critical thinking movie explained

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Critical Thinking , Movie About Miami Jackson's Chess Champs, Available for Download

Actors Will Hochman, Jeffry Batista, and John Leguizamo (left to right) shoot Critical Thinking in Miami.

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Critical Thinking

The true story of the Miami Jackson High School chess team which was the first inner city team to win the U.S. National Chess Championship. The true story of the Miami Jackson High School chess team which was the first inner city team to win the U.S. National Chess Championship. The true story of the Miami Jackson High School chess team which was the first inner city team to win the U.S. National Chess Championship.

John Leguizamo
Dito Montiel
Rachel Bay Jones
Michael Kenneth Williams
31 User reviews
20 Critic reviews
65 Metascore

Mr. Martinez

Principal Kestel

Mr. Roundtree

Sedrick Roundtree

Oelmy 'Ito' Paniagua
(as Jorge Lendeborg)

Rodelay Medina
(as Angel Bismark Curiel)

Marcel Martinez

Detective Ransone

Detective Vargas
Michael Rivera

Jitney Driver

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

Trivia Martinez started the after-school chess club in 1992 after his teacher's lounge rounds of chess with another teacher sparked student interest. His playing partner left the school that year and students began challenging him to matches so the club was born.
Goofs During Ito's game at the regional tournament, both Ito and Martinez say that he is in "Zugzwang". However, in a real "Zugzwang" situation, a player loses only because he is forced to make a move, while Ito lose the same way even if it was his opponent's time to move, as he could take the pawn on d3 with the queen.

Mr. Martinez : All right, now, people, this is gonna be very basic for some of you, but for the fish, or the newbies as I like to call you, this is gonna be eye opening because what you've got is 64 squares, 32 pieces, it doesn't matter how rich or poor you are, what Ivy League school you may go or you may not go to, what prison you hopefully never set foot in, because chess is the great equalizer.

Crazy credits Over the credits, there are interviews with the real people who the movie is based on.
Soundtracks What Would You Do Written by Timothy McNealy Performed by Timothy McNealy Published by Afrika Kuruvilla Kurian, BMI

User reviews 31

t-wildthing-618-802138
Sep 23, 2020
How long is Critical Thinking? Powered by Alexa
September 4, 2020 (United States)
United States
Eleştirel Düşünme
Miami, Florida, USA
Critical thinking
Cinema Veritas
Hialeah Park Studios
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$3,000,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 57 minutes

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Critical Thinking

Where to watch.

Watch Critical Thinking with a subscription on Netflix, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Strategic in delivering all the feels, Critical Thinking is a good old-fashioned underdog story that marks a winning directorial debut for John Leguizamo.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

John Leguizamo

Mario Martinez

Rachel Bay Jones

Principal Kestel

Michael Kenneth Williams

Mr. Roundtree

Corwin C. Tuggles

Sedrick Roundtree

Jorge Lendeborg

Ito Paniagua

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Critics reviews.

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‘Critical Thinking’ Review: All the Right Moves

John Leguizamo directs and stars in this warmhearted drama about underprivileged teenagers who enter a national chess championship.

Share full article

By Jeannette Catsoulis

Whether championing math, poetry, or just how to be a decent human being , the inspirational teacher is as familiar to movie audiences as the class stoner. “Critical Thinking” does little to detach itself from genre cliché; yet this heartfelt drama about a rough-and-tumble group of high-schoolers who claw their way to a national chess tournament has a sweetness that softens its flaws.

Based on a true story and set in an underserved Miami neighborhood in 1998, the movie drops us into the boisterous classroom of Mr. Martinez (played by the director, John Leguizamo).

“Chess is the great equalizer,” he tells his multiethnic students, using the game to teach his critical thinking elective — with a side of racial history discouraged by his school board. The principal (Rachel Bay Jones) might treat his classroom like a dumping ground for miscreants, but Martinez, assisted by wigs and funny accents, explains complicated chess moves with a deftness that cuts through their indifference.

With goals as modest as the lives of its characters, “Critical Thinking” follows the predictable arc of the underdog drama as the chess team overcomes troubled home situations and other setbacks on the road to a Beverly Hills-set finale. Slow and straightforward, the movie knows that a chess match is hardly a barnburner; but its lively young performers and their eventual triumph are easy to warm to. Drugs and gangs might beckon — and immigration officers hover just outside the frame — but they’re no match for the values of sportsmanship and teamwork. And Mr. Martinez’s pep talks.

Critical Thinking Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas, or rent or buy on iTunes , Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.

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Critical thinking, common sense media reviewers.

Underdog chess team defies odds but plays into stereotypes.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Positive themes of teamwork and defiance against t

Main characters are depicted as underdogs whose su

Frequent gun use. One character is abruptly shot a

Occasional kissing.

Frequent use of the words "f--k," "s--t," and "ass

Adults get drunk. Underage characters smoke cigare

Positive Messages

Positive themes of teamwork and defiance against the odds are prevalent. While it exposes some of the broken systems in public education, it fails to fully portray its teen characters' humanity, contributing to problematic stereotypes.

Positive Role Models

Main characters are depicted as underdogs whose success goes against everyone's expectations. Some show determination, but most play into stereotypes associated with Black and Latinx teens from under-resourced communities -- i.e., unmotivated, unintelligent jokesters. That makes it seem like their success is because of some paradoxical talent instead of their strength of character. Failure to see these kids' humanity contributes to their stereotyping, on-screen and off.

Violence & Scariness

Frequent gun use. One character is abruptly shot and killed. Another character is punched and strangled to death. Parents emotionally abuse children.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent use of the words "f--k," "s--t," and "ass."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults get drunk. Underage characters smoke cigarettes. Drug dealing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Critical Thinking is a fact-based drama about a high school chess team from an underserved community that defies the odds to make it to the U.S. National Chess Championship. Directed by and starring John Leguizamo , the movie has frequent swearing ("f--k," "s--t," etc.), underage cigarette smoking, drug dealing, punching, strangling, and gun violence that results in death. Parents emotionally abuse children. While positive themes of teamwork and overcoming challenges are prevalent, the movie's Black and Latinx teens are stereotypically depicted as unintelligent with little work ethic and their success as an anomaly. Rachel Bay Jones and Michael Kenneth Williams co-star. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In CRITICAL THINKING, teacher Mr. T ( John Leguizamo ) oversees an unofficial detention hall at Miami Jackson Senior High School, where students are sent if they're deemed troublesome. Mr. T seizes the opportunity to start a chess team, all while navigating limited resources, a school with little faith in his students' abilities, and the stressors of his students' turbulent personal lives. When the team starts to succeed, the students come up with creative fundraisers to pay for travel and lodging at their competitions. But none of this is easy. One teen faces pressures at home from an emotionally abusive father who resents his son's talents. Another is pulled into dealing drugs to make ends meet. All the while, Mr. T is the loving, encouraging adult they crave.

Is It Any Good?

This drama is the classic story of an underdog team overcoming the odds and making it all the way; unfortunately, it falls back on stereotypical characterizations to tell its tale. The Miami Jackson team seems to be in this position because its members -- Black and Latinx teens from under-resourced communities -- have historically underestimated identities. The film plays on the biases that are often held about these identities by depicting the teens as shiftless and unfocused. They're careless in their fundraising efforts, they try to pass notes during tournaments, and they use the threat of physical violence to intimidate their opponents.

Their chess skills are an afterthought, making their success feel like an anomaly. And it certainly doesn't help that a White teen joins the team as they gain momentum and becomes their shining star -- teaching the other kids new chess moves and giving them vocabulary lessons. He's the only teen character whose background, personal life, and stressors aren't explored. So while Critical Thinking is diverse in its casting and exposes some of the broken systems in public education, it misses the mark in humanizing its characters. The failure to see these kids' humanity contributes to their stereotyping, on-screen and off.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how Critical Thinking handles stereotypes and biases. Can media offer positive representations while still promoting stereotypical characterizations?

What does Critical Thinking teach viewers about student engagement and the importance of teaching things in a fun way?

What role does teamwork play in Critical Thinking ? Why is it an important character strength ?

Movie Details

In theaters : September 4, 2020
On DVD or streaming : September 4, 2020
Cast : John Leguizamo , Rachel Bay Jones , Michael Kenneth Williams
Director : John Leguizamo
Inclusion Information : Latino directors, Latino actors, Female actors
Studio : Vertical Entertainment
Genre : Drama
Topics : High School
Character Strengths : Teamwork
Run time : 117 minutes
MPAA rating : NR
Last updated : February 19, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

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Defining Critical Thinking

A Brief History of the Idea of Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking: Basic Questions & Answers
Our Conception of Critical Thinking
Sumner’s Definition of Critical Thinking
Research in Critical Thinking
Critical Societies: Thoughts from the Past

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What Are Critical Thinking Skills and Why Are They Important?

Learn what critical thinking skills are, why they’re important, and how to develop and apply them in your workplace and everyday life.

[Featured Image]: Project Manager, approaching and analyzing the latest project with a team member,

We often use critical thinking skills without even realizing it. When you make a decision, such as which cereal to eat for breakfast, you're using critical thinking to determine the best option for you that day.

Critical thinking is like a muscle that can be exercised and built over time. It is a skill that can help propel your career to new heights. You'll be able to solve workplace issues, use trial and error to troubleshoot ideas, and more.

We'll take you through what it is and some examples so you can begin your journey in mastering this skill.

What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking is the ability to interpret, evaluate, and analyze facts and information that are available, to form a judgment or decide if something is right or wrong.

More than just being curious about the world around you, critical thinkers make connections between logical ideas to see the bigger picture. Building your critical thinking skills means being able to advocate your ideas and opinions, present them in a logical fashion, and make decisions for improvement.

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Why is critical thinking important?

Critical thinking is useful in many areas of your life, including your career. It makes you a well-rounded individual, one who has looked at all of their options and possible solutions before making a choice.

According to the University of the People in California, having critical thinking skills is important because they are [ 1 ]:

Crucial for the economy

Essential for improving language and presentation skills

Very helpful in promoting creativity

Important for self-reflection

The basis of science and democracy

Critical thinking skills are used every day in a myriad of ways and can be applied to situations such as a CEO approaching a group project or a nurse deciding in which order to treat their patients.

Examples of common critical thinking skills

Critical thinking skills differ from individual to individual and are utilized in various ways. Examples of common critical thinking skills include:

Identification of biases: Identifying biases means knowing there are certain people or things that may have an unfair prejudice or influence on the situation at hand. Pointing out these biases helps to remove them from contention when it comes to solving the problem and allows you to see things from a different perspective.

Research: Researching details and facts allows you to be prepared when presenting your information to people. You’ll know exactly what you’re talking about due to the time you’ve spent with the subject material, and you’ll be well-spoken and know what questions to ask to gain more knowledge. When researching, always use credible sources and factual information.

Open-mindedness: Being open-minded when having a conversation or participating in a group activity is crucial to success. Dismissing someone else’s ideas before you’ve heard them will inhibit you from progressing to a solution, and will often create animosity. If you truly want to solve a problem, you need to be willing to hear everyone’s opinions and ideas if you want them to hear yours.

Analysis: Analyzing your research will lead to you having a better understanding of the things you’ve heard and read. As a true critical thinker, you’ll want to seek out the truth and get to the source of issues. It’s important to avoid taking things at face value and always dig deeper.

Problem-solving: Problem-solving is perhaps the most important skill that critical thinkers can possess. The ability to solve issues and bounce back from conflict is what helps you succeed, be a leader, and effect change. One way to properly solve problems is to first recognize there’s a problem that needs solving. By determining the issue at hand, you can then analyze it and come up with several potential solutions.

How to develop critical thinking skills

You can develop critical thinking skills every day if you approach problems in a logical manner. Here are a few ways you can start your path to improvement:

1. Ask questions.

Be inquisitive about everything. Maintain a neutral perspective and develop a natural curiosity, so you can ask questions that develop your understanding of the situation or task at hand. The more details, facts, and information you have, the better informed you are to make decisions.

2. Practice active listening.

Utilize active listening techniques, which are founded in empathy, to really listen to what the other person is saying. Critical thinking, in part, is the cognitive process of reading the situation: the words coming out of their mouth, their body language, their reactions to your own words. Then, you might paraphrase to clarify what they're saying, so both of you agree you're on the same page.

3. Develop your logic and reasoning.

This is perhaps a more abstract task that requires practice and long-term development. However, think of a schoolteacher assessing the classroom to determine how to energize the lesson. There's options such as playing a game, watching a video, or challenging the students with a reward system. Using logic, you might decide that the reward system will take up too much time and is not an immediate fix. A video is not exactly relevant at this time. So, the teacher decides to play a simple word association game.

Scenarios like this happen every day, so next time, you can be more aware of what will work and what won't. Over time, developing your logic and reasoning will strengthen your critical thinking skills.

Learn tips and tricks on how to become a better critical thinker and problem solver through online courses from notable educational institutions on Coursera. Start with Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking from Duke University or Mindware: Critical Thinking for the Information Age from the University of Michigan.

Article sources

University of the People, “ Why is Critical Thinking Important?: A Survival Guide , https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/why-is-critical-thinking-important/.” Accessed May 18, 2023.

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Coursera staff.

Editorial Team

Coursera’s editorial team is comprised of highly experienced professional editors, writers, and fact...

This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

Teachers Look to Film to Foster Critical Thinking

Twenty-one teachers sit in a small movie theater here watching a quick, dialogue-driven scene that culminates with Mark Zuckerberg, as played by actor Jesse Eisenberg, getting dumped by his girlfriend.

Larry Knapp, a film professor at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Ill., pauses “The Social Network” and asks the teachers why they think Zuckerberg is wearing a gray Gap sweatshirt.

They throw out varied analyses: It shows that Mr. Zuckerberg does not want to stand out—he’s uncomfortable in public. It’s an all-American brand and, as the inventor and CEO of Facebook, he embodies the American dream. It symbolizes the “gap” in communication between him and his girlfriend.

These educators, who work in a wide range of subjects and grade levels, are participating in a five-day intensive “film camp” through Facets Multimedia , a nonprofit arts organization in Chicago. The camp is a small-scale effort to promote the use of film studies in the K-12 classroom.

Resources for K-12 Film Studies

Despite the fact that film studies is not widely taught in K-12 classrooms, curricula and resources are available for teachers looking to incorporate film into their lessons. Places to start include:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences An educator-outreach page offers a series of free “teachers’ guides.” It includes an activity page for teaching students to “read a film.”

ReadWriteThink This site, hosted by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association, allows users to search for lesson ideas for using film in the classroom, including one on teaching Elie Wiesel’s Night in conjunction with “Life Is Beautiful.”

Australian Teachers of Media ATOM offers study guides for feature films and documentaries, as well as other resources, including Screen Education magazine.

Movieclips This free site has an expansive collection of movie clips teachers can show in the classroom.

Prentice Hall Media Studio This Pearson product has lesson plans and activities focused on helping students make sense of film, news, and advertising. Clips are included. The bundle for each grade costs about $330.

Media Literacy Clearinghouse Media-literacy consultant Frank W. Baker calls himself a “resource guy,” and his website offers evidence. See his page on film study and suggested readings on the “language of film.”

—Liana Heitin

While film-studies classes are common in higher education, the idea that a film should be taught as an academic text with younger students is still nascent.

“That doesn’t mean teachers are not showing film,” said John Golden, the author of Reading in the Dark: Using Film as a Tool in the English Classroom . “They’re absolutely showing film. But in terms of giving kids the language to talk about and learn film, there’s very little pedagogy going on.”

Critical viewing, a foundation of film literacy, is more than just putting on a movie or showing the film adaptation of a novel. Like critical reading, it’s a way of analyzing the components of a text and the choices made during its creation—key emphases, film-studies proponents point out, of the Common Core State Standards.

Of those teachers who are teaching critical viewing in the classroom, most tend to be English teachers, said Frank W. Baker, a consultant in media-literacy education and the author of Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom . Nearly all film literacy is being taught at the high school level, he said.

