You may recycle this exercise throughout the year by modifying the challenge or the resources to correspond to other subject areas in the curriculum.

3. It’s a Mystery

Since many children, especially younger ones, like a good mystery, why not challenge them to solve it in a way that encourages them to collaborate with one another? It would be helpful to offer each child a numbered clue. The youngsters need to cooperate in order to find the answers to the clues in order to allow themselves enough time to solve the mystery, such as the case of the missing mascot. It’s possible that in order to solve the “case,” they’ll need to go about the room and look in other areas for additional clues.

Zoom team-building games for critical thinking is an old standby when it comes to games for constructing teams, and the many advantages that come with playing the game make it even more interesting. The children are seated in a circle, and one child gives each child an image of an item from Zoom.

The game begins with one child relating a story based on the image that they are holding, and the next student continues the story from where the previous student left off. The game helps youngsters improve their creativity, critical thinking, and communication abilities by compelling them to create the tales on the spot and challenging them to think critically about what they’ve written.

5. Save the Egg

During this team-building games for critical thinking, each team of three or four persons will have the opportunity to drop their egg from a certain height. They need to devise strategies that will prevent the egg from cracking while it is in the air. They are free to use whatever items or apparatus of their choosing to effect a soft landing for the egg or to guarantee that it settles in an unharmed state.

Because this one has the potential to get ugly, it is essential to choose a site that is risk-free and where no one will be worried about hurting valuable school property.

6. marshmallows-game

7. Go for Gold

The teams compete to achieve the same objective in this Team-building games for critical thinking, which is similar to the game “If you create it,” but rather than having the same resources, the teams have access to a huge quantity. For instance, the objective may be to construct, consisting of pipes, rubber tubing, and cardboard, a machine that, with the only assistance of gravity, can move a marble from point A to point B in a certain number of stages.

Although learning through textbooks is essential, teachers also have a responsibility to ensure that pupils can interact effectively with one another. Exercises that focus on fostering a sense of teamwork are an effective way to do this, and there is no sign that this fad will ever die out.

8. Keep it Real

Because it is founded on a straightforward concept that encourages conversation and problem-solving, this open-ended model functions as an efficient examination tool for students. Give the students the mission to identify and address a genuine issue that exists in their own schools or communities. For the purpose of assisting youngsters in defining their own boundaries, some restrictions, such as time limits, material limits, and physical limitations, might be put on them.

9. Shrinking Vessel

Critical thinking may be tough to understand after undergoing brain training, but after participating in exciting Team-building games for critical thinking like the shrinking vessel, it quickly becomes second nature. The participants will first be split up into smaller groups to begin the exercise. Every group is going to have to coordinate their efforts so that they can fit into a smaller and smaller area until there is no more room. Cones or a rope might be used to define the perimeter of the area. Playing this game will teach you how to collaborate with others to find solutions to challenges.

10. The Worst-Case Scenario

Students are split up into two or more groups, and each of those groups is given a tough scenario to solve. Some examples of these scenarios include being abandoned on a barren island or becoming lost at sea. They are then given the instruction to collaborate with one another within their teams in order to find a solution to the challenge and ultimately emerge triumphant. The children have to come up with a strategy in order to guarantee that everyone will live through the worst-case scenario.

In this particular situation, the students may be quizzed about the things that they will need in order to do the task, in addition to any other passages that they may come across. The fact that youngsters are required to cooperate with one another helps in the development of their ability to solve problems and teaches them the importance of working together as a team through Team-building games for critical thinking.

Bottom line

To achieve the highest productivity at work, Team-building games for critical thinking are conducted in distinct corporate games. However, these games can boost efficiency in the study if undertaken in a classroom atmosphere. They help students to break the monotony in the learning environment. We hope our blog helped you to get new ideas regarding Team-building games for critical thinking. You can implement them in your next session within the classroom.

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Developing critical thinking skills through gamification

Claudia viviana angelelli.

a Heriot-Watt University, Centre for Translation and interpreting Studies in Scotland; School of Social Sciences, EH144AS, Edinburgh, Scotland

Geisa Muller de Campos Ribeiro

b Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG) – Faculdade de Informação e Comunicação (FIC) and Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT), Avenida Esperança s/n, Câmpus Samambaia, 74690-900, Goiânia, Brazil

Maico Roris Severino

Eilidh johnstone, gana borzenkova, dayane costa oliveira da silva.

Misinformation as well as the proliferation of fake news has been a problem during COVID-19 pandemic. This has affected many vulnerable communities in Brazil. The ability to understand and sort out pieces of reliable information and fake news has become a fundamental cognitive skill. In this study we report on the development of a serious game (a card-based role-playing game) using Brazilian folk heroes aimed to develop critical thinking skills to empower vulnerable communities affected by misinformation and fake news. Four groups located in the city of Goiânia (Brazil) participated in this research: one group of people experiencing homelessness; two groups of favela residents (one urban and one in the suburbs) and one group of recyclable material collectors from a cooperative. We gained entry and built trust with each of these groups and worked together for 10 months during the pandemic. We conducted participatory observations, individual interviews with each participant and discussed their daily interaction with information, specifically in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. The analyses of the observations and interview data gave us a glimpse of the communicative needs of the groups. Inserting players into a narrative where they can make decisions based on critical thinking and their own reflections on the pandemic was important for building knowledge and developing critical thinking in these communities. The nature of the game (interactive and cooperative) allowed participants to focus on problem-solving skills and group work. It encouraged them to use real-life knowledge and skills to solve the fictional problems presented by the narrative.

1. Introduction

“Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information” ( Freire, 2009 [1970], p. 170)

The global coronavirus pandemic has led to major changes in human behaviour, habits, and thought processes. Once simple decisions such as sending children to school, visiting the supermarket or meeting friends and family must now be preceded by complex assessments of the potential risks. People must make safe choices to the best of their ability based on the information available to them, which may be drawn from sources such as broadcast news, public health campaigns, social media posts and word of mouth. Unfortunately, not all of these sources are reliable. Misinformation has been a major issue worldwide throughout the pandemic ( Zarocostas, 2020 ), and understanding which information to trust has become a key cognitive skill.

Literature suggests that critical thinking can effectively combat misinformation ( Machete & Turpin, 2020 ; Roozenbeek & van der Linden, 2019 ), but much of the existing research on teaching it has been carried out in schools or universities, and in the Global North ( Cicchino, 2015 ; Halpern, 2001 ). It is time to develop methods for teaching critical thinking beyond formal education settings, beyond traditional teaching materials and classroom management and particularly to diverse learners from disadvantaged communities. Paulo Freire, on whose philosophy this project is grounded, saw education as central to the fight against oppression. He argued for a process he called ‘conscientisation’, where people are led to analyse and think critically about how inequality features in their lives. As Lucio-Villegas (2018, p. 163) writes, “It can be said that this process of becoming conscious is also the long and winding road to emancipation”. Widening the scope of critical thinking education could contribute to building the emancipatory pedagogy Freire hoped for.

Disadvantaged communities in Brazil have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Limited access to specialised hospital care plays a role, as does the relative lack of official public awareness campaigns compared to higher-income districts. This is compounded by the prevalence of widespread misinformation and fake news, which have hindered efforts to mitigate the impact of the pandemic ( Ricard & Medeiros, 2020 ).

Distinguishing accurately between real and fake news is a vital skill, particularly during the pandemic. However, it is a skill that must be learned, and as with any other type of education, the chance to learn and practice critical thinking skills is not evenly spread across the socio-economic scale ( Freire, 1992 , p. 71). This project, rooted in Dewey (1933) and Freire (1992) focussed on developing participant's abilities to make informed decisions by understanding and applying concepts such as making a point, identifying the supporting evidence on which the point is based and evaluating this evidence. We saw the need to develop critical thinking individually but also to negotiate it with others, to raise awareness on the consequences of one's own decisions on others. Two activities supported participants to develop these abilities: 1) Conversation circles sessions: during five sessions participants worked individually and in pairs with materials tailored to their realities (including degrees of literacy, disabilities, as well as contextual information); 2) Serious game: one session provided participants opportunities to collaboratively analyse information and draw reasoned conclusions about its accuracy. In the conversation circles, we engage in critical thinking activities moving along steps adapted from Bloom's taxonomy (1956) , using materials which reflect participants’ daily lives and stories from their communities. During these sessions, participants learn to deal with the onslaught of fake news that has become a dangerous part of everyday life. This learning empowers them to make informed choices about their own and others’ health – something that has, perhaps, never been more important than now. This article focuses on a serious game to complement the conversation circles, aiming to develop critical thinking skills to empower vulnerable communities which are particularly affected by misinformation and fake news. In this article we report on the development and implementation of a serious game (a role playing game) in the context of developing critical thinking skills.

2. Serious games: brief review of the relevant literature

Serious games can be defined as “games whose primary intent is training or learning with definable learning goals, instead of being primarily intended for entertainment” ( Harz & Stern, 2008 , p. 13). Serious games can be used to enhance learning in a wide range of fields and for learners of all ages. They often incorporate simulations and role-play of real-life experiences, which can be used to support both formal and informal learning ( Qian & Clark, 2016 ; Romero et al., 2014 ) and the engaging learning experience promotes effective recall ( Boyle et al., 2016 ; Connolly et al., 2012 ; McDonald, 2017 ). Serious games can be digital or analogue, but some research suggests that analogue games may support learning more effectively than digital ones ( Talan et al., 2020 ). This could be because of the increased opportunity for cooperation and communication between players, or because of the flexibility offered by analogue formats (ibid., p.494).

Mitgutsch (2011) differentiates between learning in games, where players acquire new knowledge or information, learning through games, where players develop skills based on their in-game interactions, and learning beyond games, where players are able to apply these newfound or newly-improved skills to the real world). This final type of learning can set in motion a “transformative learning process […] in which the players explore new perspectives and develop new concepts of themselves, others and the world that they connect to real life circumstances” (ibid., p.56). Mitgutsch asserts that there is not yet conclusive evidence that such transformative learning can occur through serious games. However, there are growing indications that it might. Researchers and educators have found that participants’ cognitive skills can be enhanced by the need to cope with a variety of challenging scenarios within the interactive game environment ( Hwang et al., 2013 ; Prensky, 2001 ). Others in the education sector have noted the effect of game-based learning on players’ problem-solving abilities and their ability to think critically ( Michael & Chen, 2006 ; Qian & Clark, 2016 ; Romero et al., 2014 ). Serious games can be considered an effective tool for the development of 21st-century skills including communication, collaboration, and critical thinking ( Romero et al., 2014 ). An ever-widening range of audiences are now recognising the potential of serious games to change the way players learn ( McGonigal, 2011 ).

In this research project, a serious game provided the ideal complement for the critical thinking sessions. Although the project's goal was an educational one, in the widest sense of the word, it was vital that whatever activity was created for the participants did not feel academic. This would likely have discouraged participation, particularly by those who had negative experiences in school or who have had little formal education. Using a serious game creates a relaxed, engaging environment where participants are positioned not as ‘learners’ but as co-creators of knowledge.

2.1. Serious games, fake news, and COVID-19

In February 2020, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that, “We're not just fighting an epidemic; we're fighting an infodemic” ( Zarocostas, 2020 ). The spread of misinformation has been a well-recognised issue since at least 2016, when the Oxford Dictionaries declared ‘post-truth’ their Word of the Year ( Higgins, 2016 ). In post-truth situations, people are more easily influenced by emotions than by facts. The effects of misinformation and fake news have been particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. Susceptibility to misinformation may make people less likely to get vaccinated against the virus and less likely to comply with public health measures ( Roozenbeek et al., 2020 , p. 12), endangering themselves and those around them. Conspiracy theories disseminated on social media have led to violence, with telecommunications masts in Europe, North America and Australasia destroyed due to a belief that COVID-19 is caused by 5 G technology ( Jolley & Paterson, 2020 ).

Although recent studies have specifically targeted the COVID-19 ‘infodemic’, serious games research has a long history of exploring issues of misinformation and fake news. These studies have demonstrated that serious games can contribute to participants’ ability to identify and think critically about misinformation.