Proponents of media studies, like Mr. Golden, also an English teacher and instructional specialist in the 46,000-student Portland, Ore., district, argue that critical viewing of film should be an essential part of instruction—not just something taught by film buffs at the high school level. Students are bombarded by visual images, said Mr. Golden, especially now with the proliferation of mobile devices on which to view them. They’re “subject to so much manipulation,” he explained, including stereotyping, veiled biases, and false claims. “I don’t think we can say students are literate anymore if we’re not giving them the language to talk about visual media and film.”

Analyzing ‘Texts’

Jessica Keigan, an English teacher in the 44,000-student Adams 12 Five Star Schools in Thornton, Colo., received an undergraduate minor in film and spent a semester interning in the film industry in Los Angeles before becoming a teacher. For her, it was only natural to incorporate film into her classes. Now in her 11th year of teaching, she uses film about 25 percent of the time in her English classes.

See examples of films that teachers say can contribute to classroom lessons.

Ms. Keigan explains that she typically incorporates film “as a springboard for critical reading.” For instance, when introducing students to the different “levels” of literary analysis—from simple recall to complex thinking—she often starts by showing the Pixar short film “Boundin’.” After watching the four-minute short about a dancing sheep who loses his wool, she begins by asking students questions about the storyline. She moves on to questions about “what the filmmaker is doing symbolically” and then about how the film compares with other hero stories the students have seen or read. “Film gives me a chance to teach the thinking skill without having to do the reading skill as well,” she said.

Edna Camacho, an English teacher in the Weslaco Independent school district, which serves 19,000 students in Weslaco, Texas, initially began using film as a reward—students watched “Of Mice and Men” after completing the novel. Soon after, though, “I realized I could’ve done a lot more with the film if I used it as a text,” she said.

Now, she pairs novels and films with similar themes to hone her students’ critical-thinking skills. For instance, her students read the book Night by Eli Wiesel and watch the movie “Life Is Beautiful,” both of which center on Jewish characters’ experience of the Holocaust. She asks students to find similarities in the relationships in the stories, to look for archetypes in each, and to consider what the author or director does to evoke feeling. “The same type of figurative language you use with literature, we use with film,” she said.

Another way to exercise critical thinking with film, Mr. Knapp told teachers at the film camp in Chicago, is to have students look for motifs, or distinctive patterns. Mr. Knapp illustrated that by showing the opening credits of Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X,” in which an American flag burns until only the shape of an X is left. The teachers identified “reinvention” and “a changing America” among the motifs illustrated by that image. “If you set up this way of looking at a film,” said Mr. Knapp, “usually students will start looking for other motifs.”

For Ms. Camacho, one of the great benefits of using film is its accessibility. In the cases of students with learning disabilities and English-language learners, she noticed that film “kind of loosened them up. ... It opened the door for them to start conversations in class.”

Mr. Golden said he sometimes refers to film in the classroom as “the great equalizer” because it gives even the most reticent reader a chance to display understanding and deep thinking.

Consortia Plans

The higher-order thinking skills that students learn in analyzing film transfer to other mediums, say film-instruction proponents. “In my absolute gut, I’m convinced it makes them stronger readers when we talk about print text,” said Mr. Golden. When asked to analyze, for instance, tone in the novel The Great Gatsby , his students have already “used and practiced and discussed in really accessible terms those literary devices in film.”

And while studying film in K-12 is far from widespread, the new common standards could breathe some life into the idea: The English/language arts standards require students to analyze texts of all kinds, and several standards mention film as an example text type.

“Analysis is the word of the day with common core,” said Ms. Keigan. “You’re reading to understand the deep symbolic meaning of a text.” Film and other art forms are good ways “to practice those thinking skills.”

Mr. Golden said the standards’ emphasis on nonfiction could lead to more teachers showing documentary films. However, because the standards that mention film predominately ask students to compare two presentations of a text, he worries that teachers will simply show film adaptations of books. “The problem for me is [film literacy] is not explicitly called out as much as I’d wished” in the standards, he said.

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, which is designing computer-based tests aligned to the common standards, plans to include items asking students to “read and analyze one digital source,” PARCC spokesperson Chad Colby wrote in an email. That source could be “a video, a narrated slide show, a podcast, etc.”

Pilot tests from the competing assessment consortium, Smarter Balanced, initially included items asking students to watch and analyze video clips. However, many piloting schools had technical difficulties, including insufficient broadband. The videos have since been eliminated, said Brandt Redd, the chief technology officer for Smarter Balanced. In addition, for initial stages of implementation, both consortia plan to offer paper-and-pencil testing options, which would likely preclude the use of video.

Even so, Mr. Baker, the consultant, sees the conversations around including the use of video components on tests as a start. “The fact that these national assessments have acknowledged the visual-media world in which our students reside, and are planning to incorporate images and video into tests, is yet another opportunity for us to teach film-literacy skills,” he said.

Considering that professional-development opportunities like the one at Facets are rare, many teachers who might like to incorporate film into their lessons may not know where to start. Ms. Camacho, the Texas teacher, suggests they read well-written film reviews to learn “the basics of what it takes to make a film—acting, music, camera angles.” Mr. Baker advises teachers to watch the extras at the ends of DVDs for analysis and insights on the filmmaking process.

Mr. Golden, the Reading in the Dark author, believes all teachers can and should incorporate film. “It takes 25 minutes to get an introduction to film terminology,” he said. “It’s not super esoteric—it’s pretty obvious.” The challenge from there, he said, is that teachers “have to be willing to give students this vocabulary .... and to ask kids to look at film this way.”

Classroom Cinema

Teachers share their suggestions for films that can contribute to classroom lessons..

Stage Beauty Director: Richard Eyre Used by: Jessica Keigan

Ms. Keigan shows clips from the film to discuss directorial decisionmaking and varied interpretations of William Shakespeare’s “Othello.”

Boundin’ Directors: Bud Luckey and Roger Gould Used by: Jessica Keigan

Ms. Keigan uses this Pixar short to teach archetypes and levels of analysis, and for general skill building around film analysis.

Run Lola Run Director: Tom Tykwer Used by: Jessica Keigan

Clips from this German film are used in Ms. Keigan’s classroom to analyze narrative elements.

Bowling for Columbine Director: Michael Moore Used by: John Golden

Mr. Golden uses clips from Moore’s 2002 documentary to discuss a director’s point of view and the concept of biases.

Jaws Director: Steven Spielberg Used by: John Golden and Edna Camacho

After viewing selected clips from this blockbuster 1975 film, Mr. Golden’s class examines how the director shifts camera angles to show different characters’ points of view. Ms. Camacho uses the film to illustrate the importance of musical choices, showing a clip with the shark approaching as the iconic theme music plays.

Life Is Beautiful Director: Roberto Benigni Used by: Edna Camacho

Ms. Camacho pairs this film with the novel Night by Elie Wiesel to inspire discussion on archetypes and how a director or author evokes emotion.

Super Size Me Director: Morgan Spurlock Used by: John Golden

Mr. Golden shows the film during his unit on American literature, pairing it with books like The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

Edward Scissorhands Director: Tim Burton Used by: John Golden

Mr. Golden’s students explore themes like setting, atmosphere, and identity after watching sections of Burton’s 1990 film.

The Shining Director: Stanley Kubrick Used by: Edna Camacho

Ms. Camacho uses clips from Kubrick’s horror classic to discuss narrative techniques for building suspense, both in literature and in movies.

Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith Director: George Lucas Used by: Edna Camacho

Ms. Camacho has her class watch the full film and pairs the movie with Sophocles’ “Oedipus Rex” to discuss symbolism and the theme of family ties.

Vertigo Director: Alfred Hitchcock Used by: John Golden

Mr. Golden pairs clips from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller with Edgar Allan Poe’s writing to teach students about setting and foreshadowing.

Coverage of leadership, expanded learning time, and arts learning is supported in part by a grant from The Wallace Foundation, at www.wallacefoundation.org . Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage. A version of this article appeared in the August 21, 2013 edition of Education Week as Teachers Look to Film to Foster Critical Thinking

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Best Movies for Critical Thinking: Top Picks to Challenge Your Mind

In today’s fast-paced world, movies have become an essential source of entertainment and learning, providing viewers with thought-provoking stories that challenge their intellect. One of the many subgenres of films that cater to this need is the category of movies for critical thinking. These films captivate audiences by presenting complex narratives that delve into unique philosophical concepts, moral dilemmas, and intricate character developments. A compelling critical thinking movie will often challenge perception and reality, encouraging viewers to reflect on the nature of humanity and the universe.

Such movies encompass a range of genres, from mind-bending dramas to thrilling science fiction. Critical thinking films often explore multi-layered philosophical themes and beliefs, offering distinct perspectives on the human condition and providing valuable insights into how we perceive the world around us. Ultimately, these movies aim to inspire audiences to think critically and question their pre-existing assumptions about life, society, and existence.

Key Takeaways

Critical thinking movies span various genres, offering complex narratives that promote intellectual engagement.
These films often explore philosophical themes and beliefs while challenging common perceptions of reality.
Through captivating stories, critical thinking movies encourage viewers to reflect on their own understanding of humanity and the universe.

Understanding Critical Thinking

Definition and importance.

Critical thinking refers to the ability to analyze information objectively and make a reasoned judgment. It involves evaluating the validity of arguments, identifying biases, and considering different perspectives to make informed decisions. Critical thinking is essential in various areas of life, as it helps individuals to solve problems, make better choices, and foster deeper understanding.

The importance of critical thinking cannot be overstated. It enables critical thinkers to navigate complex situations, think creatively, and approach new challenges with confidence. It equips individuals to discern truth from falsehood, judge the credibility of sources, and differentiate between reliable and misleading information. By fostering critical thinking skills, people become more adept at reasoning, problem solving, and effective communication.

Relation with Movies

Movies can be a potent tool for promoting critical thinking. They offer diverse settings, complex characters, and intricate storylines that stimulate the mind and encourage viewers to engage with thought-provoking content. Many movies drive viewers to analyze the narrative, events, and character motivations, pushing them to exercise their critical thinking abilities.

Films like Inception and A Beautiful Mind challenge viewers to employ critical thinking by exploring complicated storylines and themes. These movies encourage audiences to deconstruct the elements of the plot, evaluate the motivations and actions of characters, and critically assess the impact of choices made within the story. By engaging with complex narratives, viewers develop a deeper understanding of the world portrayed in the film and enhance their own critical thinking skills as they explore various perspectives and theories.

Critical Thinking in Dramas

Forrest gump.

Forrest Gump is a captivating drama that takes viewers on an emotional journey through the life of its titular character, played by Tom Hanks. Set in America, the movie follows Forrest Gump, a man with a low IQ, as he navigates various real-life historical events and situations. Through his innocent yet profound perspective, the film encourages viewers to critically examine themes such as acceptance, loyalty, and appreciation.

The character of Forrest Gump teaches us invaluable lessons about resilience, empathy, and determination, challenging the audience’s critical thinking abilities while presenting a heartfelt story. This thought-provoking movie serves as a right of passage for those seeking a deeper understanding of life’s complexities.

Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting is another remarkable drama that fosters critical thinking. The film revolves around a young, self-taught mathematics prodigy, Will Hunting, portrayed by Matt Damon, who faces the challenges of living in a tough, working-class environment in America. The movie delves into real-life issues of identity, relationships, and personal growth while presenting an enthralling story of brilliance, vulnerability, and human connection.

As the protagonist navigates through the intricacies of life and academia, the audience is encouraged to examine their own understanding of success, potential, and self-worth. Through Will’s journey to confront his past and pursue his extraordinary talent, Good Will Hunting provides an excellent opportunity for viewers to reflect and engage their critical thinking skills.

Exploring Philosophy and Beliefs through Movies

The Matrix is a groundbreaking science fiction film that invites audiences to question their beliefs about reality. The movie centers on the character of Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, who discovers that his entire world is actually a simulated reality called the Matrix. Throughout the film, themes of fate, free will, and the nature of reality are explored in a compelling narrative. As it portrays a world where nothing is what it seems, The Matrix challenges viewers to critically examine their own beliefs and assumptions about the world around them.

The Truman Show

Another film that delves into the world of illusions is The Truman Show . This unique story captures the life of Truman, an unwitting participant in a reality TV show that is, unbeknownst to him, centered around his every move. As Truman starts to unravel the truth about his artificial world, the film delves into philosophical questions about the nature of existence, the role of the media in shaping our perceptions, and the importance of personal freedom. With its thought-provoking concepts, The Truman Show encourages critical thinking in the exploration of reality and the human experience.

Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas is an ambitious film that takes viewers on a whirlwind journey through multiple time periods, exploring the interconnectedness of human lives across time and space. With its complex narrative structure and a wide range of characters, the film delves into themes of reincarnation, interconnectedness, and the impact of individual actions on the greater world. By weaving together seemingly disparate storylines, Cloud Atlas prompts viewers to contemplate the deeper connections that bind humanity together, inviting them to reflect on their own beliefs and philosophies about the nature of existence and the impact of individual choices on the world.

Movies that Challenge Perception and Reality

Inception is a groundbreaking film that delves into the world of dreams and the manipulation of the human mind. Directed by Christopher Nolan, this psychological thriller introduces us to the concept of dream-sharing and dives deep into the complexities of the subconscious. The film follows a group of skilled professionals, led by Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), who specialize in extracting ideas from people’s minds through shared dreaming. Inception challenges our perception of reality in unique ways, pushing the boundaries of film storytelling and leaving viewers questioning the nature of their own dreams and realities.

Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich is a quirky, surreal, and thought-provoking film directed by Spike Jonze. The story centers on a puppeteer, Craig Schwartz (played by John Cusack), who discovers a mysterious portal in his office that allows people to enter the mind of actor John Malkovich. This bizarre premise raises intriguing philosophical questions about identity, ego, and the nature of reality. As the film unfolds, the lines between the real world, the fantasy world, and the life of John Malkovich blur together, challenging our preconceived notions of perception and self-awareness.

Shutter Island

Shutter Island is a suspenseful psychological thriller directed by Martin Scorsese, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane. The film revolves around two U.S. Marshals, Teddy Daniels (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (played by Mark Ruffalo), who are sent to investigate the disappearance of a prisoner from an isolated mental institution on Shutter Island. As they delve deeper into the case, they uncover disturbing truths and confront the terrifying reality that their own sanity is at stake. The film is filled with twists and turns, constantly shifting the viewer’s perception of what is real and what isn’t, while exploring the complexity of human consciousness and the power of the mind.

These movies provide audiences with engaging and fascinating narratives that challenge our grasp on reality and perception. Through their thought-provoking storylines and inventive filmmaking techniques, Inception, Being John Malkovich, and Shutter Island inspire critical thinking and ignite our curiosity about the world around us.

Critical Thinking in Time and Space Movies

Predestination.

Predestination is a fascinating take on time travel, centered on the concept of a temporal agent who tries to prevent crimes before they happen. The movie keeps viewers on their toes, exploring themes of fate, free will, and identity. The protagonist’s journey through various time periods challenges the audience to think critically about the nature of time and the consequences of attempting to control it.

Interstellar

Directed by Christopher Nolan, Interstellar is a thought-provoking space odyssey that plays with complex theories of time, space, and the future of humanity. The plot follows a team of astronauts who travel through a wormhole in search of a new home for humanity as Earth is on the verge of collapse. The movie stretches the boundaries of science fiction with ideas about black holes, time dilation, and artificial intelligence. The viewer is encouraged to think critically about humanity’s role in the cosmos and the potential consequences of tampering with the fabric of time and space.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Regarded as a masterpiece of science fiction, 2001: A Space Odyssey delves deep into themes of human evolution, artificial intelligence, and the search for extraterrestrial life. The movie’s enigmatic presentation of past, present, and future leaves viewers questioning the true nature of reality and human existence. The audience is introduced to HAL 9000, an artificial intelligence system that develops a malfunction with disastrous consequences. This storyline provokes questions about the ethical development and application of AI technology, pushing the viewer to think critically about the relationship between humans and advanced technology.

Movies Encouraging Reflection on Self and Humanity

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a thought-provoking film that delves into the concept of human memory and emotions. Starring Jim Carrey, this movie portrays the desire to erase painful memories in order to move on from a failed relationship. As the story unfolds, it offers a profound look into the soul, highlighting how memories define who we are and help us grow. Viewers are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences and evaluate the importance of embracing both joyful and sorrowful moments in life.

Life of Pi is a visually stunning and deeply contemplative film that centers around a young man named Pi, who finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger following a shipwreck. As he navigates the challenges of survival, the movie delves into themes of spirituality, faith, and the human will to live. The story provides an opportunity for viewers to examine their beliefs, question reality, and consider the role of storytelling in the perception of truth. Through Pi’s journey, Life of Pi offers insights into the complexities of human nature and encourages reflection on the evolution of our convictions and values.

Contagion is a gripping thriller that depicts the spread of a highly contagious and deadly virus. While the primary focus of the movie is on the epidemic and the race to find a cure, it offers a sobering exploration of human behavior in the face of a global crisis. The fear and panic exhibited by characters serve as a reminder of the fragility of society and the importance of cooperation and compassion in times of adversity. Examining the responses of individuals, government agencies, and the media, Contagion triggers discussions on ethics, social responsibility, and the resilience of the human spirit in the midst of chaos.

Critical Thinking in Thriller Movies

Primer is a mind-bending science fiction thriller that leaves viewers questioning the nature of time and the consequences of playing with it. The movie’s complex narrative structure and attention to scientific detail encourage critical thinking in the audience. Directed by Shane Carruth, Primer tells the story of two engineers who accidentally discover time travel and grapple with the ethical implications of their newfound power. The film challenges viewers to think critically about the role that technology plays in our lives, as well as the potential dangers and moral dilemmas associated with scientific advancement.

Memento is another example of a psychological thriller that inspires critical thinking. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film follows the story of Leonard, a man suffering from short-term memory loss, as he tries to unravel the truth about his wife’s murder. The movie is structured in such a way that it mimics Leonard’s disjointed memory, with scenes unfolding in reverse order. This unique storytelling technique engages viewers on a deeper level and promotes critical thinking by forcing them to piece together the narrative on their own. Memento also raises questions about the reliability of memory and the lengths people will go to create a sense of meaning in their lives.

V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta is a thought-provoking thriller that explores themes of political oppression, resistance, and personal freedom. Set in a dystopian future where Britain is ruled by a totalitarian regime, the film follows the mysterious anarchist ‘V’ and his quest to dismantle the fascist government. Directed by James McTeigue and featuring performances from Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman, this movie challenges viewers to critically assess the role of government, the importance of individual liberties, and the true meaning of freedom.

Throughout these thriller films, notable actors such as Hugh Jackman and Brad Pitt have portrayed characters experiencing paranoia and the consequences of difficult choices. Directors like Darren Aronofsky have also contributed to the genre, crafting narratives that leave audiences questioning their understanding of reality and the human psyche. These movies prompt viewers to engage in critical thinking as they navigate intricate plotlines, consider ethical dilemmas, and grapple with philosophical questions.

Appreciating Movies as Art and Stories

Cinema has long been revered as both an art form and a means of storytelling. It provides a unique platform that combines visuals, sound, and narrative to convey powerful messages and evoke emotions. Throughout time, different genres and styles have emerged to challenge audiences’ perspectives, offering thought-provoking experiences.

One exceptional example of artistic storytelling is the film The Lion King . This animated classic transcends its medium by delivering a rich, thought-provoking tale that delves into themes like family, leadership, and the circle of life. The film’s visually stunning animation and evocative score also demonstrate how the art of cinema can elevate a story to new heights.

In recent years, the exploration of artificial intelligence in movies has sparked critical thinking and raised ethical questions. For instance, Ex Machina is a visually captivating and intelligent science fiction film that delves into the complexities of human-like AI. The movie invites viewers to ponder the implications of creating and interacting with such technology, as well as the potential consequences that may arise.

When it comes to appreciating movies as art, the attention to detail in cinematography, sound design, and character development is vital. These elements work cohesively to create an immersive experience that allows the viewer to engage with the story. For instance, beautifully shot landscapes and meticulously curated sets often transport audiences to different worlds, while carefully crafted characters elicit empathy and spark debate.

Moreover, understanding the theme or underlying message of a film further enhances the appreciation of movies as both art and story. These themes can range from societal issues such as poverty or discrimination to existential topics like the value of memories or the nature of time. By paying attention to the intent and vision of the filmmakers, viewers can gain a deeper understanding of the artwork and its significance.

In conclusion, the art of cinema offers a unique platform for telling thought-provoking stories that challenge and inspire the audience. By appreciating the artistic elements and themes present in movies, viewers can engage in critical thinking and find meaning in the stories shared on the big screen. [url=” https://www.theodysseyonline.com/movies-for-critical-thinkers “]

Educational and inspirational movies play a significant role in fostering critical thinking skills among audiences. These films challenge the viewer’s perspectives and encourage them to analyze complex situations or ideas. By stimulating intellectual curiosity, these movies serve as a valuable addition to educational resources.

Inception, for example, is a well-known critical thinking movie that involves puzzling concepts and intricate storytelling. It pushes the viewers to delve deep into their thought process and keep up with the movie’s intricate plot. Another great example is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a romantic science-fiction film that utilizes a nonlinear storyline to promote critical thinking by constantly challenging the viewers’ beliefs.

Empowering movies such as Good Will Hunting and Forrest Gump also instigate critical thinking while evoking themes of acceptance, loyalty, and appreciation. These must-watch critical thinking movies demonstrate the power of human resilience in overcoming personal and societal obstacles.

Finally, the benefits of critical thinking are not restricted to fictional movies alone. Films like Queen of Katwe, based on true stories of perseverance, showcase the value of strategic thinking and problem-solving skills through engaging chess games .

In summary, the captivating world of movies offers a vast array of films that foster critical thinking while providing audiences with thought-provoking and gratifying experiences. Whether they are fictional stories, biographical dramas, or even documentaries, these movies effectively serve as both educational and inspirational resources in today’s world.

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Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a widely accepted educational goal. Its definition is contested, but the competing definitions can be understood as differing conceptions of the same basic concept: careful thinking directed to a goal. Conceptions differ with respect to the scope of such thinking, the type of goal, the criteria and norms for thinking carefully, and the thinking components on which they focus. Its adoption as an educational goal has been recommended on the basis of respect for students’ autonomy and preparing students for success in life and for democratic citizenship. “Critical thinkers” have the dispositions and abilities that lead them to think critically when appropriate. The abilities can be identified directly; the dispositions indirectly, by considering what factors contribute to or impede exercise of the abilities. Standardized tests have been developed to assess the degree to which a person possesses such dispositions and abilities. Educational intervention has been shown experimentally to improve them, particularly when it includes dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring. Controversies have arisen over the generalizability of critical thinking across domains, over alleged bias in critical thinking theories and instruction, and over the relationship of critical thinking to other types of thinking.

2.1 Dewey’s Three Main Examples

2.2 dewey’s other examples, 2.3 further examples, 2.4 non-examples, 3. the definition of critical thinking, 4. its value, 5. the process of thinking critically, 6. components of the process, 7. contributory dispositions and abilities, 8.1 initiating dispositions, 8.2 internal dispositions, 9. critical thinking abilities, 10. required knowledge, 11. educational methods, 12.1 the generalizability of critical thinking, 12.2 bias in critical thinking theory and pedagogy, 12.3 relationship of critical thinking to other types of thinking, other internet resources, related entries.

Use of the term ‘critical thinking’ to describe an educational goal goes back to the American philosopher John Dewey (1910), who more commonly called it ‘reflective thinking’. He defined it as

active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends. (Dewey 1910: 6; 1933: 9)

and identified a habit of such consideration with a scientific attitude of mind. His lengthy quotations of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and John Stuart Mill indicate that he was not the first person to propose development of a scientific attitude of mind as an educational goal.

In the 1930s, many of the schools that participated in the Eight-Year Study of the Progressive Education Association (Aikin 1942) adopted critical thinking as an educational goal, for whose achievement the study’s Evaluation Staff developed tests (Smith, Tyler, & Evaluation Staff 1942). Glaser (1941) showed experimentally that it was possible to improve the critical thinking of high school students. Bloom’s influential taxonomy of cognitive educational objectives (Bloom et al. 1956) incorporated critical thinking abilities. Ennis (1962) proposed 12 aspects of critical thinking as a basis for research on the teaching and evaluation of critical thinking ability.

Since 1980, an annual international conference in California on critical thinking and educational reform has attracted tens of thousands of educators from all levels of education and from many parts of the world. Also since 1980, the state university system in California has required all undergraduate students to take a critical thinking course. Since 1983, the Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking has sponsored sessions in conjunction with the divisional meetings of the American Philosophical Association (APA). In 1987, the APA’s Committee on Pre-College Philosophy commissioned a consensus statement on critical thinking for purposes of educational assessment and instruction (Facione 1990a). Researchers have developed standardized tests of critical thinking abilities and dispositions; for details, see the Supplement on Assessment . Educational jurisdictions around the world now include critical thinking in guidelines for curriculum and assessment.

For details on this history, see the Supplement on History .

2. Examples and Non-Examples

Before considering the definition of critical thinking, it will be helpful to have in mind some examples of critical thinking, as well as some examples of kinds of thinking that would apparently not count as critical thinking.

Dewey (1910: 68–71; 1933: 91–94) takes as paradigms of reflective thinking three class papers of students in which they describe their thinking. The examples range from the everyday to the scientific.

Transit : “The other day, when I was down town on 16th Street, a clock caught my eye. I saw that the hands pointed to 12:20. This suggested that I had an engagement at 124th Street, at one o’clock. I reasoned that as it had taken me an hour to come down on a surface car, I should probably be twenty minutes late if I returned the same way. I might save twenty minutes by a subway express. But was there a station near? If not, I might lose more than twenty minutes in looking for one. Then I thought of the elevated, and I saw there was such a line within two blocks. But where was the station? If it were several blocks above or below the street I was on, I should lose time instead of gaining it. My mind went back to the subway express as quicker than the elevated; furthermore, I remembered that it went nearer than the elevated to the part of 124th Street I wished to reach, so that time would be saved at the end of the journey. I concluded in favor of the subway, and reached my destination by one o’clock.” (Dewey 1910: 68–69; 1933: 91–92)

Ferryboat : “Projecting nearly horizontally from the upper deck of the ferryboat on which I daily cross the river is a long white pole, having a gilded ball at its tip. It suggested a flagpole when I first saw it; its color, shape, and gilded ball agreed with this idea, and these reasons seemed to justify me in this belief. But soon difficulties presented themselves. The pole was nearly horizontal, an unusual position for a flagpole; in the next place, there was no pulley, ring, or cord by which to attach a flag; finally, there were elsewhere on the boat two vertical staffs from which flags were occasionally flown. It seemed probable that the pole was not there for flag-flying.

“I then tried to imagine all possible purposes of the pole, and to consider for which of these it was best suited: (a) Possibly it was an ornament. But as all the ferryboats and even the tugboats carried poles, this hypothesis was rejected. (b) Possibly it was the terminal of a wireless telegraph. But the same considerations made this improbable. Besides, the more natural place for such a terminal would be the highest part of the boat, on top of the pilot house. (c) Its purpose might be to point out the direction in which the boat is moving.

“In support of this conclusion, I discovered that the pole was lower than the pilot house, so that the steersman could easily see it. Moreover, the tip was enough higher than the base, so that, from the pilot’s position, it must appear to project far out in front of the boat. Moreover, the pilot being near the front of the boat, he would need some such guide as to its direction. Tugboats would also need poles for such a purpose. This hypothesis was so much more probable than the others that I accepted it. I formed the conclusion that the pole was set up for the purpose of showing the pilot the direction in which the boat pointed, to enable him to steer correctly.” (Dewey 1910: 69–70; 1933: 92–93)

Bubbles : “In washing tumblers in hot soapsuds and placing them mouth downward on a plate, bubbles appeared on the outside of the mouth of the tumblers and then went inside. Why? The presence of bubbles suggests air, which I note must come from inside the tumbler. I see that the soapy water on the plate prevents escape of the air save as it may be caught in bubbles. But why should air leave the tumbler? There was no substance entering to force it out. It must have expanded. It expands by increase of heat, or by decrease of pressure, or both. Could the air have become heated after the tumbler was taken from the hot suds? Clearly not the air that was already entangled in the water. If heated air was the cause, cold air must have entered in transferring the tumblers from the suds to the plate. I test to see if this supposition is true by taking several more tumblers out. Some I shake so as to make sure of entrapping cold air in them. Some I take out holding mouth downward in order to prevent cold air from entering. Bubbles appear on the outside of every one of the former and on none of the latter. I must be right in my inference. Air from the outside must have been expanded by the heat of the tumbler, which explains the appearance of the bubbles on the outside. But why do they then go inside? Cold contracts. The tumbler cooled and also the air inside it. Tension was removed, and hence bubbles appeared inside. To be sure of this, I test by placing a cup of ice on the tumbler while the bubbles are still forming outside. They soon reverse” (Dewey 1910: 70–71; 1933: 93–94).

Dewey (1910, 1933) sprinkles his book with other examples of critical thinking. We will refer to the following.

Weather : A man on a walk notices that it has suddenly become cool, thinks that it is probably going to rain, looks up and sees a dark cloud obscuring the sun, and quickens his steps (1910: 6–10; 1933: 9–13).

Disorder : A man finds his rooms on his return to them in disorder with his belongings thrown about, thinks at first of burglary as an explanation, then thinks of mischievous children as being an alternative explanation, then looks to see whether valuables are missing, and discovers that they are (1910: 82–83; 1933: 166–168).

Typhoid : A physician diagnosing a patient whose conspicuous symptoms suggest typhoid avoids drawing a conclusion until more data are gathered by questioning the patient and by making tests (1910: 85–86; 1933: 170).

Blur : A moving blur catches our eye in the distance, we ask ourselves whether it is a cloud of whirling dust or a tree moving its branches or a man signaling to us, we think of other traits that should be found on each of those possibilities, and we look and see if those traits are found (1910: 102, 108; 1933: 121, 133).

Suction pump : In thinking about the suction pump, the scientist first notes that it will draw water only to a maximum height of 33 feet at sea level and to a lesser maximum height at higher elevations, selects for attention the differing atmospheric pressure at these elevations, sets up experiments in which the air is removed from a vessel containing water (when suction no longer works) and in which the weight of air at various levels is calculated, compares the results of reasoning about the height to which a given weight of air will allow a suction pump to raise water with the observed maximum height at different elevations, and finally assimilates the suction pump to such apparently different phenomena as the siphon and the rising of a balloon (1910: 150–153; 1933: 195–198).

Diamond : A passenger in a car driving in a diamond lane reserved for vehicles with at least one passenger notices that the diamond marks on the pavement are far apart in some places and close together in others. Why? The driver suggests that the reason may be that the diamond marks are not needed where there is a solid double line separating the diamond lane from the adjoining lane, but are needed when there is a dotted single line permitting crossing into the diamond lane. Further observation confirms that the diamonds are close together when a dotted line separates the diamond lane from its neighbour, but otherwise far apart.

Rash : A woman suddenly develops a very itchy red rash on her throat and upper chest. She recently noticed a mark on the back of her right hand, but was not sure whether the mark was a rash or a scrape. She lies down in bed and thinks about what might be causing the rash and what to do about it. About two weeks before, she began taking blood pressure medication that contained a sulfa drug, and the pharmacist had warned her, in view of a previous allergic reaction to a medication containing a sulfa drug, to be on the alert for an allergic reaction; however, she had been taking the medication for two weeks with no such effect. The day before, she began using a new cream on her neck and upper chest; against the new cream as the cause was mark on the back of her hand, which had not been exposed to the cream. She began taking probiotics about a month before. She also recently started new eye drops, but she supposed that manufacturers of eye drops would be careful not to include allergy-causing components in the medication. The rash might be a heat rash, since she recently was sweating profusely from her upper body. Since she is about to go away on a short vacation, where she would not have access to her usual physician, she decides to keep taking the probiotics and using the new eye drops but to discontinue the blood pressure medication and to switch back to the old cream for her neck and upper chest. She forms a plan to consult her regular physician on her return about the blood pressure medication.