Roozenbeek and van der Linden (2018 , 2019 ) base their research on inoculation theory, which suggests that exposing participants to incorrect information and providing them with means to argue against it can create ‘mental antibodies’ allowing them to recognise misinformation when they encounter it again, in much the same way that viral antibodies allow the immune system to recognise and react to a virus. Controlled exposure to misinformation could therefore provide a ‘vaccine’ against fake news ( McGuire, 1964 apud Roozenbeek & van der Linden, 2018 , p. 571). In their 2018 study, Roozenbeek and van der Linden created a multi-player board game in which players created their own misleading news articles. The game was designed to encourage players to think actively about the techniques used in misinformation, and they found that this process of ‘active inoculation’ did reduce the perceived reliability and persuasiveness of fake news articles (2018, p. 576). The researchers stress that their board game study was necessarily small-scale and exploratory; however, their 2019 experiment, which involved 15,000 participants playing an online browser game designed along the same principles, had similar results. Playing the game “significantly reduced the perceived reliability of tweets that embedded several common online misinformation strategies” (2019, p. 7). They also found the greatest change in those participants who had been most susceptible to fake news before playing the game, suggesting that inoculation could be of significant help to those most at risk of misinformation (2019, p.8).

Focussing on misleading multimodal texts, Clever et al. (2020) developed an app-based game in which participants have to match a headline to an image, and are rewarded both for successfully misleading others and for finding the true headline. Their study does not measure participant sensitivity to fake news before and after playing the game, so they are not able to identify whether the game succeeds in sensitising participants to fake news. Likewise, Katsaounidou et al. (2019) do not measure the effectiveness of their browser-based information-verification game, although their players did report feeling that it had helped them to better identify fake news. This is self-reported rather than empirically verified, but since these studies follow a similar process of inoculation to Roozenbeek's and van der Linden's, it is certainly possible that the games involved have similar effects.

Although the inoculation metaphor predates the outbreak of COVID-19, it seems particularly apt for the current moment. Basol et al. (2021) have designed a game along these lines which specifically targets misinformation around the pandemic. In Go Viral!, participants post on simulated social media sites and create their own conspiracy theories. Researchers found that participants were much more likely to identify manipulative misinformation about COVID-19 after playing the game (2021, p.6). Players were also more likely to suspect real news of being manipulative immediately after playing the game, but a follow-up assessment carried out a week later showed that this effect dissipated entirely with time, while participants’ increased sensitivity to fake news remained (2021, p.13). Basol et al. also found that players were less inclined to share fake news with others after playing the game (2021, p.14), suggesting that such interventions could be key in the worldwide fight against COVID-19 misinformation. Go Viral! has also been listed by the WHO as an anti-misinformation resource, and has been played over 300,000 times ( Basol et al., 2021 , p. 3).

Other researchers have focused on designing serious games to encourage responsible pandemic behaviour. Hernández (2020) created a game focused on COVID-19 prevention measures among the general public, and her results demonstrate the importance of game mechanics as well as informativity: her participants reported that the game provided useful facts, but was overly simple (2020, p.39). Suppan et al. (2020) targeted healthcare workers in long-term care facilities, identifying this as a sector where patients are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, but where resources are lacking and overwork may impact workers’ ability to adhere to guidelines. Suppan et al. (2021) found that participants were significantly more willing to change their behaviour after playing the game than when they were shown infection prevention and control guidelines in a non-game format. The game is translated into German and Italian and will be deployed at the national level across Switzerland ( Suppan et al., 2021 ).

The current project shares a range of attributes with the games mentioned above. As Roozenbeek's and van der Linden's (2018 , 2019 ) inoculation approach, our project provides participants with small amounts of misinformation in a controlled environment, and scaffolds analysis and discussion. However, working with disadvantaged communities in Brazil required the development of a game that would be accessible with minimum technology to participants with a range of literacy levels, as well as one that was appropriate to the target culture. These requirements led to the use of a critical-thinking-focused tabletop role-playing game rather than the more common board game or digital (whether app- or browser-based) formats.

3. Serious role-playing games

The term ‘role-playing game’ (RPG) can refer to a range of phenomena including tabletop role-playing games, single-player video games, and multiplayer online games. In all these types of game, the player takes on a character role that is different from their everyday persona. Tabletop RPGs, arguably the common ancestor of all the RPG genres ( Zagal & Deterding, 2018 ) and the type of game used in this research, are usually played in a group led by a facilitator. The facilitator describes the fictional world for the players, who react by narrating their characters’ actions. The game exists primarily in the facilitator's and the players’ shared imagination. This open-endedness is the key difference between tabletop RPGs and other types of game and has led to some difficulty in defining RPGs at all: Zagal and Deterding describe them as “the exception, the outlier, the not-quite-a- game” (2018, p.19). However, it is this very open-endedness and flexibility that makes RPGs useful serious games, as they can be adapted to reflect a wide range of real-world scenarios ( Ferrand et al., 2009 ).

Researchers have used serious RPGs to tackle subjects from wetlands management ( Morardet & Milhau, 2012 ) to migratory bird identification ( Chu & Chang, 2014 ). Several studies have used RPGs to encourage climate-adaptive farming practices ( Salvini et al., 2016 ; Sautier et al., 2017 ; Villamor & Badmos, 2016 ), to explore climate-aware infrastructure planning ( Schenk, 2014 ) or to raise awareness about the climate crisis ( de Suarez et al., 2012 ; Rumore et al., 2016 ). These are highly complex issues involving a range of factors, tensions and stakeholders, and RPGs are able to capture this complexity without requiring extensive technical knowledge from the players ( Flood et al., 2018 , p. 5). They provide ‘inhabitable learning systems’ ( de Suarez et al., 2012 , p. 13) which are able to challenge inadequate mental models. De Suarez et al. compare games to flight simulators: in the same way that pilots can learn to fly using sophisticated simulations, decision-makers can learn to balance delicate issues using serious games (2012, p.12–13).

Various serious games can act as ‘flight simulators’, but collaborative RPGs are particularly effective for social learning. Assuming a role allows participants to depart from their usual viewpoints and consider other perspectives ( Ahamer, 2013 ), and it empowers them to voice their opinions. As Morardet and Milhau note, role-playing “levels the playing field between stakeholders, allowing them to sit at the same table informally. Freedom of speech is higher in the game than in reality” (2010, p.47). The game provides a safe space for the exploration of contested issues, and for collaborative problem-solving.

Although the facilitator may provide guidance, problem solving is led by the players. Knowledge is not imparted by a lofty authority figure, but rather co-created by the group. Rumore et al. (2016) found that the social learning fostered in the RPG setting seemed to translate into increased awareness, political engagement and community action. Participants are empowered to take their newfound knowledge and skills beyond the game setting, and RPGs can become the catalyst for continued independent learning ( Flood et al., 2018 , p. 12). Social learning also provides space for the integration of local and traditional knowledge systems into decision-making processes ( Villamor & Badmos, 2016 ).

Flood et al. identify three types of learning that can occur in games including RPGs: cognitive learning, where participants acquire new knowledge; relational learning, where participants develop communication and cooperation skills; and normative learning, where participants are led to question accepted norms and values (2018, p.17–8). RPGs may highlight certain aspects over others – for example, Schenk (2014) focuses on building understanding and cooperation between stakeholders, while Hertzog et al. (2014) emphasise disseminating information about water management practices – but all RPGs, to some extent, involve all three of these learning types. This makes them immensely powerful tools for capacity building, skills development and information sharing.

RPGs feature prominently in serious games research carried out in the Global South ( Edwards et al., 2019 ; Hertzog et al., 2014 ; Morardet & Milhau, 2012 ; Salvini et al., 2016 ; Villamor & Badmos, 2016 ). In communities where there may be limited access to digital resources, or where literacy levels may vary, RPGs provide a low-resource, replicable medium for collective learning and engagement. The minimal written material involved also likely simplifies translation of the game into local languages where necessary (cf. Evans, 2013 ), or localisation to different cultures. The game itself provides a common language for the players, scaffolding discussion of the issues involved among participants with different knowledge bases ( Eisenack, 2013 ), and far from being a hindrance, having participants with different backgrounds and stakeholder positions involved in the game enriches the experience for all players ( Edwards et al., 2019 ).

An RPG therefore presented the ideal serious game format for this project. It provided an opportunity for participants to collaboratively develop critical thinking skills and deal with allegorical scenarios which reflected real-world issues; it required few resources and could easily be played in a range of settings; it was accessible to participants who did not have smartphones, and to those with lower literacy levels; it was easily replicated, both by the facilitators within this project and, potentially, by future projects. For some of the participants with lower literacy levels, the team noted the need to have more than one facilitator while playing. Even when participants did help each other out, it was important to make sure all of them could access all the information available at the same time.

Deciding to create a collaborative, analogue game enabled this project's success, but also changed its course. The team initially included game developers and programmers whose research focused on individual, digital games. As a result of the decision to pursue a RPG, these team members could not implement their initial research agendas and left to other projects. When working with vulnerable communities and designing empirically driven games these changes are to be expected, and researchers working with vulnerable communities are familiar with this risk.

4. Methods and initial results informing the game development

To design the RPG, which is the focus of this article, the team relied on various methods to assess and understand the participants’ needs, as well as to design and implement the RPG. Our approach was ethnographic. The project lasted 18 months (from October 2019 to March 2021). A team of 7 researchers in Brazil (including 2 co-Is and 3 research associates/assistants) and 4 in Scotland (including PI, co-I and 2 research assistants) divided tasks during the lockdown. Some activities needed to be done in situ (e.g., observations, implementation of activities) while others could be done remotely (e.g., design of data collection instruments and of materials for the conversation circles and the game, training of community leaders, and data analyses). By the time travelling between Brazil and Scotland was opened, PI and CIs worked together in Brazil to discuss findings with the participants on site and finish the project.

Once we received ethical approval, we started ethnographic observations (Brazilian team) to build trust and gain entry in four distinct communities (See Section 5 below). Simultaneously, the Scottish team worked remotely on a series of training sessions for local community leaders to act as local researchers. After gaining entry to four sites (3 months), we observed and interacted with participants for 6 months. Based on observations and informal conversations we designed a survey to capture how participants’ get information on COVID-19 and news in general. Each participant could fill the questionnaire with a researcher. Based on the data gathered we designed a semi-structured protocol and conducted a series of semi-structured interviews to explore partcicipants’ perceptions on media, how/to whom they assign trust, how they access news, among other questions. The data collected during the survey and interviews informed the design of two key activities in the project: the conversational circles and the serious game. Interviews and focus groups were conducted at the end of the Conversation Circles sessions and at the end of the game session to explore participants'positions vis à vis fake news.

The characteristics of the participants influenced the project's focus on critical thinking about (fake) news. Findings from initial interviews ( n = 60), conducted by researchers in situ to explore participant's selection of sources of news, showed that broadcast television is the main source of news and information for these communities. There are two main news channels, Globo and Record, with conflicting political leanings, which seemed to split the population into two camps. Interviews suggested a high level of trust towards information gained from either news channel, with some participants triangulating the information by viewing both channels. Word of mouth and WhatsApp are also seen as fairly reliable sources of information. Other sources such as Facebook are viewed as less trustworthy and are treated with some caution. This is a positive sign, indicating some awareness of the spread of misinformation on social media. However, mixed public messaging and the prevalence of scientific denialism within the Brazilian political sphere ( Dall'Alba et al., 2021 ) mean that even information provided through authoritative channels may not be reliable. People also get information through the internet, friends and family. In this environment, critical thinking must extend to all information sources.

Community preferences also informed the design of the game. Interviews with community leaders and representatives suggested that phone-based games are unpopular and that phones are used exclusively for social media, further justifying the use of an analogue RPG rather than a browser- or app-based game. The interviews also highlighted that a game-based learning approach could provoke resistance, as participants might associate the game with gambling and addiction. Most forms of gambling have been banned in Brazil since 2008, but gambling addiction continues to be a problem, and treatment options are few and far between ( Tavares, 2014 ). To avoid any adverse effects on participants, it was important for the project to ensure that the game did not use any mechanics that could resemble gambling or prove addictive, as community members might have refused to take part in the game activity for fear of addiction or for religious reasons.