Candidate : Although Dewey included no examples of thinking directed at appraising the arguments of others, such thinking has come to be considered a kind of critical thinking. We find an example of such thinking in the performance task on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+), which its sponsoring organization describes as

a performance-based assessment that provides a measure of an institution’s contribution to the development of critical-thinking and written communication skills of its students. (Council for Aid to Education 2017)

A sample task posted on its website requires the test-taker to write a report for public distribution evaluating a fictional candidate’s policy proposals and their supporting arguments, using supplied background documents, with a recommendation on whether to endorse the candidate.

Immediate acceptance of an idea that suggests itself as a solution to a problem (e.g., a possible explanation of an event or phenomenon, an action that seems likely to produce a desired result) is “uncritical thinking, the minimum of reflection” (Dewey 1910: 13). On-going suspension of judgment in the light of doubt about a possible solution is not critical thinking (Dewey 1910: 108). Critique driven by a dogmatically held political or religious ideology is not critical thinking; thus Paulo Freire (1968 [1970]) is using the term (e.g., at 1970: 71, 81, 100, 146) in a more politically freighted sense that includes not only reflection but also revolutionary action against oppression. Derivation of a conclusion from given data using an algorithm is not critical thinking.

What is critical thinking? There are many definitions. Ennis (2016) lists 14 philosophically oriented scholarly definitions and three dictionary definitions. Following Rawls (1971), who distinguished his conception of justice from a utilitarian conception but regarded them as rival conceptions of the same concept, Ennis maintains that the 17 definitions are different conceptions of the same concept. Rawls articulated the shared concept of justice as

a characteristic set of principles for assigning basic rights and duties and for determining… the proper distribution of the benefits and burdens of social cooperation. (Rawls 1971: 5)

Bailin et al. (1999b) claim that, if one considers what sorts of thinking an educator would take not to be critical thinking and what sorts to be critical thinking, one can conclude that educators typically understand critical thinking to have at least three features.

It is done for the purpose of making up one’s mind about what to believe or do.
The person engaging in the thinking is trying to fulfill standards of adequacy and accuracy appropriate to the thinking.
The thinking fulfills the relevant standards to some threshold level.

One could sum up the core concept that involves these three features by saying that critical thinking is careful goal-directed thinking. This core concept seems to apply to all the examples of critical thinking described in the previous section. As for the non-examples, their exclusion depends on construing careful thinking as excluding jumping immediately to conclusions, suspending judgment no matter how strong the evidence, reasoning from an unquestioned ideological or religious perspective, and routinely using an algorithm to answer a question.

If the core of critical thinking is careful goal-directed thinking, conceptions of it can vary according to its presumed scope, its presumed goal, one’s criteria and threshold for being careful, and the thinking component on which one focuses. As to its scope, some conceptions (e.g., Dewey 1910, 1933) restrict it to constructive thinking on the basis of one’s own observations and experiments, others (e.g., Ennis 1962; Fisher & Scriven 1997; Johnson 1992) to appraisal of the products of such thinking. Ennis (1991) and Bailin et al. (1999b) take it to cover both construction and appraisal. As to its goal, some conceptions restrict it to forming a judgment (Dewey 1910, 1933; Lipman 1987; Facione 1990a). Others allow for actions as well as beliefs as the end point of a process of critical thinking (Ennis 1991; Bailin et al. 1999b). As to the criteria and threshold for being careful, definitions vary in the term used to indicate that critical thinking satisfies certain norms: “intellectually disciplined” (Scriven & Paul 1987), “reasonable” (Ennis 1991), “skillful” (Lipman 1987), “skilled” (Fisher & Scriven 1997), “careful” (Bailin & Battersby 2009). Some definitions specify these norms, referring variously to “consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends” (Dewey 1910, 1933); “the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning” (Glaser 1941); “conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication” (Scriven & Paul 1987); the requirement that “it is sensitive to context, relies on criteria, and is self-correcting” (Lipman 1987); “evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations” (Facione 1990a); and “plus-minus considerations of the product in terms of appropriate standards (or criteria)” (Johnson 1992). Stanovich and Stanovich (2010) propose to ground the concept of critical thinking in the concept of rationality, which they understand as combining epistemic rationality (fitting one’s beliefs to the world) and instrumental rationality (optimizing goal fulfillment); a critical thinker, in their view, is someone with “a propensity to override suboptimal responses from the autonomous mind” (2010: 227). These variant specifications of norms for critical thinking are not necessarily incompatible with one another, and in any case presuppose the core notion of thinking carefully. As to the thinking component singled out, some definitions focus on suspension of judgment during the thinking (Dewey 1910; McPeck 1981), others on inquiry while judgment is suspended (Bailin & Battersby 2009, 2021), others on the resulting judgment (Facione 1990a), and still others on responsiveness to reasons (Siegel 1988). Kuhn (2019) takes critical thinking to be more a dialogic practice of advancing and responding to arguments than an individual ability.

In educational contexts, a definition of critical thinking is a “programmatic definition” (Scheffler 1960: 19). It expresses a practical program for achieving an educational goal. For this purpose, a one-sentence formulaic definition is much less useful than articulation of a critical thinking process, with criteria and standards for the kinds of thinking that the process may involve. The real educational goal is recognition, adoption and implementation by students of those criteria and standards. That adoption and implementation in turn consists in acquiring the knowledge, abilities and dispositions of a critical thinker.

Conceptions of critical thinking generally do not include moral integrity as part of the concept. Dewey, for example, took critical thinking to be the ultimate intellectual goal of education, but distinguished it from the development of social cooperation among school children, which he took to be the central moral goal. Ennis (1996, 2011) added to his previous list of critical thinking dispositions a group of dispositions to care about the dignity and worth of every person, which he described as a “correlative” (1996) disposition without which critical thinking would be less valuable and perhaps harmful. An educational program that aimed at developing critical thinking but not the correlative disposition to care about the dignity and worth of every person, he asserted, “would be deficient and perhaps dangerous” (Ennis 1996: 172).

Dewey thought that education for reflective thinking would be of value to both the individual and society; recognition in educational practice of the kinship to the scientific attitude of children’s native curiosity, fertile imagination and love of experimental inquiry “would make for individual happiness and the reduction of social waste” (Dewey 1910: iii). Schools participating in the Eight-Year Study took development of the habit of reflective thinking and skill in solving problems as a means to leading young people to understand, appreciate and live the democratic way of life characteristic of the United States (Aikin 1942: 17–18, 81). Harvey Siegel (1988: 55–61) has offered four considerations in support of adopting critical thinking as an educational ideal. (1) Respect for persons requires that schools and teachers honour students’ demands for reasons and explanations, deal with students honestly, and recognize the need to confront students’ independent judgment; these requirements concern the manner in which teachers treat students. (2) Education has the task of preparing children to be successful adults, a task that requires development of their self-sufficiency. (3) Education should initiate children into the rational traditions in such fields as history, science and mathematics. (4) Education should prepare children to become democratic citizens, which requires reasoned procedures and critical talents and attitudes. To supplement these considerations, Siegel (1988: 62–90) responds to two objections: the ideology objection that adoption of any educational ideal requires a prior ideological commitment and the indoctrination objection that cultivation of critical thinking cannot escape being a form of indoctrination.

Despite the diversity of our 11 examples, one can recognize a common pattern. Dewey analyzed it as consisting of five phases:

suggestions , in which the mind leaps forward to a possible solution;
an intellectualization of the difficulty or perplexity into a problem to be solved, a question for which the answer must be sought;
the use of one suggestion after another as a leading idea, or hypothesis , to initiate and guide observation and other operations in collection of factual material;
the mental elaboration of the idea or supposition as an idea or supposition ( reasoning , in the sense on which reasoning is a part, not the whole, of inference); and
testing the hypothesis by overt or imaginative action. (Dewey 1933: 106–107; italics in original)

The process of reflective thinking consisting of these phases would be preceded by a perplexed, troubled or confused situation and followed by a cleared-up, unified, resolved situation (Dewey 1933: 106). The term ‘phases’ replaced the term ‘steps’ (Dewey 1910: 72), thus removing the earlier suggestion of an invariant sequence. Variants of the above analysis appeared in (Dewey 1916: 177) and (Dewey 1938: 101–119).

The variant formulations indicate the difficulty of giving a single logical analysis of such a varied process. The process of critical thinking may have a spiral pattern, with the problem being redefined in the light of obstacles to solving it as originally formulated. For example, the person in Transit might have concluded that getting to the appointment at the scheduled time was impossible and have reformulated the problem as that of rescheduling the appointment for a mutually convenient time. Further, defining a problem does not always follow after or lead immediately to an idea of a suggested solution. Nor should it do so, as Dewey himself recognized in describing the physician in Typhoid as avoiding any strong preference for this or that conclusion before getting further information (Dewey 1910: 85; 1933: 170). People with a hypothesis in mind, even one to which they have a very weak commitment, have a so-called “confirmation bias” (Nickerson 1998): they are likely to pay attention to evidence that confirms the hypothesis and to ignore evidence that counts against it or for some competing hypothesis. Detectives, intelligence agencies, and investigators of airplane accidents are well advised to gather relevant evidence systematically and to postpone even tentative adoption of an explanatory hypothesis until the collected evidence rules out with the appropriate degree of certainty all but one explanation. Dewey’s analysis of the critical thinking process can be faulted as well for requiring acceptance or rejection of a possible solution to a defined problem, with no allowance for deciding in the light of the available evidence to suspend judgment. Further, given the great variety of kinds of problems for which reflection is appropriate, there is likely to be variation in its component events. Perhaps the best way to conceptualize the critical thinking process is as a checklist whose component events can occur in a variety of orders, selectively, and more than once. These component events might include (1) noticing a difficulty, (2) defining the problem, (3) dividing the problem into manageable sub-problems, (4) formulating a variety of possible solutions to the problem or sub-problem, (5) determining what evidence is relevant to deciding among possible solutions to the problem or sub-problem, (6) devising a plan of systematic observation or experiment that will uncover the relevant evidence, (7) carrying out the plan of systematic observation or experimentation, (8) noting the results of the systematic observation or experiment, (9) gathering relevant testimony and information from others, (10) judging the credibility of testimony and information gathered from others, (11) drawing conclusions from gathered evidence and accepted testimony, and (12) accepting a solution that the evidence adequately supports (cf. Hitchcock 2017: 485).

Checklist conceptions of the process of critical thinking are open to the objection that they are too mechanical and procedural to fit the multi-dimensional and emotionally charged issues for which critical thinking is urgently needed (Paul 1984). For such issues, a more dialectical process is advocated, in which competing relevant world views are identified, their implications explored, and some sort of creative synthesis attempted.

If one considers the critical thinking process illustrated by the 11 examples, one can identify distinct kinds of mental acts and mental states that form part of it. To distinguish, label and briefly characterize these components is a useful preliminary to identifying abilities, skills, dispositions, attitudes, habits and the like that contribute causally to thinking critically. Identifying such abilities and habits is in turn a useful preliminary to setting educational goals. Setting the goals is in its turn a useful preliminary to designing strategies for helping learners to achieve the goals and to designing ways of measuring the extent to which learners have done so. Such measures provide both feedback to learners on their achievement and a basis for experimental research on the effectiveness of various strategies for educating people to think critically. Let us begin, then, by distinguishing the kinds of mental acts and mental events that can occur in a critical thinking process.

Observing : One notices something in one’s immediate environment (sudden cooling of temperature in Weather , bubbles forming outside a glass and then going inside in Bubbles , a moving blur in the distance in Blur , a rash in Rash ). Or one notes the results of an experiment or systematic observation (valuables missing in Disorder , no suction without air pressure in Suction pump )
Feeling : One feels puzzled or uncertain about something (how to get to an appointment on time in Transit , why the diamonds vary in spacing in Diamond ). One wants to resolve this perplexity. One feels satisfaction once one has worked out an answer (to take the subway express in Transit , diamonds closer when needed as a warning in Diamond ).
Wondering : One formulates a question to be addressed (why bubbles form outside a tumbler taken from hot water in Bubbles , how suction pumps work in Suction pump , what caused the rash in Rash ).
Imagining : One thinks of possible answers (bus or subway or elevated in Transit , flagpole or ornament or wireless communication aid or direction indicator in Ferryboat , allergic reaction or heat rash in Rash ).
Inferring : One works out what would be the case if a possible answer were assumed (valuables missing if there has been a burglary in Disorder , earlier start to the rash if it is an allergic reaction to a sulfa drug in Rash ). Or one draws a conclusion once sufficient relevant evidence is gathered (take the subway in Transit , burglary in Disorder , discontinue blood pressure medication and new cream in Rash ).
Knowledge : One uses stored knowledge of the subject-matter to generate possible answers or to infer what would be expected on the assumption of a particular answer (knowledge of a city’s public transit system in Transit , of the requirements for a flagpole in Ferryboat , of Boyle’s law in Bubbles , of allergic reactions in Rash ).
Experimenting : One designs and carries out an experiment or a systematic observation to find out whether the results deduced from a possible answer will occur (looking at the location of the flagpole in relation to the pilot’s position in Ferryboat , putting an ice cube on top of a tumbler taken from hot water in Bubbles , measuring the height to which a suction pump will draw water at different elevations in Suction pump , noticing the spacing of diamonds when movement to or from a diamond lane is allowed in Diamond ).
Consulting : One finds a source of information, gets the information from the source, and makes a judgment on whether to accept it. None of our 11 examples include searching for sources of information. In this respect they are unrepresentative, since most people nowadays have almost instant access to information relevant to answering any question, including many of those illustrated by the examples. However, Candidate includes the activities of extracting information from sources and evaluating its credibility.
Identifying and analyzing arguments : One notices an argument and works out its structure and content as a preliminary to evaluating its strength. This activity is central to Candidate . It is an important part of a critical thinking process in which one surveys arguments for various positions on an issue.
Judging : One makes a judgment on the basis of accumulated evidence and reasoning, such as the judgment in Ferryboat that the purpose of the pole is to provide direction to the pilot.
Deciding : One makes a decision on what to do or on what policy to adopt, as in the decision in Transit to take the subway.

By definition, a person who does something voluntarily is both willing and able to do that thing at that time. Both the willingness and the ability contribute causally to the person’s action, in the sense that the voluntary action would not occur if either (or both) of these were lacking. For example, suppose that one is standing with one’s arms at one’s sides and one voluntarily lifts one’s right arm to an extended horizontal position. One would not do so if one were unable to lift one’s arm, if for example one’s right side was paralyzed as the result of a stroke. Nor would one do so if one were unwilling to lift one’s arm, if for example one were participating in a street demonstration at which a white supremacist was urging the crowd to lift their right arm in a Nazi salute and one were unwilling to express support in this way for the racist Nazi ideology. The same analysis applies to a voluntary mental process of thinking critically. It requires both willingness and ability to think critically, including willingness and ability to perform each of the mental acts that compose the process and to coordinate those acts in a sequence that is directed at resolving the initiating perplexity.

Consider willingness first. We can identify causal contributors to willingness to think critically by considering factors that would cause a person who was able to think critically about an issue nevertheless not to do so (Hamby 2014). For each factor, the opposite condition thus contributes causally to willingness to think critically on a particular occasion. For example, people who habitually jump to conclusions without considering alternatives will not think critically about issues that arise, even if they have the required abilities. The contrary condition of willingness to suspend judgment is thus a causal contributor to thinking critically.