Therefore, in order to protect participants and to foster open debate, an allegorical story was used for the game. The story, in which players discover and combat a blight in the rainforest, mirrors the COVID-19 pandemic but frees participants from the complex real-world dynamics surrounding it. This is an innovative measure, as serious RPGs (e.g. Morardet & Milhau, 2012 ; Rumore et al., 2016 ; Salvini et al., 2016 ; Schenk, 2014 ; Speelman et al., 2013 ; Villamor & Badmos, 2016 ) tend to replicate real-world scenarios rather than using allegory. This often seems to work well, as participants are able to gain factual knowledge about the issues involved as well as develop critical thinking skills ( Salvini et al., 2016 ; Sautier et al., 2017 ). However, in some cases it has led to non-participation of stakeholders or conflict between players. For example, Hertzog et al. (2014) found that international companies involved in water management refused to participate in a role-playing activity, stating that they were unable to discuss their corporate strategies in public (2014, p.6). Villamor and Badamos, who note the processes of peer pressure at work during their game, quote one participant as saying to another, “We really need to talk after this game; I don't like the way you manage your cows” (2016, p. 7). Future research could consider whether an allegorical approach, as used in the present study, might help to mitigate these frictions.

The research methods used in this research is presented in Fig. 1 .

Methods used.

5. Participants and communities

The project targeted three participant groups in the city of Goiânia: residents from two favelas, members of a recycling cooperative, and people experiencing homelessness (PEH).

For over 100 years, Brazil's metropolitan centres have been characterised by the presence of favelas. No longer properly translated as ‘shanty towns’ or ‘slums’, some favelas have developed into “consolidated urban villages built of masonry and reinforced concrete” ( Cummings, 2015 , p. 1). However, favelas still tend to be densely populated, with high levels of poverty, food insecurity and crime, and are still marginalised within Brazilian society. Fix and Arantes (2021) write that favelas “sum up contradictions and conflicts and simultaneously embody forms of resistance and urban imagination” (2021, p. 13). The most recent census reports that in 2010, over 11 million people or around 6% of the total population of Brazil lived in favelas ( Pereira, 2020 , p. 42).

Informal waste collectors or catadores perform a valuable social function in Brazil, collecting recyclable materials to be sold for processing. However, the work is underpaid, heavily stigmatised and brings significant health risks ( Gutberlet et al., 2013 ). Catadores can find some protection from these issues by organising into cooperatives, which in Brazil are sometimes supported by governmental or nongovernmental organisations (ibid. p.4608). These cooperatives vary in size, level of organisation, and available resources, but they may provide training and safety equipment, and some campaign for better public recognition of the catadores’ work (N. F. Ramos et al., 2013 , p. 235). The cooperative involved in this research supports vulnerable people both by providing them with a stable income and by helping them to gain access to basic services such as vaccination programmes and child support. Catadores must also follow the rules of the cooperative, which mandate PPE and prohibit alcohol or drug use. During the pandemic, additional rules have been put in place to prevent virus transmission. The cooperative experiences high personnel turnover, as catadores move between areas or into other employment.

People experiencing homelessness live in precarious circumstances and often have difficulty accessing healthcare. In Brazil, the situation for PEH has deteriorated in recent years, particularly since 2017, as the result of economic and political instability ( Honorato & Oliveira, 2020 , p. 1065). Brazil's National Policy for the Homeless Population, or Decree 7053/2009, defines PEH as “a heterogeneous population group having in common extreme poverty, interrupted, or weakened family ties, and lack of regular conventional housing, thus using public places and degraded areas as temporary or permanent living spaces, as well as shelters for temporary overnight stays or as temporary housing” (quoted in Nunes et al., 2021 , p. 2). This heterogeneity sets the PEH group apart from the other two target audiences for this study. Favela residents and catadores are likely to have low levels of education, but PEH come from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds and are likely to have had other living and employment situations prior to their experience of homelessness. Nunes et al. (2021) highlight PEH as a complex population with distinct needs which existing public health services rarely meet, and this has remained the case during the pandemic. The charitable organisation that assists PEH involved in this research has delivered thousands of masks and hygiene kits to PEH and provides over 1500 meals per day. They have also worked hard to raise awareness about COVID-19, finding that since PEH are isolated from usual channels of communication, they have limited access to information about the pandemic. In the table below ( Table 1 ) we present the number of participants per site attending the conversation circles and the RPG.

Participants per site.

CC – Number of participants who attended at least 3 of the total of 5 Conversation Circle (CC) sessions.

GS – Number of participants who attended the single Game Session (GS).

Each of these three groups have distinct characteristics, but there is one main commonality: all are particularly at risk from COVID-19. Crowded living conditions in the favelas make social distancing or self-isolation impossible, and facilities for handwashing are often limited or non-existent ( Pereira, 2020 ). For catadores , infections and illness resulting from exposure to contaminated materials have been an issue since before the pandemic (N. F. Ramos et al., 2013 ). For PEH, the exhortation to “stay home” is impossible to follow ( Honorato & Oliveira, 2020 ). All these factors increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission, and measures to raise awareness of safe pandemic behaviour among these populations are vital. This project aimed to contribute to this effort.

The following section briefly discusses the ‘conversation circles’, a series of workshops designed to build the critical thinking skills which participants then need to apply during the serious game.

6. Conversation circles

Before playing the game, participants take part in workshops or ‘conversation circles’ (CCs) designed to develop critical thinking skills and apply them during the game experience. Each of the five CCs begin with a social activity intended to build trust between participants, then progress to activities focused on critical thinking, and end with guided reflection on what has been learned during the session.

The sessions gradually increase in complexity, scaffolding in-depth critical thinking in an accessible and enjoyable way. Learners are given explicit information about critical thinking techniques ( Abrami et al., 2008 ). They are encouraged to apply these techniques to familiar, everyday situations such as deciding which pair of shoes to buy as well as to more abstract topics such as trusting or not trusting a person. After completing the five sessions, participants are well-equipped with conscious critical thinking skills, which they can then apply effectively during the serious game.

Conversation circles and the serious game complement one another in raising awareness on critical thinking. While the CCs included discussion and training for participants, the serious game provided reflection about the content presented in the conversation circles. It also provided the opportunity for participants to work with others as well as to negotiate and plan strategies and courses of action. Games allow for interactive teaching-learning strategies and knowledge construction. Their fun, interactive and cooperative nature encourages group problem solving, one of the project's aims.

7. Facilitating critical thinking in the game

Critical thinking is “a metacognitive process, consisting of a number of sub-skills (e.g., analysis, evaluation and inference) that, when used appropriately, increases the chances of producing a logical conclusion to an argument or solution to a problem” ( Dwyer et al., 2014 , p. 43). One of the earliest attempts to classify the processes involved in critical thinking, Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives (1956), identifies six thinking processes, divided into lower-order and higher-order processes. Dwyer et al. note that although more recent work has built on this framework, the six categories of thought defined here remain fundamentally consistent with modern conceptions of thinking (2014, p.43). For Dwyer et al., the six key learning outcomes are memory, comprehension, analysis, evaluation, inference and reflective judgement (ibid, p.43), as can be seen in Fig. 2 . Memory and comprehension facilitate the higher-level thinking skills; analysis, evaluation and inference combine to enable reflective judgement (ibid. p.49). It is this reflective judgement that empowers critical thinkers to reject fake news and make informed decisions on topics such as COVID-19 vaccination or safe pandemic behaviour.

Bloom's taxonomy (adapted from Dwyer et al., 2014 , p.43).

The importance of teaching critical thinking has long been recognised ( Halpern, 2001 ). However, it is notoriously difficult to teach ( Willingham, 2008 ). Approaches to teaching critical thinking, and the success of those approaches, vary widely. Meta-analysis of studies on teaching critical thinking has shown that both the type and the pedagogical basis of the teaching methods used have significant effects on whether and how much participants’ critical thinking improves ( Abrami et al., 2008 , p. 1120). It seems to be particularly important that participants are explicitly told that they are learning critical thinking skills: the least effective interventions were the ones that embedded critical thinking techniques implicitly into course material (ibid., p.1120). Participants in this project were informed during the recruitment process that the conversation circles and game would focus on critical thinking, and so they were aware of the project's goals from the outset.

As demonstrated in the literature review, serious games and game-based learning have been used to teach a wide range of knowledge and skills. Although most games do not explicitly teach critical thinking, many have the requisite complexity to foster it ( Romero et al., 2014 , p. 158) and recent projects are turning towards a specific focus on critical thinking ( Cicchino, 2015 ; Halpern et al., 2012 ; Lee et al., 2016 ; McDonald, 2017 ). In an analysis of 20 studies focused on teaching critical thinking, Mao et al. (2021, p. 19) found that game-based learning (GBL) had a significantly positive impact on players’ critical thinking skills, particularly when the game involved role-playing.

Cicchino (2015) outlines six principles of GBL which a game must fulfil in order to foster critical thinking. Although Cicchino's work mostly comes from elementary school groups, we found these basic principles can be applied to adults, as can be seen in Table 2 .

Adapted from Cicchino, 2015 , pp.3–4.

Within the game setting, these principles led to engagement, collaboration, higher-level (in the Bloom's taxonomy sense) discourse, and a meaningful experience for players. The overall outcomes of a game created based on this framework include deeper and longer-lasting understanding of the content, flexible understanding which can be adapted to new situations, and increased critical thinking skills ( Cicchino, 2015 , p. 4). Since these were the planned outcomes of this project, a game-based learning environment was developed according to these six principles.

In the freeform tabletop roleplaying game, participants take on the roles of traditional Brazilian folk heroes. The story evolves through the actions of the characters, as interpreted by the facilitator, following a basic pattern of play. First, the facilitator sets the scene, providing situations to which players can react. The players then collectively decide how they want to act or respond, and the facilitator describes the effects of these actions on the story. The facilitator has the final say on what happens, ensuring that gameplay never deviates too far from the intended plot. Some of the narrative is emergent, but certain points in the game involve pre-set choices which players must resolve appropriately for the story.

To help structure play for participants unfamiliar with role-play, players are provided with a set of cards describing their character's abilities. Cards were used because they are an effective and compact way of presenting knowledge. The cards include visual elements, which are helpful for players with lower literacy levels, and can be referred to throughout the game. They can also be hidden, which contributes to the communicative aspect of the game: players must share their abilities and knowledge verbally, rather than by showing their character cards to the group. The strengths and weaknesses listed on the cards help players decide on the best course of action for their character.

Players are also provided with a handout which describes the game environment. Like the cards, these use visual representations to ensure that all participants are able to understand the information provided.

The game complies with Cicchino's six principles in the following ways, as can be seen in Table 3 .

Adapted from Cicchino, 2015 .

Participants are thus able to develop transferable critical thinking skills in a safely allegorical environment. The information provided to players is inconsistent between sources, and the players must discuss and interpret it in order to assess its accuracy. This critical approach to new information is an essential skill in a ‘post-truth’ world ( Higgins, 2016 ), and particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

8. Game characters and story

Players take the role of one of five characters based on Brazilian folk heroes. Each character can also be played by two or more participants working together, introducing a further layer of negotiation into play by requiring participants to agree on how their shared character should proceed. This also allows larger groups to take part in the game. Table 4 shows an example of the cards prepared for the game.

Example character.

The character roles were modelled on Brazilian mythological heroes for several reasons. Many of these characters are seen as guardians of nature, which provides logical motivation for them to work together in the story setting. They have diverse skills, knowledge and abilities, meaning that each character can make a unique contribution to the team. Importantly, participants are usually familiar with the characters’ abilities and motives prior to playing the game. Players can use their background knowledge of the characters to decide what they might do within the game, which alleviates some of the difficulty of role-playing for participants new to the format.

The characters’ diverse knowledge bases are central to the game's goal of fostering critical thinking, as players synthesise their characters’ knowledge to solve the problems presented in the story. The characters’ skills and personality are less important to the game mechanics. For example, Saci Pererê's medical knowledge is the most important. If the game were to be translated or localised for other cultures, it would be vital to find characters with the same knowledge bases.

8.1. The story

The characters meet by a river in the rainforest and notice that something is wrong. They work together to cross the river and discover a blight on the trees. The characters investigate the blight by looking at it, smelling, touching or tasting it, or asking forest animals for information. A supernatural white deer, Anhangá, appears, and tells the characters about a kind of medicine that can be used to treat the blight. The characters can acquire this medicine by finding an amulet for Cuca, a mysterious alligator-like creature, or by making it themselves with ingredients they find in the forest. Applying the medicine to the trees cures the blight, but any characters who previously touched the infected trees now discover that they too are infected. They must now discuss whether to take the medicine themselves or not and justify their decision.

9. Results and discussion

The game was developed as a communicative strategy to establish a bridge between researchers and participants, but in a more relaxed and informal environment. Inserting the players in a narrative where they can make decisions based on critical thinking and their own reflections about the pandemic was important to the construction of knowledge in these communities. The nature of the game (playful, interactive and cooperative) helped to focus participants on problem-solving skills and groupwork outside of traditional methodologies, which was part of the project's aim. The game also helped to reinforce many concepts and habits that were discussed during the conversation circles, and it allowed participants to use real-life situations to solve the fictional problems presented by the game's narrative. They were also capable of comparing fictional characters and objects to real life events. Some evidence on these findings will be presented below.

In each community, the participants were separated into groups according to the number of people present during each session. Local researchers narrated the game and facilitated discussions, presenting new cards and scenarios. More dynamic participation from local researchers was necessary to guide the participants during the game as the story evolved. Each of the communities included people with learning difficulties, and facilitators worked to ensure that all participants understood the dynamics of the game.

In many instances, some participants gave suggestions on how to advance the story and their suggestions sometimes came ahead of the facilitator's narrations, as for example, in Buena Vista, even before Anhangá appeared in the story, one participant asked if they had a glove to touch the slime and another commented that there could be a medicine to save the forest from the plague.

In Cooperrama, some participants associated the game with their own personal experiences to solve problems. For example, some participants had knowledge of plants, fungi and they decided to apply the remedy in the game to the soil, since fertilizers are also applied in this way. It was evident that some decisions were made based on participants' environmental awareness, as they work with recyclable materials. Many participants refused to cut down the trees, burn the forest to eliminate the pest or injure animals, even when it was necessary for the game to continue.

In all of the locations, there was suspicion about Cuca's morals. In Brazilian popular culture, Cuca is often presented as a villain and in the game, Cuca is portrayed as a character of dubious morals. In both the cards and the storybook she is described as a character with questionable traits, but she still helps the other characters during their journey.

In the Buena Vista favela , even though they did not fully trust Cuca, the participants believed that trusting Cuca was the best option. One participant compared Cuca to pop culture anti-heroes such as Batman and even joked that if Cuca tried anything against the group, she would be at a disadvantage, five to one, so they could beat her in a fight or tie her up. Another participant also compared Cuca to a bandit who only cares about gold, since at the end of the story, she asks the characters to find the Muiraquitã , an amulet buried in a nearby region. The story does not explain Cuca's intentions, desires or motivations, just that she wants to possess the amulet.

In Cooperama, one participant compared Cuca with Brazilian politicians due to the lack of clarity in their actions. In Vila Lobo, the group unanimously decided to take the medicine because they did not think Cuca was reliable. After some discussion, the second group of PEH chose to go to Cuca for the medicine, because they came to the conclusion that she had knowledge, and also because she is a being that lives in the forest. One participant commented that “she wants good things for the forest too”. In addition, they did not feel confident preparing the remedy, even with the step-by-step procedure.

This evidence shows that participants demonstrated a high degree of creativity, critical thinking and the ability to associate game-based learning with reality. All noted the need to make collective decisions and find shared solutions. Among the observed critical thinking skills, there is an emphasis on the evaluation and analysis phases. In their testimonials gathered at the end of the session, participants talked about the importance of listening to others with respect, of being mindful of different points of view and of making decisions based on dialogue. One participant from the favela Buena Vista stated: “Listen and help friends when they need it… do not think only of yourself… to make decisions, we need to evaluate and always put ourselves in the other's shoes and that for every action there is a reaction”. In the Vila Lobo favela , one participant even made an association between the forest and plague with the current pandemic, stating that we must join forces to fight COVID-19: “If we don't work together, the pandemic will last a long time”. Therefore, the games showed to be efficient in building critical thinking among participants and offering opportunities for socialisation. One participant from Cooperama said: “I learned that you have to discuss to reach an agreement and I learned that people have different opinions. I learned this by having more dialogue with friends”.

It is of course difficult to know whether the observed results will last over time. In a longitudinal game-based study on fake news inoculation, Maertens et al. (2021) found that for a group of participants who were regularly tested on their ability to identify fake news, the increased sensitivity to misinformation generated by the initial intervention lasted for up to three months. However, for participants who were not regularly tested, the effect dissipated within two months. They suggest that the assessments carried out with the first group may have served as ‘booster shots’, reinforcing the initial inoculation (ibid., p.12–13). Inoculation theorists have emphasised the role of boosters in forging long-term resistance to misinformation ( Ivanov et al., 2018 ; Pfau et al., 2006 ).

A game-based intervention, if sufficiently engaging, could provide an organic way of delivering inoculation boosters. For example, in Eisenack's work with the commercially-available board game Keep Cool, some participants found the game so entertaining that they wanted to purchase it (2013, p. 345). Continuing to play the game could refresh the skills these participants gained in the initial intervention and playing the game with other people could spread these skills beyond the project's initial reach. There are some indications that a similar process could occur with this project: game facilitators reported community interest in holding more game sessions. At the time of writing this article, some sites have already completed their second and third rounds of workshops. However, it is unlikely that all participants will be involved in these sessions, and it is possible that those who are not may see their critical thinking skills developed during their involvement in the project degrade over time. Exploring whether this occurs and to what extent would be insightful for a future follow-up study.

10. Limitations of our study, final considerations and call for further research

Snowball/convenience sampling was carried out due to relationships of trust within the communities which worked well for this study. However, this sampling method is not without its limitations. As participants were self-selected, it is possible that those who decided to take part in the study were already interested in critical thinking, an inclination which could make them particularly receptive to learning about it. An entirely random sample might produce different results but, randomization of subjects and experimental design was not the goal of this study.

As previously outlined, this study covered a range of target populations, each with their own characteristics. This meant that for the purpose of this study, one small group of participants could be drawn from each participating site. Using this range of participants demonstrated that the game-based methodology can be effective across different disadvantaged communities. Observational evidence indicates changes in how participants payed attention and listened to others, questioned the sources of information and justified their own claims. Differences in results between the groups, however, may be the result of individual tendencies and cannot be generalised to the wider community. A study focusing exclusively on, for example, PEH or catadores could draw wider conclusions about that community's particular tendencies around critical thinking. This could provide further insights into targeted methods of developing critical thinking with that specific population. There was also some turnover within the groups, as 27% of participants dropped out of the study during the circle conversation sessions. This happened mainly in the Vila Lobó favela , perhaps due to the fact that the facilitator was not a residing member of the community, impacting engagement. This suggests that the involvement of a residing community member as a facilitator is an important aspect of participant engagement.

An important consideration for the wellbeing of participants and the success of the project was to avoid conflict within the game setting. The COVID-19 pandemic and the government's handling thereof are highly-charged emotional issues. Additionally, in Brazil as in many other countries, public opinion is polarised. There were concerns that an open discussion of the pandemic could antagonise participants who support the government at the time or stifle debate if participants felt unable to voice their opinions for fear of others’ reactions. Research has demonstrated that conflicting opinions about the pandemic can even lead to violence ( Jolley & Paterson, 2020 ), and this risk should clearly be avoided at all costs when designing a research project. Consequently, the team decided not to include any statement/situation that might have the slightest potential of creating conflict among participants.

Looking ahead, our team plans to replicate this study in other vulnerable communities of Brazil. Our community partners have articulations with organizations that work with favela residents (such as Central Única das Favelas - CUFA), collectors of recyclable materials (such as the National Movement of Recyclable Materials Collectors - MNCR) and homeless people. Project materials have been developed in English and Portuguese. We also anticipate the possibility to work in other Spanish speaking countries in Latin America.

In sum, this study has contributed to the existing bodies of work on both serious games and critical thinking pedagogy. Previous work on game-based inoculation against fake news has tended to use digital games ( Basol et al., 2021 ; Clever et al., 2020 ; Roozenbeek & van der Linden, 2019 ), and this study has demonstrated that an analogue RPG can provide an accessible, low-resource alternative. It has also shown that using an allegorical game setting rather than a realistic one (such as Hertzog et al., 2014 ) can remain relevant to real-world events while mitigating some of the tension involved in discussion of highly charged issues, as was the case with discussions about self-care during the pandemic in an environment of political polarization. Finally, it has illustrated that a game-based approach to critical thinking can be effective and engaging not just for schoolchildren ( Cicchino, 2015 , p. e.g.; McDonald, 2017 ) but also, as evident from the information on Table 1 , for adult learners with varying levels of literacy and previous critical thinking experience.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Claudia Viviana Angelelli: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Geisa Muller de Campos Ribeiro: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Maico Roris Severino: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Eilidh Johnstone: Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Gana Borzenkova: Data curation, Investigation, Resources, Writing – original draft. Dayane Costa Oliveira da Silva: Data curation, Investigation, Resources, Visualization.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding this publication.

Acknowledgments

Research reported in this article was supported by United Kingdom Research and Innovation/Global Challenge Research Fund grant AH/V007025/1. Our deepest gratitude goes to the participants from all sites and the local community leaders who worked with us for over twenty-one months.

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Games That Help Kids Think Critically

When gamers pick up a controller, they're frequently placed in the role of the hero or the protagonist that always wins. But that doesn't always challenge them to think critically or examine all sides of a situation rationally. In fact, what can help some incredible games and apps stand out from other titles is that they don't simply ask kids for RIGHT or WRONG answers. Instead, they encourage them to experiment and consider the shades of gray in problems. Players interested in testing their emotional responses may want to check out our list of the Best Empathy Games, Apps, and Websites as well.

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Utterly charming, brilliantly made puzzle game.

Mass transit simulator is simple, marvelous, hard to master.

Mystery Math Town

Great math practice with fun story, entertaining characters.

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Co-op puzzler is violence-free and promotes teamwork.

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10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking

Preparing students for ongoing learning success needs to incorporate curriculum and extra-curriculum activities. The team at TeachThought have compiled their list of games to promote better peer-to-peer learning in the classroom.

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Group games are ideal for developing critical-thinking skills.

The link between critical thinking and one’s education is obvious – you can’t learn well unless you think well.

Critical thinking is the ability to look at problems in new ways, to analyse how parts of a whole interact with one another and to interpret information and draw conclusions.

Critical thinking and problem-solving skills were once thought to be the domain of gifted people. Today, they are necessary for every individual and group who seeks to make sensible decisions about financial, health, civic, workplace and leisure activities.

The solutions to international concerns such as climate change and global warming require highly developed critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. These skills include the ability to effectively analyse and evaluate evidence, arguments, claims and beliefs.

Benefits of Developing Critical-Thinking Abilities

The ability to solve interesting and unfamiliar problems often leads to the development of other skills such as increased engagement, higher concentration levels and improved thought processing.

Here are a few examples of experiences that occur in many programs which may provide you with an opportunity to focus on problem-solving skills:

Forming a project team to solve an existing, yet complex problem.
Thinking of a new campaign slogan to broadcast a difficult, yet important message.
Adopting a rational, analytical and evidence-based approach to investigate a conflict.
Challenging one of your group’s long-held beliefs or practices.

Naturally, one of the most powerful (not to mention, enjoyable) ways to develop and strengthen your group’s problem-solving skills is to employ the use of fun group games.

Group Activities Which Develop Critical-Thinking Skills

The images below provide links to a sample of simple group activities which may help you develop the critical thinking and problem-solving abilities of your group, drawn from playmeo’s ever-expanding activity database .

Enjoy browsing to your heart’s content.

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10 team building games that stimulate critical thinking in students.

A sure-shot way to groom the next generation for education is to promote critical thinking. Yes, there’s a lot to learn in terms of curriculum and textbooks, but education is more than that. Other skills that include how to get along with peers and work well with others must be honed too. This is not something that can be cultured through memorization or with strategically placed posters.