Now consider ability. In contrast to the ability to move one’s arm, which can be completely absent because a stroke has left the arm paralyzed, the ability to think critically is a developed ability, whose absence is not a complete absence of ability to think but absence of ability to think well. We can identify the ability to think well directly, in terms of the norms and standards for good thinking. In general, to be able do well the thinking activities that can be components of a critical thinking process, one needs to know the concepts and principles that characterize their good performance, to recognize in particular cases that the concepts and principles apply, and to apply them. The knowledge, recognition and application may be procedural rather than declarative. It may be domain-specific rather than widely applicable, and in either case may need subject-matter knowledge, sometimes of a deep kind.

Reflections of the sort illustrated by the previous two paragraphs have led scholars to identify the knowledge, abilities and dispositions of a “critical thinker”, i.e., someone who thinks critically whenever it is appropriate to do so. We turn now to these three types of causal contributors to thinking critically. We start with dispositions, since arguably these are the most powerful contributors to being a critical thinker, can be fostered at an early stage of a child’s development, and are susceptible to general improvement (Glaser 1941: 175)

8. Critical Thinking Dispositions

Educational researchers use the term ‘dispositions’ broadly for the habits of mind and attitudes that contribute causally to being a critical thinker. Some writers (e.g., Paul & Elder 2006; Hamby 2014; Bailin & Battersby 2016a) propose to use the term ‘virtues’ for this dimension of a critical thinker. The virtues in question, although they are virtues of character, concern the person’s ways of thinking rather than the person’s ways of behaving towards others. They are not moral virtues but intellectual virtues, of the sort articulated by Zagzebski (1996) and discussed by Turri, Alfano, and Greco (2017).

On a realistic conception, thinking dispositions or intellectual virtues are real properties of thinkers. They are general tendencies, propensities, or inclinations to think in particular ways in particular circumstances, and can be genuinely explanatory (Siegel 1999). Sceptics argue that there is no evidence for a specific mental basis for the habits of mind that contribute to thinking critically, and that it is pedagogically misleading to posit such a basis (Bailin et al. 1999a). Whatever their status, critical thinking dispositions need motivation for their initial formation in a child—motivation that may be external or internal. As children develop, the force of habit will gradually become important in sustaining the disposition (Nieto & Valenzuela 2012). Mere force of habit, however, is unlikely to sustain critical thinking dispositions. Critical thinkers must value and enjoy using their knowledge and abilities to think things through for themselves. They must be committed to, and lovers of, inquiry.

A person may have a critical thinking disposition with respect to only some kinds of issues. For example, one could be open-minded about scientific issues but not about religious issues. Similarly, one could be confident in one’s ability to reason about the theological implications of the existence of evil in the world but not in one’s ability to reason about the best design for a guided ballistic missile.

Facione (1990a: 25) divides “affective dispositions” of critical thinking into approaches to life and living in general and approaches to specific issues, questions or problems. Adapting this distinction, one can usefully divide critical thinking dispositions into initiating dispositions (those that contribute causally to starting to think critically about an issue) and internal dispositions (those that contribute causally to doing a good job of thinking critically once one has started). The two categories are not mutually exclusive. For example, open-mindedness, in the sense of willingness to consider alternative points of view to one’s own, is both an initiating and an internal disposition.

Using the strategy of considering factors that would block people with the ability to think critically from doing so, we can identify as initiating dispositions for thinking critically attentiveness, a habit of inquiry, self-confidence, courage, open-mindedness, willingness to suspend judgment, trust in reason, wanting evidence for one’s beliefs, and seeking the truth. We consider briefly what each of these dispositions amounts to, in each case citing sources that acknowledge them.

Attentiveness : One will not think critically if one fails to recognize an issue that needs to be thought through. For example, the pedestrian in Weather would not have looked up if he had not noticed that the air was suddenly cooler. To be a critical thinker, then, one needs to be habitually attentive to one’s surroundings, noticing not only what one senses but also sources of perplexity in messages received and in one’s own beliefs and attitudes (Facione 1990a: 25; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001).
Habit of inquiry : Inquiry is effortful, and one needs an internal push to engage in it. For example, the student in Bubbles could easily have stopped at idle wondering about the cause of the bubbles rather than reasoning to a hypothesis, then designing and executing an experiment to test it. Thus willingness to think critically needs mental energy and initiative. What can supply that energy? Love of inquiry, or perhaps just a habit of inquiry. Hamby (2015) has argued that willingness to inquire is the central critical thinking virtue, one that encompasses all the others. It is recognized as a critical thinking disposition by Dewey (1910: 29; 1933: 35), Glaser (1941: 5), Ennis (1987: 12; 1991: 8), Facione (1990a: 25), Bailin et al. (1999b: 294), Halpern (1998: 452), and Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo (2001).
Self-confidence : Lack of confidence in one’s abilities can block critical thinking. For example, if the woman in Rash lacked confidence in her ability to figure things out for herself, she might just have assumed that the rash on her chest was the allergic reaction to her medication against which the pharmacist had warned her. Thus willingness to think critically requires confidence in one’s ability to inquire (Facione 1990a: 25; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001).
Courage : Fear of thinking for oneself can stop one from doing it. Thus willingness to think critically requires intellectual courage (Paul & Elder 2006: 16).
Open-mindedness : A dogmatic attitude will impede thinking critically. For example, a person who adheres rigidly to a “pro-choice” position on the issue of the legal status of induced abortion is likely to be unwilling to consider seriously the issue of when in its development an unborn child acquires a moral right to life. Thus willingness to think critically requires open-mindedness, in the sense of a willingness to examine questions to which one already accepts an answer but which further evidence or reasoning might cause one to answer differently (Dewey 1933; Facione 1990a; Ennis 1991; Bailin et al. 1999b; Halpern 1998, Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001). Paul (1981) emphasizes open-mindedness about alternative world-views, and recommends a dialectical approach to integrating such views as central to what he calls “strong sense” critical thinking. In three studies, Haran, Ritov, & Mellers (2013) found that actively open-minded thinking, including “the tendency to weigh new evidence against a favored belief, to spend sufficient time on a problem before giving up, and to consider carefully the opinions of others in forming one’s own”, led study participants to acquire information and thus to make accurate estimations.
Willingness to suspend judgment : Premature closure on an initial solution will block critical thinking. Thus willingness to think critically requires a willingness to suspend judgment while alternatives are explored (Facione 1990a; Ennis 1991; Halpern 1998).
Trust in reason : Since distrust in the processes of reasoned inquiry will dissuade one from engaging in it, trust in them is an initiating critical thinking disposition (Facione 1990a, 25; Bailin et al. 1999b: 294; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001; Paul & Elder 2006). In reaction to an allegedly exclusive emphasis on reason in critical thinking theory and pedagogy, Thayer-Bacon (2000) argues that intuition, imagination, and emotion have important roles to play in an adequate conception of critical thinking that she calls “constructive thinking”. From her point of view, critical thinking requires trust not only in reason but also in intuition, imagination, and emotion.
Seeking the truth : If one does not care about the truth but is content to stick with one’s initial bias on an issue, then one will not think critically about it. Seeking the truth is thus an initiating critical thinking disposition (Bailin et al. 1999b: 294; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001). A disposition to seek the truth is implicit in more specific critical thinking dispositions, such as trying to be well-informed, considering seriously points of view other than one’s own, looking for alternatives, suspending judgment when the evidence is insufficient, and adopting a position when the evidence supporting it is sufficient.

Some of the initiating dispositions, such as open-mindedness and willingness to suspend judgment, are also internal critical thinking dispositions, in the sense of mental habits or attitudes that contribute causally to doing a good job of critical thinking once one starts the process. But there are many other internal critical thinking dispositions. Some of them are parasitic on one’s conception of good thinking. For example, it is constitutive of good thinking about an issue to formulate the issue clearly and to maintain focus on it. For this purpose, one needs not only the corresponding ability but also the corresponding disposition. Ennis (1991: 8) describes it as the disposition “to determine and maintain focus on the conclusion or question”, Facione (1990a: 25) as “clarity in stating the question or concern”. Other internal dispositions are motivators to continue or adjust the critical thinking process, such as willingness to persist in a complex task and willingness to abandon nonproductive strategies in an attempt to self-correct (Halpern 1998: 452). For a list of identified internal critical thinking dispositions, see the Supplement on Internal Critical Thinking Dispositions .

Some theorists postulate skills, i.e., acquired abilities, as operative in critical thinking. It is not obvious, however, that a good mental act is the exercise of a generic acquired skill. Inferring an expected time of arrival, as in Transit , has some generic components but also uses non-generic subject-matter knowledge. Bailin et al. (1999a) argue against viewing critical thinking skills as generic and discrete, on the ground that skilled performance at a critical thinking task cannot be separated from knowledge of concepts and from domain-specific principles of good thinking. Talk of skills, they concede, is unproblematic if it means merely that a person with critical thinking skills is capable of intelligent performance.

Despite such scepticism, theorists of critical thinking have listed as general contributors to critical thinking what they variously call abilities (Glaser 1941; Ennis 1962, 1991), skills (Facione 1990a; Halpern 1998) or competencies (Fisher & Scriven 1997). Amalgamating these lists would produce a confusing and chaotic cornucopia of more than 50 possible educational objectives, with only partial overlap among them. It makes sense instead to try to understand the reasons for the multiplicity and diversity, and to make a selection according to one’s own reasons for singling out abilities to be developed in a critical thinking curriculum. Two reasons for diversity among lists of critical thinking abilities are the underlying conception of critical thinking and the envisaged educational level. Appraisal-only conceptions, for example, involve a different suite of abilities than constructive-only conceptions. Some lists, such as those in (Glaser 1941), are put forward as educational objectives for secondary school students, whereas others are proposed as objectives for college students (e.g., Facione 1990a).

The abilities described in the remaining paragraphs of this section emerge from reflection on the general abilities needed to do well the thinking activities identified in section 6 as components of the critical thinking process described in section 5 . The derivation of each collection of abilities is accompanied by citation of sources that list such abilities and of standardized tests that claim to test them.

Observational abilities : Careful and accurate observation sometimes requires specialist expertise and practice, as in the case of observing birds and observing accident scenes. However, there are general abilities of noticing what one’s senses are picking up from one’s environment and of being able to articulate clearly and accurately to oneself and others what one has observed. It helps in exercising them to be able to recognize and take into account factors that make one’s observation less trustworthy, such as prior framing of the situation, inadequate time, deficient senses, poor observation conditions, and the like. It helps as well to be skilled at taking steps to make one’s observation more trustworthy, such as moving closer to get a better look, measuring something three times and taking the average, and checking what one thinks one is observing with someone else who is in a good position to observe it. It also helps to be skilled at recognizing respects in which one’s report of one’s observation involves inference rather than direct observation, so that one can then consider whether the inference is justified. These abilities come into play as well when one thinks about whether and with what degree of confidence to accept an observation report, for example in the study of history or in a criminal investigation or in assessing news reports. Observational abilities show up in some lists of critical thinking abilities (Ennis 1962: 90; Facione 1990a: 16; Ennis 1991: 9). There are items testing a person’s ability to judge the credibility of observation reports in the Cornell Critical Thinking Tests, Levels X and Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005). Norris and King (1983, 1985, 1990a, 1990b) is a test of ability to appraise observation reports.

Emotional abilities : The emotions that drive a critical thinking process are perplexity or puzzlement, a wish to resolve it, and satisfaction at achieving the desired resolution. Children experience these emotions at an early age, without being trained to do so. Education that takes critical thinking as a goal needs only to channel these emotions and to make sure not to stifle them. Collaborative critical thinking benefits from ability to recognize one’s own and others’ emotional commitments and reactions.

Questioning abilities : A critical thinking process needs transformation of an inchoate sense of perplexity into a clear question. Formulating a question well requires not building in questionable assumptions, not prejudging the issue, and using language that in context is unambiguous and precise enough (Ennis 1962: 97; 1991: 9).

Imaginative abilities : Thinking directed at finding the correct causal explanation of a general phenomenon or particular event requires an ability to imagine possible explanations. Thinking about what policy or plan of action to adopt requires generation of options and consideration of possible consequences of each option. Domain knowledge is required for such creative activity, but a general ability to imagine alternatives is helpful and can be nurtured so as to become easier, quicker, more extensive, and deeper (Dewey 1910: 34–39; 1933: 40–47). Facione (1990a) and Halpern (1998) include the ability to imagine alternatives as a critical thinking ability.

Inferential abilities : The ability to draw conclusions from given information, and to recognize with what degree of certainty one’s own or others’ conclusions follow, is universally recognized as a general critical thinking ability. All 11 examples in section 2 of this article include inferences, some from hypotheses or options (as in Transit , Ferryboat and Disorder ), others from something observed (as in Weather and Rash ). None of these inferences is formally valid. Rather, they are licensed by general, sometimes qualified substantive rules of inference (Toulmin 1958) that rest on domain knowledge—that a bus trip takes about the same time in each direction, that the terminal of a wireless telegraph would be located on the highest possible place, that sudden cooling is often followed by rain, that an allergic reaction to a sulfa drug generally shows up soon after one starts taking it. It is a matter of controversy to what extent the specialized ability to deduce conclusions from premisses using formal rules of inference is needed for critical thinking. Dewey (1933) locates logical forms in setting out the products of reflection rather than in the process of reflection. Ennis (1981a), on the other hand, maintains that a liberally-educated person should have the following abilities: to translate natural-language statements into statements using the standard logical operators, to use appropriately the language of necessary and sufficient conditions, to deal with argument forms and arguments containing symbols, to determine whether in virtue of an argument’s form its conclusion follows necessarily from its premisses, to reason with logically complex propositions, and to apply the rules and procedures of deductive logic. Inferential abilities are recognized as critical thinking abilities by Glaser (1941: 6), Facione (1990a: 9), Ennis (1991: 9), Fisher & Scriven (1997: 99, 111), and Halpern (1998: 452). Items testing inferential abilities constitute two of the five subtests of the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (Watson & Glaser 1980a, 1980b, 1994), two of the four sections in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005), three of the seven sections in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005), 11 of the 34 items on Forms A and B of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Facione 1990b, 1992), and a high but variable proportion of the 25 selected-response questions in the Collegiate Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017).

Experimenting abilities : Knowing how to design and execute an experiment is important not just in scientific research but also in everyday life, as in Rash . Dewey devoted a whole chapter of his How We Think (1910: 145–156; 1933: 190–202) to the superiority of experimentation over observation in advancing knowledge. Experimenting abilities come into play at one remove in appraising reports of scientific studies. Skill in designing and executing experiments includes the acknowledged abilities to appraise evidence (Glaser 1941: 6), to carry out experiments and to apply appropriate statistical inference techniques (Facione 1990a: 9), to judge inductions to an explanatory hypothesis (Ennis 1991: 9), and to recognize the need for an adequately large sample size (Halpern 1998). The Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005) includes four items (out of 52) on experimental design. The Collegiate Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017) makes room for appraisal of study design in both its performance task and its selected-response questions.

Consulting abilities : Skill at consulting sources of information comes into play when one seeks information to help resolve a problem, as in Candidate . Ability to find and appraise information includes ability to gather and marshal pertinent information (Glaser 1941: 6), to judge whether a statement made by an alleged authority is acceptable (Ennis 1962: 84), to plan a search for desired information (Facione 1990a: 9), and to judge the credibility of a source (Ennis 1991: 9). Ability to judge the credibility of statements is tested by 24 items (out of 76) in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005) and by four items (out of 52) in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005). The College Learning Assessment’s performance task requires evaluation of whether information in documents is credible or unreliable (Council for Aid to Education 2017).

Argument analysis abilities : The ability to identify and analyze arguments contributes to the process of surveying arguments on an issue in order to form one’s own reasoned judgment, as in Candidate . The ability to detect and analyze arguments is recognized as a critical thinking skill by Facione (1990a: 7–8), Ennis (1991: 9) and Halpern (1998). Five items (out of 34) on the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Facione 1990b, 1992) test skill at argument analysis. The College Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017) incorporates argument analysis in its selected-response tests of critical reading and evaluation and of critiquing an argument.