Cooperating and peer engagement should be practiced by students in order to improve social dynamics.

Here are ten team building games that promote cooperation and communication to establish a positive environment in the classroom along with a fun reprieve from a monotonous schedule.

This activity is more suitable for older children who can follow safety instructions as it can get messy working with raw eggs. The aim of this exercise is to find a way to save the egg in a creative collaboration. It could involve finding a soft landing spot or creating a device that could guide the egg safely to the ground. There’s a lot of space for the children’s creativity along with problem-solving abilities to kick in.

2. Minefield

Another classic team-building game, Minefield builds communication and trust among the students. It includes the arrangement of some sort of obstacle course and divides students into teams. Students take turns piloting the “minefield” while blindfolded, with only the guidance of their teammates to steer them. To make it more interesting, you could also ask students to use certain words or clues to make it challenging or content-area specific.

Zoom is a standard schoolroom cooperative game that promotes communication and creative collaboration. The students must simply form a circle and each must take a unique picture of an object, animal or anything else. A story is then introduced which must incorporate whatever happens to be on their assigned photo. The next student continues the story, incorporating their photo, and so on.

4. The Worst-Case Scenario

In this game, a scenario must be fabricated in which students would need to work together and solve problems to succeed. For example, being stranded on a deserted island or getting lost at sea. They must work together to create a solution that ensures everyone arrives safely. This instills better communication and problem-solving. You could ask them to come up with a list of 10 must-have items that would help them most, or a creative passage to safety. Everyone must agree to the final solution, therefore you should encourage them to vote.

5. If You Build It

A flexible game that encourages communication and problem-solving, the ‘If you build it’ activity can be reused throughout the year by changing the materials to specific content areas. Divide the students into teams and give them equal amounts of material like blocks or dried up spaghetti or marshmallows. Using these materials, the students must construct something as a team. It could be a building or a castle or a car, for that matter.

6. A Shrinking Vessel

In addition to teamwork, this game requires a good deal of strategy. The rules might seem simple but it is deceptive in that aspect. With a good amount of creativity, and problem-solving, the entire group must figure out a way to fit in a space that shrinks over time, until there’s no room left. The boundary can be formed using a rope, a blanket or small traffic cones.

7. It’s a Mystery

Who doesn’t love a good mystery? Designing one that requires the students to hone their problem-solving skills and their communication game, will, in turn, promote cooperation. Each student gets a numbered clue, which would entail them to work together to solve the clues in order. To make it more engaging, the mystery could be devised in such a way, that the students could move from one area to the next, uncovering clues along the way.

8. 4-Way Tug-of-War

Including a little sportsmanship in a teamwork classic, this game is reasonable and easy to implement. To make it more interesting, the ropes must be tied in such a way that three to four teams must participate to tug at once. Another variation could be that some teams could eliminate other teams in a classic tug of war before going head to head.

9. Keep it Real

A simple concept that advocates communication and problem-solving, this open-ended model serves as an excellent test to students. Challenge students to detect and compliantly solve a real problem in their schools or communities. Certain strictures like the time limit, materials, and physical boundaries could be set to help the students gauge their bounds.

10. Go for Gold

Similar to ‘If you build it,’ the teams in this game have a common objective, but instead of having access to only one material, they have a whole supply of materials to choose from. Steps can be devised by teams to create a machine or something that would need some creative collaboration and communication on the student’s part.

Textbook education has its importance, but educators must ensure that students are engaging with each other in eloquent ways. Team-building exercises are a great way to help a child open up their creative side and kick start those wheels that could add to their skill sets.

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Parent Resources for Learning > Critical Thinking > 5 Fun Critical Thinking Games to Play with Your Child

5 Fun Critical Thinking Games to Play with Your Child

by Dr. Jody Sherman LeVos | Mar 27, 2024 | Critical Thinking

Playing games is a great way for your child to develop their critical thinking skills—and the metaphor of a game is a great way to think about these important life skills!

Every time your child works through a problem they need to solve, a sequence they need to memorize, or a decision they need to make, they’re making their way toward the goal of improving their critical thinking.

It’s like a game where the reward at the end is better decision-making, stronger reasoning skills, and academic and professional success!

Kids will keep playing this game over the course of their lives, connecting new ideas to old ones and discarding one opinion for another. Each time, they’ll get better.

Ready to start? We’ve got some fun and easy game ideas for you!

The Short Cut

Critical thinking is one of the 5 C’s that help kids thrive in school and life (an essential part of the Begin Approach to learning)
The ability to think critically—as opposed to being intelligent—has been linked to wellness and fewer “negative life events”
Good critical thinking activities often involve following rules, breaking tasks into sequences, asking questions, and understanding multiple perspectives
Games (like this memory game ) are a fantastic way to develop critical thinking with kids because you can slip in challenges with the fun!

Why Is Critical Thinking Important?

Critical thinking is a necessary skill for understanding the world.

Through weighing options, studying different perspectives, and making good choices, our children can lead their lives in a positive and healthy way.

Critical thinking allows our kids to:

Analyze information and make decisions
Recall short sequences of information and simple instructions
Ignore distractions to focus on a task
Grasp the differences between sources of information
Reason using logic
Make connections between things

It’s one of the most important contributors to their overall well-being!

Fun Critical Thinking Games to Play with Your Child

6 Critical Thinking Exercises for Everyday Life

Games aren’t the only critical thinking exercises that work well for kids. They also encounter many opportunities to build their skills on any given day.

How can you tap into those chances? Try these techniques.

1. Explain Things

No doubt you often find yourself on the receiving end of your child’s questions. Try to answer all of them. Daunting as that might sound (we know!), this helps your child learn how to formulate the questions they need to ask to make good judgments.

2. Back Up Rules with Good Reasons

Help your child understand the reasons behind rules. (A typical Q&A volley: “Please find a quiet activity to do after dinner.” “Why?” “Because your brother is asleep and we don’t want to wake him up.”)

This kind of exchange allows your child to understand why you’re asking them to do something, which fosters critical thinking.

3. Play Real-Life Problem-Solving Games

Playing strategy games—even simple ones designed for kids—develops analytical skills. You can also have fun turning household tasks into problem-solving games, like figuring out which socks go to which person when you’re folding laundry.

4. Cultivate Curiosity

Encourage your child to ask questions and dig deep to find answers. Curiosity leads to challenging assumptions and gaining new information. Ultimately it helps your child develop complex thinking skills.

5. Encourage Open-Mindedness

Help your child learn to be flexible in their thinking by giving them time to gather information before they make decisions. Considering various solutions helps kids learn that more than one way to do things can be correct.

6. Model Analytical Thinking

Our kids are always watching us. One of the best ways to influence your child’s critical thinking skills is by talking through decisions as you make them. (“I want to walk to the store. I can take a shortcut, but it’s on that dirt path and I’m wearing new sneakers. I want to keep them clean, so I’ll walk on the sidewalk instead.”)

5 Games to Guide Your Child’s Critical Thinking

There are many educational critical thinking games you can play at home that help kids improve their skills! We’ve gathered a few we love:

This classic guessing game encourages analytical thinking and problem-solving skills (like deduction) as your child searches for specific objects based on clues.

Plus, it‘s highly portable! Play it in the car, on a walk, or even at the grocery store!

What You Need

Nothing except space!
Explain you’ll take turns identifying an object in your space.
Model the game by going first. Choose an object that both of you can see.
Share one detail about it. (“I spy something purple.”)
Ask your child to guess what you’ve chosen.
If your child is stumped or getting frustrated, add more clues (“The purple thing is a food, and it’s over by the apples.”)
Trade roles so that your child chooses something for you to guess.

More Ways to Play

Choose different rules, such as “the object has to start with A,” or “share three adjectives that describe the object,” or “make up one phrase this object might say”

2. Once Upon a Time

Storytelling is a great way to work on critical thinking skills like understanding cause and effect, choice-making, and sequencing. This game also taps into kids’ creativity (another one of the 5 C’s) through making up stories.

Nothing but your imagination!
Explain you’re going to build a story together by taking turns, one sentence at a time. You can give an example by reciting a story that your child already knows.
Give an exciting first sentence that jumps into action, such as, “Once upon a time, a kid was on a rocket ship headed to Mars, when a meteor hit and fuel began to leak.”
Ask your child to continue the story. If they get stuck, try asking them questions like “What did the rocket ship do next?” or “What did the kid do first to fix the problem?” or “How did the kid feel?”
Continue taking turns until you come to a natural ending.
Write down the story as you tell it, then read it out loud
Create a book out of the story, using paper, markers, and a stapler or tape (art projects use many critical thinking skills)
Use a prop to center the story on, like a toy or a stuffed animal
Go outside and tell a story based on what you imagine you see in the clouds

3. Bet You Can Build It!

Designing a structure takes curiosity, planning, trial and error, and problem-solving. You can turn this activity into a game by laying out rules to follow.

Marshmallows
Craft sticks
Cardboard tubes
Anything else you’ve got at home!
Gather your materials.
Give your child the rules for the building challenge. (“Create the tallest building you can without it tipping over” or “Use all the marshmallows and toothpicks.”)
Work on the structure together or each do your own.
Celebrate when you’ve finished!
Use a timer to add urgency to the game
Bring the game to the floor and use bigger building materials, like blocks or plastic bricks
Bring it outside and use objects found in nature

Get your child moving their whole body as they use planning, organization, and problem-solving skills to find their way through a maze.

A surface to draw on, like a sidewalk, driveway, or playground blacktop
Objects to use as obstacles
A finish-line treasure (a favorite toy, a treat, etc.)
Draw a maze with chalk. Try making a path by drawing borders on each side or a “tightrope” by only drawing one line your child will need to balance on as they walk.
Add dead ends to make the maze more challenging.
Use objects to create obstacles for your child to problem-solve a way past.
Add a treasure at the finish to engage their imagination.
Have your child start at one end and try to find their way through!
Hone in on the treasure component of the maze by creating a scavenger hunt .
Ask your child to draw a map of the maze when they’ve finished.

5. Obstacle Course

An obstacle course builds real-life skills. To get through their days, kids need to be able to remember lots of information (just think about all the rules at school!).

They also encounter problem-solving based on sequencing and memorizing shortcuts, directions, and solutions. (Think about learning how to write. Letters have to be in a specific order to make a word. That’s sequencing.)

Or you may allow your child to walk to school or the bus stop on their own. That’s all about memorizing directions.

Obstacle courses can help them practice these skills!

Masking tape or chalk
Jump rope or broom
Big bouncy ball
Play tunnel, table, or chair
Board or pool noodle
Log and plank
Pillows, bean bag chairs, or large stuffed animal
Any other objects you want!
Gather your objects—you can play this game inside or outside.
Design a path for your child by placing interactive objects along it. For instance, they can jump over the broom, crawl under the table, and balance on the log and plank.
Show your child the sequence. You can demonstrate it or have them do a trial run.
Let them start!
Try asking your child to do the course backwards or blindfolded—with a partner!
On a hot day (and outdoors!), add water components like carrying a bucket of water or running through a sprinkler
Draw a map and instead of telling your child how to move through the course, give them the map to follow
Add a fun time component and challenge your child to finish the course faster each time they do it

Cultivating Critical Thinking Skills with Begin

Photo illustration showing photos of kids using the Begin brands: Little Passports, HOMER, Learn with Sesame Street, and codeSpark

Because critical thinking is such an essential skill set, at Begin we build it into our age- and stage-matched learning membership . Through playing with Little Passports activity kits, the codeSpark coding app , and other award-winning learning products from Begin, kids can learn sequencing, make their own games, do science experiments, and more !

Take our online quiz today to discover which stage of the Begin membership is best for your family!

Jody has a Ph.D. in Developmental Science and more than a decade of experience in the children’s media and early learning space.

View all posts

Dr. Jody Sherman LeVos

Chief Learning Officer at Begin

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10 Engaging Online Games To Test Your Critical Thinking Skills

Last Updated on October 4, 2023 by Editorial Team

To define it in very simple terms, critical thinking refers to the overall analysis of all the facts and figures you have at your disposal and using them in an organized way to make a judgment or a decision. There are a lot of interactive ways that can help develop your critical thinking abilities. However, what better way to do it than playing games and having fun?

Conventional learning methods mainly demand a longer attention span which is at times difficult for young individuals. In such cases, using online games to ace the skill can be a wise choice. This post includes a list of ten online critical thinking games to develop critical thinking skills while keeping you focused and occupied in learning new things.

Online games to improve your critical thinking ability

Various game developers have launched games that require the player to use their deep critical thinking skills in order to play and win. From matching numbers to presenting the player with real-life situations, these online critical thinking games come in myriad forms.

1. Spent

The first game on the list is Spent, based on the concept of budgeting and the various challenges one has to face in day-to-day life. While playing the game, the player will face multiple difficult scenarios and has to make crucial decisions that will directly impact their income (in the game). The kind of problems and challenges that you will face while playing the game include:

Issues related to your health concern
Getting correctly educated
Trying your best to provide the basic amenities for the members of your family

This game will get one’s mind racing as it requires making quick and critical decisions that will have an impact on the growth of the decision-making process. This game plays with planning, summarizing, decision-making, and information-synthesizing skills. In addition, they get to learn about poverty, unemployment, the Affordable Care Act, etc.

2. Air Traffic Controller Game

As the name might suggest, the air traffic controller is an online simulation game that lets a player direct and guide various aircraft on the ground, on runways, and via the medium of controlled airspace. The main purposes of the game are to manage a popular airport, ensure there are no delays in the landing or the take-off process, and see to it that there are no collisions.

In short, the player is responsible for maintaining the air traffic of that particular airport. In addition, the game also offers three levels of difficulty. At level one or Gate 1, the player needs to manage one airstrip where the difficulty level is very low. Once they are comfortable with the first one, they can move on to the second and third levels to stimulate their critical thinking skills.

3. Sudoku

Sudoku is a familiar and common game. The game is based on the concepts of basic logical thinking and a combinational number placement puzzle where a player needs to fill a 9×9 grid with digits ranging from 1 to 9. But the catch is that they need to fill in the blanks so that all of the columns, rows, and nine 3×3 subblocks present within the 9×9 grid contain all the digits, as mentioned earlier.

For example, if a player places ‘1’ in the first block of the first row, they cannot put it anywhere in that row and column again. They must use numbers 2-9 to complete that specific row and column. The game (or puzzle) requires one to stimulate their brain in a manner that involves their critical thinking skills and enables them to think logically while taking aid from numerical skills.

4. Good Game Empire

Similar to various other RPG and strategy games you will find online, Good Game Empire is based on an MMO strategy style, and the setting of the game is in Medieval times. The central theme of this game is that you need to build a thriving empire worldwide.

But, you will start the game with only a castle to your name, and you have to develop and make your empire strategically and fight opposing nations. This game pushes you to think critically and expand your strategic ideals to the best extent to make your empire spread throughout the world. The game will also offer you various choices from which you would need to select the option that works the best for you.

5. Chess

Chess is one of the board games played across the globe that requires analytical skills . There are always two players in this game, and the primary objective of the game is to capture the opponent’s king. However, it is not as simple as it sounds. White and black checkered board (64 squares) with different pieces (each piece symbolizes different positions like King, Rook, Bishop, Queen, Pawn, and Knight) arranged on it in specific positions- this is what a player gets on the screen while they choose to play chess. They can move one piece at a time, and each piece has a set pattern of movements that they must follow.

The same applies to the opponent too. Using specially designed and designated moves, the players are supposed to check their opponents (also known as Checkmate) and capture their king to win the game. It needs the players to practice critical thinking, for one cannot randomly move pieces and win the game. Well-calculated moves and timely yet quick decisions are what they need. Thus, chess highly stimulates the players’ brains, allowing them to think critically.

6. Minecraft

The objective of the game is to freely explore the Minecraft world, explore infinite possibilities, and create new setups. Starting from building a block to making an entire city as they see fit, one can do it all in this game. This game allows you to freely exercise your imaginative and creative side of the brain.

The game is an ideal option for students to practice math concepts and give them the experience of how those concepts are used in our day-to-day lives. Players critically analyze situations and draw conclusions all the while building and planning the entire city. The game not only offers the experience of endless fun but also helps individuals to use and practice their critical thinking abilities.

7. Brainstorm

Critical thinking is all about making decisions based on analytical observation and this game allows individuals to brainstorm and find answers to challenging questions. In this game, the players need to answer questions that come on the screen by choosing the correct answer from the given options. The game starts from a basic level named “Newborn.” Answering all questions enables the player to move to the next level. For example, this Newborn level has 18 questions.

A maximum of four players can join and compete with each other to complete small tasks and objectives ahead of every other player. The players would need to push their brains to their limits which means that this game will stimulate their brains and let them exercise critical thinking skills. In addition, this will allow them to improve their decision-making process.

8. 2048 game

2048 is a sliding puzzle video game where the primary objective is to slide the numbered tiles within the puzzle setting until the players have combined them to form a tile with the number 2048. Even though it sounds easy, the game requires one to think before moving a single tile as it could determine the outcome. One needs to actively think of the moves ahead of making to ensure a proper flow of movements. This game is ideal for stimulating one’s brain and keeping it on its toes.

9. Unolingo

Unolingo is an online crossword puzzle game where you need to fill in a 10×10 puzzle box. The player needs to fill the boxes by placing the words and letters precisely and completing the puzzle. Unlike a regular crossword puzzle, there are no clues as to which letter the player should put in to make a complete word.

They can ask for a hint but that will add 30 seconds to the elapsed time. Clicking on the “Solve” tab will show the solved puzzle. This game requires the players to think more critically and stimulate their brains further. It is a fun alternative to regular crossword puzzles and will keep a player occupied for longer as they have to think more critically as to what letter to put and what word to make.

10. Tangram puzzle

The Tangram puzzle is a fun game that helps one to exercise their brain. There are seven geometrical shapes in the game. Each level comes with a diagram where the players need to position the shapes such that it matches the diagram. There is a provision to rotate the shapes and place them wherever the player sees fit.

There will be 25 puzzles to solve with these seven shapes. The faster the player solves the puzzle, the faster they get access to the next puzzle. It requires creative and critical thinking for they have to recognize which shape will fit which part of the puzzle. Also, how to rotate it to match the puzzle needs deep thinking. It pushes the player to think creatively and use their critical thinking skills.

Critical thinking refers to understanding a piece of information, analyzing it, applying it to practical application, combining the information with other prior knowledge to draw conclusions, etc. Critical thinking is essential in all aspects of life, personal or professional.

These online games can help an individual use them in practical scenarios and draw effective conclusions. The games mentioned above help one to think critically and also to keep their brain active by stimulating it to its limit. These enjoyable games will keep a player occupied for longer, allowing them to explore and learn new things freely.

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,

7 Games for Critical Thinking that Add Play to Your Day

7 fun games for the classroom that promote critical thinking and problem solving skills. These games are great for literacy and math centers, morning tubs, indoor recess, and small groups!

Let’s talk about the importance of PLAY and games in our classrooms today. Do you agree with the following?

Learning should be fun.

Learning should be engaging.

Learning should be JOYFUL!

I thought so! For children (and adults) play is a key the way the brain learns. When our students complete puzzles, they are working on problem-solving skills. When they play a game with rules to follow, they are learning how to cooperate and interact with others. When they play against an opponent, they are learning how to develop strategies, predict outcomes, and use logical thinking skills. What a better way to squeeze in play than with critical thinking games in the classroom? In this post, I’ll share seven of my favorite critical thinking games for primary students.

For your convenience, I’ve added links to the materials I talk about within the blog post. These are Amazon Affiliate links. This just means Amazon tosses a few cents my way if you make a purchase with the links – at absolutely, positively, no extra cost to you! These little links help me to continue sharing ideas, freebies, and giveaways with you on the site.

Finding Time for Games in the Classroom

Time. It’s a four-letter word that teachers across the world have a love-hate relationship with. “There’s not enough time!” is a phrase one will frequently hear from a kindergarten teacher as much as a middle school teacher. We know that our students need time to play and have fun in school. We know that games promote SO MANY wonderful skills and brain-friendly challenges for our students. In addition to Pinterest, teaching blogs, IG, and educational websites, I like to turn to the shelves of stores such as Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us for critical thinking games that my students will love to play! There are TONS of educational and high-quality games that you can find pre-assembled and ready to go- for a great price! So, when can we squeeze games into the classroom? Below are some of my favorite times to add board games and mind-challenging games into our schedule:

Morning Work
Small Groups
Indoor Recess
Friday Game Days (Use small group time or morning work time for games!)
Math Centers
Literacy Centers
Word Work Centers

Teaching Students How to Play

It’s important to model how to play each game with your students. The critical thinking games I am going to share in this post take a lot of brain energy! They are designed to be fun- but challenging- for your students. As a result, don’t expect students to pick up how to play instantly and be able to independently play the games right away. I like to model and play the games with my students at the small group table. For example, every time I introduce a new Brainamin short or long vowel game as a word work center for my students, we play it at the small group table. I do this for math and literacy centers, too. In this way, I can correctly show students the materials, the rules, and I can even play with them to model my thinking and let them hear what I am thinking as I strategize my next moves and make decisions throughout the game. When students have had ample time to play and see how the game works WITH you, they will be more confident and have more fun when they play with their friends and classmates.

Organizing Your Games

Whenever possible, I like to get rid of the boxes the games come in and put them into plastic tubs. The boxes just seem to deteriorate over time, and the lids on the plastic bins help us keep everything tidy and organized. I use many of my critical thinking games during morning work time on Mondays and Fridays and during math and literacy centers. (On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays we use my See, Think, Wonder, Write routine for morning work .) I will be sharing more about my morning tub time (or what I like to call, Brain Bins) in future blog posts. For now, you can find the bins I use to store my critical thinking games in the links below. You’ll find two sizes of bins. For games that have a board game to them, I like to use the larger, flatter bins. For card games or other critical thinking materials such as the toys and activities I mentioned in this post , I use the medium bins because they take up less space and are really deep!

Medium Bins:

Now, let’s get started learning about seven really fun games that you can use for centers in your classroom. These games will challenge your students’ minds, while encouraging them to use problem-solving, critical thinking, logical thinking, deductive reasoning skills, and most importantly, have fun learning!

Hoot Owl Hoot

If you teach little ones, Hoot Owl Hoot is a MUST. Hoot Owl Hoot is designed by a company called Peaceable Kingdom. This is an award-winning game that focuses on cooperative play. (The game won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award.) The object of the game is to help the owls fly back to their nest before the sun comes up. Students use color cards to move the owls closer to the nest. If they draw a sun card, they are one step closer to daylight. The BEST part of this game? EVERYONE wins! That’s right. The students must work together to get all of the owls to their nest. Whether you have a preschooler at home or teach kindergarten or first grade, this is a great game for kids! On top of the cooperative play, students have to use problem-solving skills and shared decision-making skills to be successful. It’s truly a wonderful game that challenges little ones’ thinking skills while having fun with friends!

SEQUENCE LETTERS

Sequence Letters is a game designed for ages 4-7, making it the perfect literacy and word work center for the kindergarten and first-grade classroom. To play, students name the letter on their card, say the sound for that letter, and then match it to a picture on the board that begins with that letter sound. The object is to get five of your game tokens in a row on the board. Can we talk about how perfect this game is for an intervention group or kindergarten small reading lesson?! What I love even more is that the letter cards feature the letter in both uppercase and lowercase, so students are seeing both forms every time they play. Sequence Letters is a game that every primary teacher needs to add to their classrooms!