Judging skills and deciding skills : Skill at judging and deciding is skill at recognizing what judgment or decision the available evidence and argument supports, and with what degree of confidence. It is thus a component of the inferential skills already discussed.

Lists and tests of critical thinking abilities often include two more abilities: identifying assumptions and constructing and evaluating definitions.

In addition to dispositions and abilities, critical thinking needs knowledge: of critical thinking concepts, of critical thinking principles, and of the subject-matter of the thinking.

We can derive a short list of concepts whose understanding contributes to critical thinking from the critical thinking abilities described in the preceding section. Observational abilities require an understanding of the difference between observation and inference. Questioning abilities require an understanding of the concepts of ambiguity and vagueness. Inferential abilities require an understanding of the difference between conclusive and defeasible inference (traditionally, between deduction and induction), as well as of the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions. Experimenting abilities require an understanding of the concepts of hypothesis, null hypothesis, assumption and prediction, as well as of the concept of statistical significance and of its difference from importance. They also require an understanding of the difference between an experiment and an observational study, and in particular of the difference between a randomized controlled trial, a prospective correlational study and a retrospective (case-control) study. Argument analysis abilities require an understanding of the concepts of argument, premiss, assumption, conclusion and counter-consideration. Additional critical thinking concepts are proposed by Bailin et al. (1999b: 293), Fisher & Scriven (1997: 105–106), Black (2012), and Blair (2021).

According to Glaser (1941: 25), ability to think critically requires knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning. If we review the list of abilities in the preceding section, however, we can see that some of them can be acquired and exercised merely through practice, possibly guided in an educational setting, followed by feedback. Searching intelligently for a causal explanation of some phenomenon or event requires that one consider a full range of possible causal contributors, but it seems more important that one implements this principle in one’s practice than that one is able to articulate it. What is important is “operational knowledge” of the standards and principles of good thinking (Bailin et al. 1999b: 291–293). But the development of such critical thinking abilities as designing an experiment or constructing an operational definition can benefit from learning their underlying theory. Further, explicit knowledge of quirks of human thinking seems useful as a cautionary guide. Human memory is not just fallible about details, as people learn from their own experiences of misremembering, but is so malleable that a detailed, clear and vivid recollection of an event can be a total fabrication (Loftus 2017). People seek or interpret evidence in ways that are partial to their existing beliefs and expectations, often unconscious of their “confirmation bias” (Nickerson 1998). Not only are people subject to this and other cognitive biases (Kahneman 2011), of which they are typically unaware, but it may be counter-productive for one to make oneself aware of them and try consciously to counteract them or to counteract social biases such as racial or sexual stereotypes (Kenyon & Beaulac 2014). It is helpful to be aware of these facts and of the superior effectiveness of blocking the operation of biases—for example, by making an immediate record of one’s observations, refraining from forming a preliminary explanatory hypothesis, blind refereeing, double-blind randomized trials, and blind grading of students’ work. It is also helpful to be aware of the prevalence of “noise” (unwanted unsystematic variability of judgments), of how to detect noise (through a noise audit), and of how to reduce noise: make accuracy the goal, think statistically, break a process of arriving at a judgment into independent tasks, resist premature intuitions, in a group get independent judgments first, favour comparative judgments and scales (Kahneman, Sibony, & Sunstein 2021). It is helpful as well to be aware of the concept of “bounded rationality” in decision-making and of the related distinction between “satisficing” and optimizing (Simon 1956; Gigerenzer 2001).

Critical thinking about an issue requires substantive knowledge of the domain to which the issue belongs. Critical thinking abilities are not a magic elixir that can be applied to any issue whatever by somebody who has no knowledge of the facts relevant to exploring that issue. For example, the student in Bubbles needed to know that gases do not penetrate solid objects like a glass, that air expands when heated, that the volume of an enclosed gas varies directly with its temperature and inversely with its pressure, and that hot objects will spontaneously cool down to the ambient temperature of their surroundings unless kept hot by insulation or a source of heat. Critical thinkers thus need a rich fund of subject-matter knowledge relevant to the variety of situations they encounter. This fact is recognized in the inclusion among critical thinking dispositions of a concern to become and remain generally well informed.

Experimental educational interventions, with control groups, have shown that education can improve critical thinking skills and dispositions, as measured by standardized tests. For information about these tests, see the Supplement on Assessment .

What educational methods are most effective at developing the dispositions, abilities and knowledge of a critical thinker? In a comprehensive meta-analysis of experimental and quasi-experimental studies of strategies for teaching students to think critically, Abrami et al. (2015) found that dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring each increased the effectiveness of the educational intervention, and that they were most effective when combined. They also found that in these studies a combination of separate instruction in critical thinking with subject-matter instruction in which students are encouraged to think critically was more effective than either by itself. However, the difference was not statistically significant; that is, it might have arisen by chance.

Most of these studies lack the longitudinal follow-up required to determine whether the observed differential improvements in critical thinking abilities or dispositions continue over time, for example until high school or college graduation. For details on studies of methods of developing critical thinking skills and dispositions, see the Supplement on Educational Methods .

12. Controversies

Scholars have denied the generalizability of critical thinking abilities across subject domains, have alleged bias in critical thinking theory and pedagogy, and have investigated the relationship of critical thinking to other kinds of thinking.

McPeck (1981) attacked the thinking skills movement of the 1970s, including the critical thinking movement. He argued that there are no general thinking skills, since thinking is always thinking about some subject-matter. It is futile, he claimed, for schools and colleges to teach thinking as if it were a separate subject. Rather, teachers should lead their pupils to become autonomous thinkers by teaching school subjects in a way that brings out their cognitive structure and that encourages and rewards discussion and argument. As some of his critics (e.g., Paul 1985; Siegel 1985) pointed out, McPeck’s central argument needs elaboration, since it has obvious counter-examples in writing and speaking, for which (up to a certain level of complexity) there are teachable general abilities even though they are always about some subject-matter. To make his argument convincing, McPeck needs to explain how thinking differs from writing and speaking in a way that does not permit useful abstraction of its components from the subject-matters with which it deals. He has not done so. Nevertheless, his position that the dispositions and abilities of a critical thinker are best developed in the context of subject-matter instruction is shared by many theorists of critical thinking, including Dewey (1910, 1933), Glaser (1941), Passmore (1980), Weinstein (1990), Bailin et al. (1999b), and Willingham (2019).

McPeck’s challenge prompted reflection on the extent to which critical thinking is subject-specific. McPeck argued for a strong subject-specificity thesis, according to which it is a conceptual truth that all critical thinking abilities are specific to a subject. (He did not however extend his subject-specificity thesis to critical thinking dispositions. In particular, he took the disposition to suspend judgment in situations of cognitive dissonance to be a general disposition.) Conceptual subject-specificity is subject to obvious counter-examples, such as the general ability to recognize confusion of necessary and sufficient conditions. A more modest thesis, also endorsed by McPeck, is epistemological subject-specificity, according to which the norms of good thinking vary from one field to another. Epistemological subject-specificity clearly holds to a certain extent; for example, the principles in accordance with which one solves a differential equation are quite different from the principles in accordance with which one determines whether a painting is a genuine Picasso. But the thesis suffers, as Ennis (1989) points out, from vagueness of the concept of a field or subject and from the obvious existence of inter-field principles, however broadly the concept of a field is construed. For example, the principles of hypothetico-deductive reasoning hold for all the varied fields in which such reasoning occurs. A third kind of subject-specificity is empirical subject-specificity, according to which as a matter of empirically observable fact a person with the abilities and dispositions of a critical thinker in one area of investigation will not necessarily have them in another area of investigation.

The thesis of empirical subject-specificity raises the general problem of transfer. If critical thinking abilities and dispositions have to be developed independently in each school subject, how are they of any use in dealing with the problems of everyday life and the political and social issues of contemporary society, most of which do not fit into the framework of a traditional school subject? Proponents of empirical subject-specificity tend to argue that transfer is more likely to occur if there is critical thinking instruction in a variety of domains, with explicit attention to dispositions and abilities that cut across domains. But evidence for this claim is scanty. There is a need for well-designed empirical studies that investigate the conditions that make transfer more likely.

It is common ground in debates about the generality or subject-specificity of critical thinking dispositions and abilities that critical thinking about any topic requires background knowledge about the topic. For example, the most sophisticated understanding of the principles of hypothetico-deductive reasoning is of no help unless accompanied by some knowledge of what might be plausible explanations of some phenomenon under investigation.

Critics have objected to bias in the theory, pedagogy and practice of critical thinking. Commentators (e.g., Alston 1995; Ennis 1998) have noted that anyone who takes a position has a bias in the neutral sense of being inclined in one direction rather than others. The critics, however, are objecting to bias in the pejorative sense of an unjustified favoring of certain ways of knowing over others, frequently alleging that the unjustly favoured ways are those of a dominant sex or culture (Bailin 1995). These ways favour:

reinforcement of egocentric and sociocentric biases over dialectical engagement with opposing world-views (Paul 1981, 1984; Warren 1998)
distancing from the object of inquiry over closeness to it (Martin 1992; Thayer-Bacon 1992)
indifference to the situation of others over care for them (Martin 1992)
orientation to thought over orientation to action (Martin 1992)
being reasonable over caring to understand people’s ideas (Thayer-Bacon 1993)
being neutral and objective over being embodied and situated (Thayer-Bacon 1995a)
doubting over believing (Thayer-Bacon 1995b)
reason over emotion, imagination and intuition (Thayer-Bacon 2000)
solitary thinking over collaborative thinking (Thayer-Bacon 2000)
written and spoken assignments over other forms of expression (Alston 2001)
attention to written and spoken communications over attention to human problems (Alston 2001)
winning debates in the public sphere over making and understanding meaning (Alston 2001)

A common thread in this smorgasbord of accusations is dissatisfaction with focusing on the logical analysis and evaluation of reasoning and arguments. While these authors acknowledge that such analysis and evaluation is part of critical thinking and should be part of its conceptualization and pedagogy, they insist that it is only a part. Paul (1981), for example, bemoans the tendency of atomistic teaching of methods of analyzing and evaluating arguments to turn students into more able sophists, adept at finding fault with positions and arguments with which they disagree but even more entrenched in the egocentric and sociocentric biases with which they began. Martin (1992) and Thayer-Bacon (1992) cite with approval the self-reported intimacy with their subject-matter of leading researchers in biology and medicine, an intimacy that conflicts with the distancing allegedly recommended in standard conceptions and pedagogy of critical thinking. Thayer-Bacon (2000) contrasts the embodied and socially embedded learning of her elementary school students in a Montessori school, who used their imagination, intuition and emotions as well as their reason, with conceptions of critical thinking as

thinking that is used to critique arguments, offer justifications, and make judgments about what are the good reasons, or the right answers. (Thayer-Bacon 2000: 127–128)

Alston (2001) reports that her students in a women’s studies class were able to see the flaws in the Cinderella myth that pervades much romantic fiction but in their own romantic relationships still acted as if all failures were the woman’s fault and still accepted the notions of love at first sight and living happily ever after. Students, she writes, should

be able to connect their intellectual critique to a more affective, somatic, and ethical account of making risky choices that have sexist, racist, classist, familial, sexual, or other consequences for themselves and those both near and far… critical thinking that reads arguments, texts, or practices merely on the surface without connections to feeling/desiring/doing or action lacks an ethical depth that should infuse the difference between mere cognitive activity and something we want to call critical thinking. (Alston 2001: 34)

Some critics portray such biases as unfair to women. Thayer-Bacon (1992), for example, has charged modern critical thinking theory with being sexist, on the ground that it separates the self from the object and causes one to lose touch with one’s inner voice, and thus stigmatizes women, who (she asserts) link self to object and listen to their inner voice. Her charge does not imply that women as a group are on average less able than men to analyze and evaluate arguments. Facione (1990c) found no difference by sex in performance on his California Critical Thinking Skills Test. Kuhn (1991: 280–281) found no difference by sex in either the disposition or the competence to engage in argumentative thinking.

The critics propose a variety of remedies for the biases that they allege. In general, they do not propose to eliminate or downplay critical thinking as an educational goal. Rather, they propose to conceptualize critical thinking differently and to change its pedagogy accordingly. Their pedagogical proposals arise logically from their objections. They can be summarized as follows:

Focus on argument networks with dialectical exchanges reflecting contesting points of view rather than on atomic arguments, so as to develop “strong sense” critical thinking that transcends egocentric and sociocentric biases (Paul 1981, 1984).
Foster closeness to the subject-matter and feeling connected to others in order to inform a humane democracy (Martin 1992).
Develop “constructive thinking” as a social activity in a community of physically embodied and socially embedded inquirers with personal voices who value not only reason but also imagination, intuition and emotion (Thayer-Bacon 2000).
In developing critical thinking in school subjects, treat as important neither skills nor dispositions but opening worlds of meaning (Alston 2001).
Attend to the development of critical thinking dispositions as well as skills, and adopt the “critical pedagogy” practised and advocated by Freire (1968 [1970]) and hooks (1994) (Dalgleish, Girard, & Davies 2017).

A common thread in these proposals is treatment of critical thinking as a social, interactive, personally engaged activity like that of a quilting bee or a barn-raising (Thayer-Bacon 2000) rather than as an individual, solitary, distanced activity symbolized by Rodin’s The Thinker . One can get a vivid description of education with the former type of goal from the writings of bell hooks (1994, 2010). Critical thinking for her is open-minded dialectical exchange across opposing standpoints and from multiple perspectives, a conception similar to Paul’s “strong sense” critical thinking (Paul 1981). She abandons the structure of domination in the traditional classroom. In an introductory course on black women writers, for example, she assigns students to write an autobiographical paragraph about an early racial memory, then to read it aloud as the others listen, thus affirming the uniqueness and value of each voice and creating a communal awareness of the diversity of the group’s experiences (hooks 1994: 84). Her “engaged pedagogy” is thus similar to the “freedom under guidance” implemented in John Dewey’s Laboratory School of Chicago in the late 1890s and early 1900s. It incorporates the dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring that Abrami (2015) found to be most effective in improving critical thinking skills and dispositions.

What is the relationship of critical thinking to problem solving, decision-making, higher-order thinking, creative thinking, and other recognized types of thinking? One’s answer to this question obviously depends on how one defines the terms used in the question. If critical thinking is conceived broadly to cover any careful thinking about any topic for any purpose, then problem solving and decision making will be kinds of critical thinking, if they are done carefully. Historically, ‘critical thinking’ and ‘problem solving’ were two names for the same thing. If critical thinking is conceived more narrowly as consisting solely of appraisal of intellectual products, then it will be disjoint with problem solving and decision making, which are constructive.

Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives used the phrase “intellectual abilities and skills” for what had been labeled “critical thinking” by some, “reflective thinking” by Dewey and others, and “problem solving” by still others (Bloom et al. 1956: 38). Thus, the so-called “higher-order thinking skills” at the taxonomy’s top levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation are just critical thinking skills, although they do not come with general criteria for their assessment (Ennis 1981b). The revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson et al. 2001) likewise treats critical thinking as cutting across those types of cognitive process that involve more than remembering (Anderson et al. 2001: 269–270). For details, see the Supplement on History .

As to creative thinking, it overlaps with critical thinking (Bailin 1987, 1988). Thinking about the explanation of some phenomenon or event, as in Ferryboat , requires creative imagination in constructing plausible explanatory hypotheses. Likewise, thinking about a policy question, as in Candidate , requires creativity in coming up with options. Conversely, creativity in any field needs to be balanced by critical appraisal of the draft painting or novel or mathematical theory.

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Top 7 Movies To Put Your Critical Thinking Skills To Work

Last Updated on February 7, 2022 by Editorial Team

From understanding what your friend is upset about to giving a logical explanation about a recent incident to even identifying real and fake news, many situations that life throws us in can be overcome and understood well by critical thinking. This complex notion is the capacity to think clearly and rationally and form a logical relationship between concepts, subjects, and ideas.

The ability to analyze and solve problems, creative thinking, great communication, and empathy comes with a person’s potential to think critically and intensely. But this is not something that can be taught theoretically in school or by books. A child needs practical learning to understand the basics of critical thinking and later exercise it in real life.

A lot of learning about different skills comes from daily activities , games, and even movies. Movies teach us a lot of life and life skills, critical thinking being one of them. This article will be all about such movies which promote critical thinking and enable the individual to indulge and practice attributes like self-evaluation, drawing conclusions, creativity, emotional intelligence, and much more.

Movies & Critical Thinking

When individuals are exposed to new information, they need to carefully and logically find out how this information relates to what they already know. Similarly, whenever a movie makes an individual aware of a certain emotion, feeling, or attribute, they begin to think consciously about it and try to fit it in their library of attributes.

Once in a while, a clever movie comes in and plays with an individual’s mind, which in turn helps promote critical thinking. There lies suspense and twists at every stage of a good survival and thrilling movie, which compel the audience to use their mind critically. Fortunately enough, nature endows each individual with intrigue and vision that can be further enhanced if we indulge in the movies that make us question and think hard over our existing beliefs and notions.

How do movies help in critical thinking?

Film or movies are an effective educational tool. Films can help individuals better comprehend and empathize with the life experiences of other persons by providing diverse views in compelling and emotional ways.

Individuals learn to investigate, evaluate, synthesize, and understand using the movies and their plots as catalysts. Movies serve as a training tool for survival skills and real-world situations. Above all, movies are becoming a great medium to impart skills that help children think critically to solve problems.

List of Movies for critical thinking

1. eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (2004).

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a romantic science-fiction film that questions all our beliefs. Being a psychological drama with a nonlinear storyline, this movie promotes critical thinking because of the unique plot. Having had memories removed to get rid of the traumatic past, this movie fills in the mind with many emotions and questions, which builds the various attributes of critical thinking.

2. Life of pi (2012)

Life of Pi is one movie that challenges our thoughts and helps us face the real world. Being an adventure drama film, this movie by Ang Lee centers around an Indian adolescent who tells a novelist about how he survives a shipwreck and ends up adrift in the pacific ocean. This aspect of the movie brings awareness to the audience. Life of Pi shows the struggle of the teenager to save his life, which induces the various attributes of critical thinking in the individual.

3. Forrest gump (1994)

Forrest Gump is a comedy-drama film based on a kind guy who impacts numerous historical events in the United States in the 20th century. This movie is complex but will play with the strings of your heart. Promoting aspects like loyalty, appreciation, and honesty, Forrest Gump is perfect for adolescents as this will make them think hard and learn a lot.

4. Good will hunting (1997)

Being an American Psychological drama, this film about a 20-year-old will change your life for good. The movie teaches you to break down the barriers and inspires you to fight the demons inside. This story about an unappreciated genius will persuade you to think emotionally and logically question your life and teachings.

5. Equilibrium (2002)

Starring Emmy Watson and Taye Diggs, this movie is an American science fiction that edifies an individual’s potential for creative expression. The movie revolves around how residents need to undergo daily medication to keep their emotions at bay, making their emotional intelligence more powerful. The way characters regulate their behavior makes the viewer more sensitive towards morals and society in general. All these aspects of the movie ultimately work towards the critical thinking of an individual.

6. Inside out (2015)

Set in the mind of an 11-year-old, this movie deals with strong emotions that we face daily. These feelings of anger, fear, disgust help the protagonist and give out plenty of inculcating moments. The movie teaches the viewers a lot about happiness, leaving a powerful message which challenges emotions and teaches them not to suppress them but rather express them.

7. Moneyball (2011)

This American biographical film is based on a true story that is about Oakland Athletic’s former manager. Few movies enable the viewer to think out-of-the-box, and this is one of them. It shows the unique way of building a team and builds critical thinking attributes like teamwork and decision making.

Wrapping up

Although movies cannot be used as a primary method of teaching attributes, skills, and abilities, they work perfectly as they push us to think intensely and build new qualities, such as critical thinking. These movies can be added to the class activities, and later the teacher can also host a debate, which will be even more beneficial for the student. These movies can also be given as homework for holidays, and later the teacher can discuss them in class to understand whether the child has comprehended the plot well. Movies are often looked at as a source of entertainment, but very few give out life lessons and make the individual more aware of their feelings, likes, dislikes, and so much more.

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’,

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Why is critical thinking important?

What do lawyers, accountants, teachers, and doctors all have in common?

Students in the School of Literatures, Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics give a presentation in a classroom in front of a screen

What is critical thinking?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines critical thinking as “The objective, systematic, and rational analysis and evaluation of factual evidence in order to form a judgment on a subject, issue, etc.” Critical thinking involves the use of logic and reasoning to evaluate available facts and/or evidence to come to a conclusion about a certain subject or topic. We use critical thinking every day, from decision-making to problem-solving, in addition to thinking critically in an academic context!

Why is critical thinking important for academic success?

You may be asking “why is critical thinking important for students?” Critical thinking appears in a diverse set of disciplines and impacts students’ learning every day, regardless of major.

Critical thinking skills are often associated with the value of studying the humanities. In majors such as English, students will be presented with a certain text—whether it’s a novel, short story, essay, or even film—and will have to use textual evidence to make an argument and then defend their argument about what they’ve read. However, the importance of critical thinking does not only apply to the humanities. In the social sciences, an economics major , for example, will use what they’ve learned to figure out solutions to issues as varied as land and other natural resource use, to how much people should work, to how to develop human capital through education. Problem-solving and critical thinking go hand in hand. Biology is a popular major within LAS, and graduates of the biology program often pursue careers in the medical sciences. Doctors use critical thinking every day, tapping into the knowledge they acquired from studying the biological sciences to diagnose and treat different diseases and ailments.

Students in the College of LAS take many courses that require critical thinking before they graduate. You may be asked in an Economics class to use statistical data analysis to evaluate the impact on home improvement spending when the Fed increases interest rates (read more about real-world experience with Datathon ). If you’ve ever been asked “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?”, you may find yourself thinking about the Roman Empire more than you thought—maybe in an English course, where you’ll use text from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra to make an argument about Roman imperial desire. No matter what the context is, critical thinking will be involved in your academic life and can take form in many different ways.

The benefits of critical thinking in everyday life

Building better communication.

One of the most important life skills that students learn as early as elementary school is how to give a presentation. Many classes require students to give presentations, because being well-spoken is a key skill in effective communication. This is where critical thinking benefits come into play: using the skills you’ve learned, you’ll be able to gather the information needed for your presentation, narrow down what information is most relevant, and communicate it in an engaging way.

Typically, the first step in creating a presentation is choosing a topic. For example, your professor might assign a presentation on the Gilded Age and provide a list of figures from the 1870s—1890s to choose from. You’ll use your critical thinking skills to narrow down your choices. You may ask yourself:

What figure am I most familiar with?
Who am I most interested in?
Will I have to do additional research?

After choosing your topic, your professor will usually ask a guiding question to help you form a thesis: an argument that is backed up with evidence. Critical thinking benefits this process by allowing you to focus on the information that is most relevant in support of your argument. By focusing on the strongest evidence, you will communicate your thesis clearly.

Finally, once you’ve finished gathering information, you will begin putting your presentation together. Creating a presentation requires a balance of text and visuals. Graphs and tables are popular visuals in STEM-based projects, but digital images and graphics are effective as well. Critical thinking benefits this process because the right images and visuals create a more dynamic experience for the audience, giving them the opportunity to engage with the material.

Presentation skills go beyond the classroom. Students at the University of Illinois will often participate in summer internships to get professional experience before graduation. Many summer interns are required to present about their experience and what they learned at the end of the internship. Jobs frequently also require employees to create presentations of some kind—whether it’s an advertising pitch to win an account from a potential client, or quarterly reporting, giving a presentation is a life skill that directly relates to critical thinking.

Fostering independence and confidence

An important life skill many people start learning as college students and then finessing once they enter the “adult world” is how to budget. There will be many different expenses to keep track of, including rent, bills, car payments, and groceries, just to name a few! After developing your critical thinking skills, you’ll put them to use to consider your salary and budget your expenses accordingly. Here’s an example:

You earn a salary of $75,000 a year. Assume all amounts are before taxes.
1,800 x 12 = 21,600
75,000 – 21,600 = 53,400
This leaves you with $53,400
320 x 12 = 3,840 a year
53,400-3,840= 49,560
726 x 12 = 8,712
49,560 – 8,712= 40,848
You’re left with $40,848 for miscellaneous expenses. You use your critical thinking skills to decide what to do with your $40,848. You think ahead towards your retirement and decide to put $500 a month into a Roth IRA, leaving $34,848. Since you love coffee, you try to figure out if you can afford a daily coffee run. On average, a cup of coffee will cost you $7. 7 x 365 = $2,555 a year for coffee. 34,848 – 2,555 = 32,293
You have $32,293 left. You will use your critical thinking skills to figure out how much you would want to put into savings, how much you want to save to treat yourself from time to time, and how much you want to put aside for emergency funds. With the benefits of critical thinking, you will be well-equipped to budget your lifestyle once you enter the working world.

Enhancing decision-making skills

Choosing the right university for you.

One of the biggest decisions you’ll make in your life is what college or university to go to. There are many factors to consider when making this decision, and critical thinking importance will come into play when determining these factors.

Many high school seniors apply to colleges with the hope of being accepted into a certain program, whether it’s biology, psychology, political science, English, or something else entirely. Some students apply with certain schools in mind due to overall rankings. Students also consider the campus a school is set in. While some universities such as the University of Illinois are nestled within college towns, New York University is right in Manhattan, in a big city setting. Some students dream of going to large universities, and other students prefer smaller schools. The diversity of a university’s student body is also a key consideration. For many 17- and 18-year-olds, college is a time to meet peers from diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds and learn about life experiences different than one’s own.

With all these factors in mind, you’ll use critical thinking to decide which are most important to you—and which school is the right fit for you.

Develop your critical thinking skills at the University of Illinois

At the University of Illinois, not only will you learn how to think critically, but you will put critical thinking into practice. In the College of LAS, you can choose from 70+ majors where you will learn the importance and benefits of critical thinking skills. The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at U of I offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs in life, physical, and mathematical sciences; humanities; and social and behavioral sciences. No matter which program you choose, you will develop critical thinking skills as you go through your courses in the major of your choice. And in those courses, the first question your professors may ask you is, “What is the goal of critical thinking?” You will be able to respond with confidence that the goal of critical thinking is to help shape people into more informed, more thoughtful members of society.

With such a vast representation of disciplines, an education in the College of LAS will prepare you for a career where you will apply critical thinking skills to real life, both in and outside of the classroom, from your undergraduate experience to your professional career. If you’re interested in becoming a part of a diverse set of students and developing skills for lifelong success, apply to LAS today!

Read more first-hand stories from our amazing students at the LAS Insider blog .

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Critical thinking definition

Critical thinking, as described by Oxford Languages, is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.

Active and skillful approach, evaluation, assessment, synthesis, and/or evaluation of information obtained from, or made by, observation, knowledge, reflection, acumen or conversation, as a guide to belief and action, requires the critical thinking process, which is why it's often used in education and academics.

Some even may view it as a backbone of modern thought.

However, it's a skill, and skills must be trained and encouraged to be used at its full potential.

People turn up to various approaches in improving their critical thinking, like:

Developing technical and problem-solving skills
Engaging in more active listening
Actively questioning their assumptions and beliefs
Seeking out more diversity of thought
Opening up their curiosity in an intellectual way etc.

Is critical thinking useful in writing?

Critical thinking can help in planning your paper and making it more concise, but it's not obvious at first. We carefully pinpointed some the questions you should ask yourself when boosting critical thinking in writing:

What information should be included?
Which information resources should the author look to?
What degree of technical knowledge should the report assume its audience has?
What is the most effective way to show information?
How should the report be organized?
How should it be designed?
What tone and level of language difficulty should the document have?

Usage of critical thinking comes down not only to the outline of your paper, it also begs the question: How can we use critical thinking solving problems in our writing's topic?

Let's say, you have a Powerpoint on how critical thinking can reduce poverty in the United States. You'll primarily have to define critical thinking for the viewers, as well as use a lot of critical thinking questions and synonyms to get them to be familiar with your methods and start the thinking process behind it.

Are there any services that can help me use more critical thinking?

We understand that it's difficult to learn how to use critical thinking more effectively in just one article, but our service is here to help.

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Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, a tiger can crowd a lifeboat.

Now streaming on:

Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" is a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery. Inspired by a worldwide best-seller that many readers must have assumed was unfilmable, it is a triumph over its difficulties. It is also a moving spiritual achievement, a movie whose title could have been shortened to "life."

The story involves the 227 days that its teenage hero spends drifting across the Pacific in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. They find themselves in the same boat after an amusing and colorful prologue, which in itself could have been enlarged into an exciting family film. Then it expands into a parable of survival, acceptance and adaptation. I imagine even Yann Martel , the novel's French-Canadian author, must be delighted to see how the usual kind of Hollywood manhandling has been sidestepped by Lee's poetic idealism.

The story begins in a small family zoo in Pondichery, India, where the boy christened Piscine is raised. Piscine translates from French to English as "swimming pool," but in an India where many more speak English than French, his playmates of course nickname him "pee." Determined to put an end to this, he adopts the name " Pi ," demonstrating an uncanny ability to write down that mathematical constant that begins with 3.14 and never ends. If Pi is a limitless number, that is the perfect name for a boy who seems to accept no limitations.

The zoo goes broke, and Pi's father puts his family and a few valuable animals on a ship bound for Canada. In a bruising series of falls, a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and the lion tumble into the boat with the boy, and are swept away by high seas. His family is never seen again, and the last we see of the ship is its lights disappearing into the deep — a haunting shot that reminds me of the sinking train in Bill Forsyth's " Housekeeping " (1987).

This is a hazardous situation for the boy ( Suraj Sharma ), because the film steadfastly refuses to sentimentalize the tiger (fancifully named "Richard Parker"). A crucial early scene at the zoo shows that wild animals are indeed wild and indeed animals, and it serves as a caution for children in the audience, who must not make the mistake of thinking this is a Disney tiger.

The heart of the film focuses on the sea journey, during which the human demonstrates that he can think with great ingenuity and the tiger shows that it can learn. I won't spoil for you how those things happen. The possibilities are surprising.

What astonishes me is how much I love the use of 3-D in "Life of Pi." I've never seen the medium better employed, not even in " Avatar ," and although I continue to have doubts about it in general, Lee never uses it for surprises or sensations, but only to deepen the film's sense of places and events.

Let me try to describe one point of view. The camera is placed in the sea, looking up at the lifeboat and beyond it. The surface of the sea is like the enchanted membrane upon which it floats. There is nothing in particular to define it; it is just … there. This is not a shot of a boat floating in the ocean. It is a shot of ocean, boat and sky as one glorious place.

Still trying not to spoil: Pi and the tiger Richard Parker share the same possible places in and near the boat. Although this point is not specifically made, Pi's ability to expand the use of space in the boat and nearby helps reinforce the tiger's respect for him. The tiger is accustomed to believing it can rule all space near him, and the human requires the animal to rethink that assumption.

Most of the footage of the tiger is of course CGI, although I learn that four real tigers are seen in some shots. The young actor Suraj Sharma contributes a remarkable performance, shot largely in sequence as his skin color deepens, his weight falls and deepness and wisdom grow in his eyes.

The writer W.G. Sebold once wrote, "Men and animals regard each other across a gulf of mutual incomprehension." This is the case here, but during the course of 227 days, they come to a form of recognition. The tiger, in particular, becomes aware that he sees the boy not merely as victim or prey, or even as master, but as another being.