SEQUENCE FOR KIDS

Sequence for Kids is another version in the Sequence games line-up. This is a great critical thinking game for students who cannot yet read, and it makes the perfect indoor recess game for strategy skills! At first, the initial concept of the game seems TOO easy: Students simply place a token on the picture on the board that matches the picture on their card. When a player gets four tokens in a row, he or she wins. Don’t let this game fool you! There is a lot of thinking-rich strategy skills involved when playing this game. You see, in addition to the picture cards, there are also unicorn and dragon cards. A unicorn card allows you to place your game token anywhere on the board. A dragon card allows you to remove an opponent’s game token. Now, you’ve got a game that involves some “if this…then that” thinking! Which, my friends, are the games I love for kids! You can find Sequence for Kids below:

Brain-Freeze

If you don’t own Brain-Freeze , RUN and get it! It is not only engaging, fun, and child-friendly, but it is the perfect strategy game for young students ages 5 and up. Brain-Freeze reminds me of a cooler version of Guess Who for kids. It also builds mental skills such as memory, deductive-reasoning, and strategy skills. It received multiple awards for children and only takes about 15 minutes to play. That amount of playing time makes it an ideal game to place in a literacy center or math center for kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students. To play, one child chooses a sweet treat off of the “menu” and circles characteristics of the treat on their game board. The other child guesses and asks questions about what the sweet treat is, just like in the game, Guess Who? Using a dry-erase marker, the player who is guessing crosses out and eliminates different choices based on the clues and the answers the first player gives. The object is to correctly guess the sweet treat the first player secretly chose at the beginning of the game. This game is also wonderful for asking questions and using inference skills! Find it here:

On the Dot: 7 fun games for the classroom that promote critical thinking and problem solving skills. These games are great for literacy and math centers, morning tubs, indoor recess, and small groups!

Let’s move on to some more challenging games. These next few games are great for second-grade and up. On the Dot is a challenging puzzle game that requires focus, creative thinking, and an ability to look at things from new perspectives. It’s a true brainteaser that students will love! To play, students choose two transparent cards. The cards have colored dots on them. The student must rotate, flip, turn, or overlap the cards in order to get the dots on both cards to match up. This game is great for building and practicing logical thinking, spatial reasoning, and problem-solving. With 60 different puzzles to match up, On the Dot is a game that can stay in your bins for a long time!

Swish: 7 fun games for the classroom that promote critical thinking and problem solving skills. These games are great for literacy and math centers, morning tubs, indoor recess, and small groups!

Swish is a game designed for ages 8 and up. It reminds me of On the Dot with transparent cards and colored hoops, or circles. Players take turns stacking and matching up the colored cards. When a match is made, the player keeps both cards. The player with the most matches wins. After playing this game a few times, I decided the Swish Junior game would be the best version to start with in the primary classroom. The pace would go faster and kindergarten and first-grade students would feel more confident and successful. In the Junior version (ages 5+), players layer or stack two or more transparent cards to make a match. The cards have shapes on them in various colors and sizes, making it a much better game for primary students! The Junior version would be great for building spatial reasoning skills and promoting shape recognition. You can find the Swish Junior version below:

For my last critical thinking game, I can’t get enough of my Brainamin games! In this post, I’ll feature the CVC-e and long vowel edition , but I also have a Brainamin Short Vowel Bundle and a B rainamin Vowel Teams Bundle available, too. This is one of the best games to add to a morning tub or literacy center, and it’s certainly fun to use as a small group warm-up game! If you have students who are struggling with decoding and phonics skills, these games also make a nice change of pace for an intervention group. To play, students flip over two cards: a word card, and a picture card. The students will scan the cards and find the matching word and picture, as shown below:

There is only one match, so the students must think fast and be the first person to find it. The student who finds the match first gets to keep both cards in his or her pile. The student who has the most matches in his or her pile at the end of the game wins. (You can also just play for fun and not keep “score” using the matches.) Let’s play again. Can you find the matching word and picture in the cards shown below?

Brainamin long vowel (cvc-e) phonics and decoding game

SO fun, right?! What I love MOST about Brainamin is that you can play with a group of students, or with just two students. In fact, students can even play against themselves as an independent game as they race to find the matches among the deck of cards. Brainamin not only improves phonics skills but it also works on visual discrimination skills, critical thinking skills, deductive reasoning, decoding, and fluency for word recall. You can find the different Brainamin bundles and games that I have available by below:

Brainamin Short Vowels (cvc words)
Brainamin Long Vowels (cvc-e words)
Brainamin Vowel Teams
…more to come in the future!

Try Brainamin for FREE!

You can learn more about critical thinking AND get a FREE Brainamin Short A game pack in a blog post I wrote by clicking HERE or on the blog post image below:

I hope you enjoyed learning about these seven games for critical thinking in the primary classroom! I know they will add fun, play, and lots of great thinking skills into your classroom routine. In order to save this post for later or share it with a colleague, feel free to use the image below to PIN IT on Pinterest !

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One Comment

Loved all the games which you have shared with us. Perfect way to engage kids in such fun games for long hours which helps to nurture their overall growth. In this world of technology. where kids are inclined more towards playing online or video games, which affects their physical as well as mental growth. I think it the responsibility of parents to involve kids in games or activities which helps to improve their overall development. Saved your entire list of games to incorporate these in regular kids play. Thanks for sharing such an awesome list of games with us.

Games Promoting Collaborative Critical Thinking: Top 10

Fun Team Building Games To Improve Team Collaboration

While working in a business organization, employees have to come together, collaborate their efforts, indulge in critical thinking and ensure meeting common goals. Like any other organization, a business or a company is basically an amalgamation of employees who come together from diverse backgrounds, with different capabilities and skillsets to pursue common organizational goals. It is not uncommon to find some issues and problems that deter them from collaborating with each other. If the work environment becomes too negative and vitiating, it has a direct impact on the productivity and work performance of the employees. Companies must take some proactive action lest this situation gets out of hand leaving a detrimental impact on the company’s productivity and bottom line. Organizing team building games from time to time can help employees come together and indulge in collaborative critical thinking. Here, we bring you the top 10 games can help in this endeavor.

Triggertronics

It is an exciting and interesting challenge where the team has to come together and solve simple tasks in complicated ways. The challenge is based on Rube Goldberg’s Concept. The teams are given materials required to meet this challenge. They have to make use of the sequential trigger effect. The team participants have to collaborate their efforts and indulge in intuitive thinking thereby creating a self-running mechanism.

Gigsaw Challenge

In this challenge, the team is entrusted with the task of making a gigantic jigsaw by putting together a lot of jigsaw puzzles in such a way that it comes out to be meaningful. Each individual team is given a canvas to work on and they have to collectively come together to create an artwork that may symbolically depict the vision of an organization or simply create an abstract theme. The masterpiece of each team is then combined into a giant picture. Each team has to collaborate and has to contribute to the larger picture, the teams gain and learn a lot in terms of perspective.

Beat Box Challenge

It is a musical group activity where team members come together and learn a new skill. The best part of this activity is that there are no instruments and no musicians. The team participants have to beatbox or make use of their mouth to create music and perform together with close collaboration. They come together to learn a few beatbox sounds and come up with a specific beatbox rhythm. This activity encourages them to come together and collaborate with each other to create amazing music.

Pyramid Building

As part of this challenge, the team comes together to build a giant-sized pyramid. To complete the activity, a lot of planning and flawless execution is required. The team is given materials, tools, and instructions to complete this activity. Random material is used to create a pyramid. After each team build its pyramid, these are decorated with an organization’s name or logo, using brand colors and messages. Finally, the pyramids of each team are brought together and a giant pyramid is built with collaborative efforts and critical thinking.

Remoto Car Challenge

This is a fun activity where the team not only collaborates but competes to emerge as a winner. They have to work together to build bridges forming a circuit where remote cars can be raced. The team participants have to don their thinking hats and build a robust bridge that can at least sustain the weight of two racing cars. This activity requires close collaboration and critical thinking that ensures stability and strength of the pillars. The high point of this activity is the car race where all team cars race to reach the checkered flag.

Drum Jam Session

It is a music-based activity. This drum jam session help team members to enjoy, have fun and reduce stress. The energetic beating of djembe, a percussion instrument results in a rush of energy that leaves everyone overwhelmed and excited. The ‘unseen’ barriers seem to break down and the team comes together to form a strong bond. The hypnotic drumbeats fill the environment with energy and excitement that is unmatched to anything else. Music is rightly considered as the best healer and the perfect way to bring people closer to each other.

This challenge is based on the famous MasterChef-style challenge where teams are created, each entrusted with the task of cooking a 5-course meal. Each team has to prepare one dish and this task has to be completed within the stipulated timeline. It is very critical to manage time efficiently and effectively else the team has to go hungry. A five-star chef encourages the team to give their best and which results in more pressure on the teams to do a good job.

Junkyard Sales

As the name suggests, in this activity, teams come together to create something functional out of waste or junk that is of no use. The teams are assigned with junk items like paint boxes, plastic bottles, and many other scrap items. Once the material is received, the team spend some time thinking about how to put the junk stuff to its best use. They not only have to design but also build a functional product that is sturdy, presentable and can be put to better use. Collaborative efforts and some critical thinking can transform even junk stuff into something of utility.

Beat The Trash

This is another activity that is a perfect example of how collaborative efforts and critical thinking can help in transforming junk into music. Urban wastes of every day are used to build music instruments creating a junkyard masterpiece. With growing concern about environmental conservation, and the need to follow the principle of reducing, reuse, and recycle, daily waste items like bottles, water cans, pipes, etc., is used to create music. Once the instruments are created, the team perform together, and it is a sight to behold and music to ears.

Raft Building

This activity is based on rescue efforts taken by a team that is stuck at an island with very limited supplies. The only way to get out of this situation is by building a raft that takes them to the mainland. The raft must be built using limited materials and must be strong enough to carry 4-6 people of each team to a certain distance. The activity requires close collaboration and critical thinking to complete the activity.

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For more interesting team building activities, visit Trebound .

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23 Activities to Develop Critical Thinking Skills in Children

Are you looking for ways to help your child become a better problem solver and decision maker?

Do you want to prepare them for success in the 21st century, where critical thinking skills are highly valued?

Look no further, because in this post we will share 23 engaging activities that can help your child develop critical thinking skills. From puzzles and games to real-life scenarios and creative challenges, these activities will not only enhance your child’s thinking abilities but also keep them entertained and curious. As a parent, it is important to give your child the tools they need to succeed, and critical thinking skills are a vital part of that toolkit.

So, let’s dive in and discover some fun and effective ways to help your child develop critical thinking skills!

Table of Contents

What is critical thinking skills?

Critical thinking is a cognitive process that involves analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing information to make informed decisions and solve problems effectively. It involves the ability to question assumptions, examine evidence, and consider multiple perspectives to arrive at logical and evidence-based conclusions.

For example, when playing a game of chess, a player must analyze the board, anticipate their opponent’s moves, and make strategic decisions based on the available information. Similarly, when conducting research, an individual must evaluate the credibility and reliability of sources and synthesize information to form a coherent argument.

Importance of developing critical thinking skills in children

Developing critical thinking skills in children is crucial for their overall cognitive and social-emotional development. Research has shown that children who possess strong critical thinking skills are better equipped to make sound decisions, solve complex problems, and communicate effectively with others.

One study conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles found that students who received training in critical thinking showed significant improvements in their reading and writing abilities. These students also demonstrated higher levels of creativity and were better able to understand and analyze complex issues.

In addition, developing critical thinking skills can help children become more independent and confident in their decision-making abilities. They learn to evaluate information and evidence, identify biases, and consider different perspectives before making a decision. This can lead to a greater sense of self-awareness and a better understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses.

Furthermore, critical thinking skills are essential in today’s rapidly changing world. As technology continues to advance and the job market evolves, individuals who possess strong critical thinking skills are more likely to succeed. They are better equipped to adapt to new challenges and to identify new opportunities.

Overall, the development of critical thinking skills is essential for children’s long-term success and well-being. By providing them with opportunities to practice critical thinking skills through various activities and experiences, parents and educators can help children become effective problem solvers, communicators, and decision-makers.

Recommended reading: How To Teach Your Child To Think Out Of The Box

Recommended reading: 9 Fun Activities to Build Listening Skills in Children

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Activities to develop critical thinking skills in children

Critical thinking skills can be developed through various activities that require individuals to analyze and evaluate information, develop hypotheses, and test their ideas using evidence.