The movie quietly combines various religious traditions to enfold its story in the wonder of life. How remarkable that these two mammals, and the fish beneath them and birds above them, are all here. And when they come to a floating island populated by countless meerkats, what an incredible sequence Lee creates there.

The island raises another question: Is it real? Is this whole story real? I refuse to ask that question. "Life of Pi" is all real, second by second and minute by minute, and what it finally amounts to is left for every viewer to decide. I have decided it is one of the best films of the year.

Read and make comments here .

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Life of Pi (2012)

Rated PG for emotional thematic content throughout, and some scary action sequences and peril

127 minutes

Suraj Sharma as Pi

Tabu as Gita

Gerard Depardieu as Cook

Rafe Spall as Writer

Directed by

David Magee

Based on the novel by

Yann Martel

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Taylor Swift Renews Her Vows With Heartbreak in Audacious, Transfixing ‘Tortured Poets Department’: Album Review

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

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Taylor Swift 'Tortured Poets Department" variant album cover vinyl LP review

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For where it sits in her catalog musically, it feels like the synth-pop of “Midnights,” with most of the feel-good buzz stripped out; or like the less acoustic based moments of “Folklore” and “Evermore,” with her penchant for pure autobiography stripped back in. It feels bracing, and wounded, and cocky, and — not to be undervalued in this age — handmade, however many times she stacks her own vocals for an ironic or real choral effect. Occasionally the music gets stripped down all the way to a piano, but it has the effect of feeling naked even when she goes for a bop that feels big enough to join the setlist in her stadium tour resumption, like “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.”

The first time you listen to the album, you may be stricken by the “Wait, did she really just say that?” moments. (And no, we’re not referring to the already famous Charlie Puth shout-out, though that probably counts, too.) Whatever feeling you might have had hearing “Dear John” for the first time, if you’re old enough to go back that far with her, that may be the feeling you have here listening to the eviscerating “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” or a few other tracks that don’t take much in the way of prisoners. Going back to it, on second, fifth and tenth listens, it’s easier to keep track of the fact that the entire album is not that emotionally intense, and that there are romantic, fun and even silly numbers strewn throughout it, if those aren’t necessarily the most striking ones on first blush. Yes, it’s a pop album as much as a vein-opening album, although it may not produce the biggest number of Top 10 hits of anything in her catalog. It doesn’t seem designed not to produce those, either; returning co-producers Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner aren’t exactly looking to keep her off the radio. But it’s easily among her most lyrics-forward efforts, rife with a language lover’s wordplay, tumults of sequential similes and — her best weapon — moments of sheer bluntness.

Who is the worst man that she delights in writing about through the majority of the album? Perhaps not the one you were guessing, weeks ago. There are archetypal good guy and bad boy figures who have been part of her life, whom everyone will transpose onto this material. Coming into “Tortured Poets,” the joke was that someone should keep Joe Alwyn, publicly identified as her steady for six-plus years, under mental health watch when the album comes out. As it turns out, he will probably be able to sleep just fine. The other bloke, the one everyone assumed might be too inconsequential to trouble her or write about — let’s put another name to that archetype: Matty Healy of the 1975 — might lose a little sleep instead, if the fans decide that the cutting “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” and other lacerating songs are about him, instead. He might also have cause to feel flattered, because there are plenty of songs extolling him as an object of abject passion and the love of her life — in, literally, the song title “LOML” — before the figure who animated all this gets sliced down to size.

The older love, he gets all of one song, as far as can be ascertained: the not so subtly titled “So Long, London,” a dour sequel to 2019’s effusive “London Boy.” Well, he gets a bit more than that: The amusingly titled “Fresh Out the Slammer” devotes some verses to a man she paints as her longtime jailer (“Handcuffed to the spell I was under / For just one hour of sunshine / Years of labor, locks and ceilings / In the shade of how he was feeling.” But ultimately it’s really devoted to the “pretty baby” who’s her first phone call once she’s been sprung from the relationship she considered her prison.

It’s complicated, as they say. For most of the album, Swift seesaws between songs about being in thrall to never-before-experienced passion and personal compatibility with a guy from the wrong side of the tracks. She feels “Guilty as Sin?” for imagining a consummation that at first seems un-actionable, if far from unthinkable; she swears “But Daddy I Love Him” in the face of family disapproval; she thinks “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can),” before an epiphany slips out in the song’s hilariously anticlimactic final line: “Woah, maybe I can’t.” Then the most devastating songs about being ghosted pop up in the album’s later going.

Now, that, friends, is a righteous tirade. And it’s one of the most thrilling single moments in Swift’s recorded career. “But Daddy I Love Him” has a joke for a title (it’s a line borrowed from “The Little Mermaid”), but the song is an ecstatic companion piece to “That’s the Way I Loved You,” from her second album, now with Swift running off with the bad choice instead of just mourning him. It’s the rare song from her Antonoff/Dessner period that sounds like it could be out of the more “organic”-sounding, band-focused Nathan Chapman era, but with a much more matured writing now than then… even if the song is about embracing the immature.

The album gets off to a deceptively benign start with “Fortnight,” the collaboration with Post Malone that is its first single. Both he and the record’s other featured artist, Florence of Florence + the Machine , wrote the lyrics for their own sections, but Posty hangs back more, as opposed to the true duet with Florence; he echoes Swift’s leads before finally settling in with his own lines right at the end. Seemingly unconnected to the subject matter of the rest of the record, “Fortnight” seems a little like “Midnights” Lite. It rues a past quickie romance that the singer can’t quite move on from, even as she and her ex spend time with each other’s families. It’s breezy, and a good choice for pop radio, but not much of an indication of the more visceral, obsessive stuff to come.

The title track follows next and stays in the summer-breeze mode. It’s jangly-guitar-pop in the mode of “Mirrorball,” from “Folklore”… and it actually feels completely un-tortured, despite the ironic title. After the lovers bond over Charlie Puth being underrated (let’s watch those “One Call Away” streams soar), and over how “you’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith,” an inter-artist romance seems firmly in place. “Who’s gonna hold you like me?” she asks aloud. (She later changes it to “troll you.”) She answers herself: “Nofuckinbody.” Sweet, and If you came to this album for any kind of idyll, enjoy this one while it lasts, which isn’t for long.

From here, the album is kind of all over the map, when it comes to whether she’s in the throes of passion or the throes of despair… with that epic poem in the album booklet to let you know how the pieces all fit together. (The album also includes a separate poem from Stevie Nicks, addressing the same love affair that is the main subject of the album, in a protective way.)

There are detours that don’t have to do with the romantic narrative, but not many. The collaboration with Florence + the Machine, “Florida!!!,” is the album’s funniest track, if maybe its least emotionally inconsequential. It’s literally about escape, and it provides some escapism right in the middle of the record, along with some BAM-BAM-BAM power-chord dynamics in an album that often otherwise trends soft. If you don’t laugh out loud the first time that Taylor’s and Florence’s voices come together in harmony to sing the line “Fuck me up, Florida,” this may not be the album for you.

When the album’s track list was first revealed, it almost seemed like one of those clever fakes that people delight in trolling the web with. Except, who would really believe that, instead of song titles like “Maroon,” Swift would suddenly be coming up with “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” “Fresh Out the Slammer,” “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”? This sounded like a Morrissey track list, not one of Swift’s. But she’s loosened up, in some tonal sense, even as she’s as serious as a heart attack on a lot of these songs. There is blood on the tracks, but also a wit in the way she’s employing language and being willing to make declarations that sound a little outlandish before they make you laugh.

Toward the end of the album, she presents three songs that aren’t “about” anybody else… just about, plainly, Taylor Swift. That’s true of “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?,” a song that almost sounds like an outtake from the “Reputation” album, or else a close cousin to “Folklore’s” “Mad Woman,” with Swift embracing the role of vengeful witch, in response to being treated as a circus freak — exact contemporary impetus unknown.

Whatever criticisms anyone will make of “The Tortured Poets Department,” though — not enough bangers? too personal? — “edge”-lessness shouldn’t be one of them. In this album’s most bracing songs, it’s like she brought a knife to a fistfight. There’s blood on the tracks, good blood.

Sure to be one of the most talked-about and replayed tracks, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” has a touch of a Robyn-style dancing-through-tears ethos to it. But it’s clearly about the parts of the Eras Tour when she was at her lowest, and faking her way through it. “I’m so depressed I act like it’s my birthday — every day,” she sings, in the album’s peppiest number — one that recalls a more dance-oriented version of the previous album’s “Mastermind.” It’s not hard to imagine that when she resumes the tour in Paris next month, and has a new era to tag onto the end of the show, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” might be the new climax, in place of “Karma.” “You know you’re good when you can do it with a broken heart,” she humble-brags, “and I’m good, ‘cause I’m miserable / And nobody even knows! / Try and come for my job.”

Not many superstars would devote an entire song to confessing that they’ve only pretended to be the super-happy figure fans thought they were seeing pass through their towns, and that they were seeing a illusion. (Presumably she doesn’t have to fake it in the present day, but that’s the story of the next album, maybe.) But that speaks to the dichotomy that has always been Taylor Swift: on record, as good and honest a confessional a singer-songwriter as any who ever passed through the ports of rock credibility; in concert, a great, fulsome entertainer like Cher squared. Fortunately, in Swift, we’ve never had to settle for just one or the other. No one else is coming for either job — our best heartbreak chronicler or our most uplifting popular entertainer. It’s like that woman in the movie theater says: Heartache feels good in a place like that. And it sure feels grand presented in its most distilled, least razzly-dazzly essence in “The Tortured Poets Department.”

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The True Story Behind Critical Thinking, Movie Based in Miami
The characters in the movie are based on former students at Miami Jackson who took a chess class called Critical Thinking that was taught by coach Mario Martinez. The real-life chess players have ...
Critical Thinking (film)
Critical Thinking is a 2020 American biographical drama film based on the true story of the 1998 Miami Jackson High School chess team, the first inner-city team to win the U.S. National Chess Championship.. Critical Thinking was directed by John Leguizamo (in his directorial debut), written by Dito Montiel, and stars Leguizamo alongside Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Angel Bismark Curiel, Will Hochman ...
Critical Thinking movie review (2020)
The film is barely 15 minutes old when this happens, but it immediately establishes that "Critical Thinking" has no plans of abandoning reality for its feel-good message. That sense of realism extends to the way the characters bond with, rib, and defend each other. Additionally, Leguizamo plays Martinez as someone who understands the ...
Critical Thinking (2020)
Critical Thinking: Directed by John Leguizamo. With John Leguizamo, Rachel Bay Jones, Michael Kenneth Williams, Corwin C. Tuggles. The true story of the Miami Jackson High School chess team which was the first inner city team to win the U.S. National Chess Championship.
Critical Thinking
Strategic in delivering all the feels, Critical Thinking is a good old-fashioned underdog story that marks a winning directorial debut for John Leguizamo. Miami -- 1998. Poverty, broken families ...
'Critical Thinking' Review: All the Right Moves
Critical Thinking Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas, or rent or buy on iTunes, ... Even before his new film "Civil War" was released, ...
Critical Thinking Movie Review
Parents need to know that Critical Thinking is a fact-based drama about a high school chess team from an underserved community that defies the odds to make it to the U.S. National Chess Championship. Directed by and starring John Leguizamo, the movie has frequent swearing ("f--k," "s--t," etc.), underage cigarette smoking, drug dealing, punching, strangling, and gun violence that results in death.
Watch Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking. 2020 | Maturity Rating: 16+ | 1h 57m | Drama. An unwavering teacher and his students must overcome the perils in their underserved community as they compete in a national chess tournament. Starring: John Leguizamo, Corwin C. Tuggles, Angel Bismark Curiel.
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments in order to form a judgement by the application of rational, skeptical, and unbiased analyses and evaluation. The application of critical thinking includes self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective habits of the mind, thus a critical thinker is a person who practices the ...
Critical Thinking Explained
What is critical thinking, and why is it so important? This episode of the ProCon.org (http://www.procon.org/) Critical Thinking Video Series explores critic...
Critical Thinking Video Series: Critical Thinking Explained
Critical Thinking Video Series: Critical Thinking Explained. Critical thinking is something we do every day, without realizing it. Although we may think critically about simple tasks such as shopping for a tomato or deciding which movie to see, we don't always apply critical thinking skills to important, controversial issues. Statistics ...
Watch Critical Thinking
An unwavering teacher and his students must overcome the perils in their underserved community as they compete in a national chess tournament. Watch trailers & learn more.
Defining Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is, in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem solving abilities and a commitment to overcome our native egocentrism and sociocentrism.
What Are Critical Thinking Skills and Why Are They Important?
It makes you a well-rounded individual, one who has looked at all of their options and possible solutions before making a choice. According to the University of the People in California, having critical thinking skills is important because they are [ 1 ]: Universal. Crucial for the economy. Essential for improving language and presentation skills.
Teachers Look to Film to Foster Critical Thinking
Chicago. Twenty-one teachers sit in a small movie theater here watching a quick, dialogue-driven scene that culminates with Mark Zuckerberg, as played by actor Jesse Eisenberg, getting dumped by ...
Best Movies for Critical Thinking: Top Picks to Challenge Your Mind
5.1 Inception. 5.2 Being John Malkovich. 5.3 Shutter Island. 6 Critical Thinking in Time and Space Movies. 6.1 Predestination. 6.2 Interstellar. 6.3 2001: A Space Odyssey. 7 Movies Encouraging Reflection on Self and Humanity. 7.1 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking. Critical thinking is a widely accepted educational goal. Its definition is contested, but the competing definitions can be understood as differing conceptions of the same basic concept: careful thinking directed to a goal. Conceptions differ with respect to the scope of such thinking, the type of goal, the criteria and norms ...
What Is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking is the ability to effectively analyze information and form a judgment. To think critically, you must be aware of your own biases and assumptions when encountering information, and apply consistent standards when evaluating sources. Critical thinking skills help you to: Identify credible sources. Evaluate and respond to arguments.
PDF Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts
"critical thinking." At one level we all know what "critical thinking" means — it means good thinking, almost the opposite of illogical, irrational, thinking. But when we test our understanding further, we run into questions. For example, is critical thinking the same as creative thinking, are they different, or is one part of the other?
Top 7 Movies To Put Your Critical Thinking Skills To Work
List of Movies for critical thinking. 1. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (2004) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a romantic science-fiction film that questions all our beliefs. Being a psychological drama with a nonlinear storyline, this movie promotes critical thinking because of the unique plot.
Why is critical thinking important?
The importance of critical thinking can be found across a wide set of disciplines. They are not only used in the humanities but are also important to professionals in the social and behavioral sciences, physical sciences, and STEM—and the list does not end there. At the University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, you'll be ...
Watch Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking. 2020 | Maturity Rating: 16+ | 1h 57m | Drama. An unwavering teacher and his students must overcome the perils in their underserved community as they compete in a national chess tournament. Starring: John Leguizamo, Corwin C. Tuggles, Angel Bismark Curiel. Watch all you want.
Using Critical Thinking in Essays and other Assignments
Critical thinking, as described by Oxford Languages, is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement. Active and skillful approach, evaluation, assessment, synthesis, and/or evaluation of information obtained from, or made by, observation, knowledge, reflection, acumen or conversation, as a guide to belief and action, requires the critical thinking process ...
The Business Of Thinking Big
It's well attested that studying the humanities provides leaders with vital practical skills such as strong communication, critical thinking, and cultural awareness. But for Santiago Iñiguez ...
Life of Pi movie review & film summary (2012)
David Magee. Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" is a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery. Inspired by a worldwide best-seller that many readers must have assumed was unfilmable, it is a triumph over its difficulties. It is also a moving spiritual achievement, a movie whose title could have been shortened to "life."
'The Tortured Poets Department' Is Taylor Swift's Most ...
Now, everyone gets to go back on "Red" alert. " The Tortured Poets Department " gives everyone a full dose of the never-getting-over-it Taylor that no one really wanted to get over. As ...

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1. Ask questions.

2. Practice active listening.

3. Develop your logic and reasoning.

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