Read Books Together: Reading books with children helps to develop their critical thinking skills. Encourage them to ask questions about the story, analyze the characters’ actions, and make predictions about the outcome.
Board Games: Board games are a fun way to develop critical thinking skills in children. Games such as chess, checkers, and monopoly require children to think strategically and make decisions based on the outcome of their moves. Playing board games also encourages children to think creatively and come up with unique solutions to problems.
Encourage Questions: Encourage children to ask questions about the world around them. This can help them to develop their analytical skills and learn how to evaluate information.
Play “What If” Games: “What If” games encourage children to think creatively and critically. For example, ask them what they would do if they were stranded on a deserted island or if they could travel through time.
Brainstorm Solutions: Encourage children to brainstorm solutions to problems they encounter. This can help them develop their problem-solving skills and learn how to think critically.
Mind Mapping: Mind mapping is a great activity to improve critical thinking skills in children. It helps children to organize their ideas and think creatively. Give your child a topic and ask them to create a mind map by writing down all their thoughts and ideas related to the topic. This activity can help your child to improve their brainstorming skills and connect different ideas.
Play Sudoku: Sudoku is a logic-based game that requires critical thinking skills. It requires children to think logically and use deductive reasoning to solve a problem. Sudoku puzzles can be found in many newspapers and online.
Conduct Research: Encourage children to conduct research on a topic that interests them. This can help them develop their analytical skills and learn how to evaluate information.
Watch Documentaries: Documentaries are a great way to develop critical thinking skills in children. Encourage them to ask questions about the information presented and analyze the content.
Play “What’s Missing”: “What’s Missing” is a memory game that requires children to think critically and remember information. For example, lay out several objects and ask them to identify which one is missing.
Play “I Spy”: “I Spy” is a game that requires children to think critically and observe their surroundings. It can help develop their analytical and problem-solving skills.
Play Charades: Charades is a game that requires children to think creatively and critically. It helps develop their problem-solving and analytical skills.
Play “20 Questions”: “20 Questions” is a game that requires children to ask questions and think critically. It can help them develop their analytical and problem-solving skills.
Play “Would You Rather”: “Would You Rather” is a game that encourages children to think critically and make informed decisions. It helps them develop their problem-solving skills.
Play “Spot the Differences”: “Spot the Differences” is a game that requires children to think critically and observe their surroundings. It helps develop their analytical skills.
Play “Who Am I”: “Who Am I” is a game that requires children to think critically and ask questions. It helps develop their analytical and problem-solving skills.
Write Stories: Encourage children to write stories that require critical thinking skills. For example, they could be asked to create a story that involves problem-solving, decision-making, or predicting an outcome. This activity encourages children to think creatively and come up with unique solutions to problems, helping them develop their critical thinking skills.
Science Experiments: Science experiments are a fun way to develop critical thinking skills in children by encouraging them to ask questions, analyze data, and draw conclusions.. Encourage children to think about the scientific method and predict what will happen during an experiment. This encourages children to think about cause and effect and develops their critical thinking skills.
Mystery Box: A mystery box is a great way to develop critical thinking skills in children. Place a number of items in a box and ask children to guess what the items are based on their shape, texture, and weight. This activity encourages children to think creatively and use deductive reasoning to solve a problem.
Coding: Coding is a great way to develop critical thinking skills in children. It requires children to think logically and use deductive reasoning to solve problems. There are many online resources available that teach children how to code.
Debate: Debating is a great way to develop critical thinking skills in children. It requires children to think critically and come up with logical arguments to support their position. Debating also helps children develop their communication skills and learn how to express their thoughts and opinions effectively.
Brain Teasers: Brain teasers are a fun way to develop critical thinking skills in children. They require children to think creatively and use deductive reasoning to solve problems. Brain teasers can be found in many puzzle books and online.
Puzzles: Puzzles are an excellent way to enhance critical thinking skills in children. Give your child puzzles that require them to use their logical reasoning, problem-solving, and spatial reasoning skills. Puzzles can be in the form of jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, or any other puzzle that requires critical thinking.

By incorporating these activities into your child’s daily routine, you can help them to develop critical thinking skills that will benefit them throughout their lives. These activities can be a fun and engaging way for children to learn and develop their cognitive skills.

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How Video Games Can Help Children Develop Critical Thinking Skills

To relax and kill time, video games have become a popular pastime. The impact of video games on children’s cognitive development, especially in the area of critical thinking, has been debated for some time. In this article, we’ll look at the ways in which kids can benefit from playing video games that encourage them to think critically.

A Definition of Critical Thinking.

The ability to reason logically and make sound decisions based on evidence is known as critical thinking. It’s a key ability for solving problems and making choices in life. Children who learn to think critically will be better able to handle challenges and make wise decisions as adults.

Why and how video games can help you think critically

Playing video games can be a great way to exercise one’s critical thinking skills because of the environment they present. In order to advance through the game, players often have to use their critical thinking skills to solve puzzles, choose appropriate strategies, and evaluate data. Having these abilities is crucial for improving one’s critical thinking.

Some concrete examples of how video games can foster analytical thinking in kids are as follows:

First, the ability to think critically and creatively is fostered by the problem-solving nature of many video games. Players will need to utilize critical thinking abilities like analysis, evaluation, and synthesis to overcome challenges.

Second, the ability to make good decisions is essential in video games because players are frequently given multiple paths to take with varying outcomes. Players need to think analytically about the consequences of their actions in order to make the most informed decisions.

Third, strategy: to succeed in many games, you’ll need to come up with and put into action a plan. Planning, prioritizing, and analyzing the available resources are all examples of critical thinking skills that will be needed.

Fourth, the ability to analyze and make sense of complex situations is essential in the gaming industry. To be successful, players need to employ critical thinking skills and dissect these systems.

Gaining proficiency in critical thinking has many advantages.

There are many positive outcomes for a child’s academic and social development when they acquire critical thinking skills through gaming. Some examples are as follows:

Students who are able to think critically about their schoolwork and grasp difficult concepts at a younger age perform better in school.

Enhanced Personal Decision-Making: Children who practice critical thinking grow up to make better choices about their health, safety, and relationships.

Children who practice critical thinking grow up to be better problem solvers in all walks of life, from their personal relationships to their careers.

Children who learn to think critically are more likely to grow up to be creative problem solvers because they have the tools to think outside the box.

In conclusion, video games can be a great way for kids to exercise their brains and learn to think critically. Children can learn to handle difficult situations and make educated decisions by practicing problem solving, decision making, strategy, and analytical thinking. Video games can be a fun and effective way for children to develop critical thinking skills, so parents and teachers should think about incorporating them into their children’s learning experiences.

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Here are 10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking; 1. Minefield. Minefield Team-building games for critical thinking is a time-honored exercise that has been shown to foster better communication and a sense of trust among participants of all ages. It requires the construction of an obstacle course as well as the grouping of the ...
Developing critical thinking skills through gamification
7. Facilitating critical thinking in the game. Critical thinking is "a metacognitive process, consisting of a number of sub-skills (e.g., analysis, evaluation and inference) that, when used appropriately, increases the chances of producing a logical conclusion to an argument or solution to a problem" (Dwyer et al., 2014, p. 43). One of the ...
Problem Solving Games, Activities & Exercises for Adults
From word and number puzzles to role-playing games, here is a list of inexpensive and free problem solving team builders that help groups practice the art of critical thinking and compromise. 1. Espionage! (Team Favorite) For an exciting game of social deduction, check out Espionage!
Games That Help Kids Think Critically
Games That Help Kids Think Critically. When gamers pick up a controller, they're frequently placed in the role of the hero or the protagonist that always wins. But that doesn't always challenge them to think critically or examine all sides of a situation rationally. In fact, what can help some incredible games and apps stand out from other ...
10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking
The team at TeachThought have compiled their list of games to promote better peer-to-peer learning in the classroom. Collaborative game-playing in the classroom teaches cooperation and communication among students, and complements structured textbook learning. TeachThought lists 10 games to accelerate students' critical thinking.
Find Critical Thinking Games & Exercises
Critical thinking is the ability to look at problems in new ways, to analyse how parts of a whole interact with one another and to interpret information and draw conclusions. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills were once thought to be the domain of gifted people. Today, they are necessary for every individual and group who seeks to ...
10 Team Building Games that Stimulate Critical Thinking in Students
Using these materials, the students must construct something as a team. It could be a building or a castle or a car, for that matter. 6. A Shrinking Vessel. Image Credits: Youtube. In addition to teamwork, this game requires a good deal of strategy. The rules might seem simple but it is deceptive in that aspect.
Critical Thinking Games: 5 Engaging Activities for Children
4. Cultivate Curiosity. Encourage your child to ask questions and dig deep to find answers. Curiosity leads to challenging assumptions and gaining new information. Ultimately it helps your child develop complex thinking skills. 5. Encourage Open-Mindedness.
Critical Thinking Games & Activities for Kids
2. Play Sorting Games. Critical skills include the reasoning ability to solve real-life problems. And, of course, one of the great ways to support children's reasoning and classification skills is sorting games that also function as strategy games for kids.. This activity will help children see the differences among various groups and enhance their understanding of the objects.
10 Engaging Online Games To Test Your Critical Thinking Skills
7. Brainstorm. Critical thinking is all about making decisions based on analytical observation and this game allows individuals to brainstorm and find answers to challenging questions. In this game, the players need to answer questions that come on the screen by choosing the correct answer from the given options.
7 Games for Critical Thinking that Add Play to Your Day
The student must rotate, flip, turn, or overlap the cards in order to get the dots on both cards to match up. This game is great for building and practicing logical thinking, spatial reasoning, and problem-solving. With 60 different puzzles to match up, On the Dot is a game that can stay in your bins for a long time!
Games Promoting Collaborative Critical Thinking: Top 10
Companies must take some proactive action lest this situation gets out of hand leaving a detrimental impact on the company's productivity and bottom line. Organizing team building games from time to time can help employees come together and indulge in collaborative critical thinking. Here, we bring you the top 10 games can help in this endeavor.
23 Activities to Develop Critical Thinking Skills in Children
Play Sudoku: Sudoku is a logic-based game that requires critical thinking skills. It requires children to think logically and use deductive reasoning to solve a problem. Sudoku puzzles can be found in many newspapers and online. Conduct Research: Encourage children to conduct research on a topic that interests them.
How Video Games Can Help Children Develop Critical Thinking Skills
Some concrete examples of how video games can foster analytical thinking in kids are as follows: First, the ability to think critically and creatively is fostered by the problem-solving nature of many video games. Players will need to utilize critical thinking abilities like analysis, evaluation, and synthesis to overcome challenges.
BrainGymmer: Brain training games for all cognitive skills!
Brain training games for all cognitive skills. Your brain has an enormous range of abilities, which can be divided in five major cognitive skills. Our brain games challenge you to exercise these skills. All brain games are based on trusted psychological tasks and tests. So use our free brain games to improve your memory, attention, thinking ...
Fun Games to Sharpen Critical Thinking Skills
For example, hypothetical scenarios involving real-life situations can stimulate critical thinking skills and promote logical decision-making. Real-world problem-solving tasks, such as case studies and research projects, enable students to apply their critical thinking skills to actual issues and develop effective solutions.

11 Activities That Promote Critical Thinking In The Class

Importance of Acquiring Critical Thinking Skills

11 Activities that Promote Critical Thinking in the Class

1. Worst Case Scenario

2. If You Build It

4. Keeping it Real

5. Save the Egg

6. Start a Debate

7. Create and Invent

8. Select from Alternatives

9. Reading and Critiquing

10. Think Pair Share

11. Big Paper – Silent Conversation

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7 Puzzles to Challenge Your Critical Thinking

10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking

Here are 10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking;

2. If You Build it

3. It’s a Mystery

5. Save the Egg

6. marshmallows-game

7. Go for Gold

8. Keep it Real

9. Shrinking Vessel

10. The Worst-Case Scenario

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Developing critical thinking skills through gamification

Geisa Muller de Campos Ribeiro

Maico Roris Severino

1. Introduction

2. Serious games: brief review of the relevant literature

2.1. Serious games, fake news, and COVID-19

3. Serious role-playing games

4. Methods and initial results informing the game development

5. Participants and communities

6. Conversation circles

7. Facilitating critical thinking in the game

8. Game characters and story

8.1. The story

9. Results and discussion

10. Limitations of our study, final considerations and call for further research

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Declaration of Competing Interest

Acknowledgments

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