Should Critical Thinking Be Taught In Schools

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The amount of creative learning is dwindling in schools today. Some schools are even rejecting the critical thinking skills. More and more standardize tests are being made to be put in the curriculum, bringing on countless hours of tedious reading; stifling creative and critical learning. At the same time, critics are saying that critical thinking is not a skill that cannot be taught, nor should be taught. In an article in the Washington Post, in 2012, it reports that in Texas, the GOP (Grand Old Party [Republican Party]) rejects the critical thinking skills. Here’s what the Republican Party of Texas wrote into its 2012 platform as part of the section on education: Knowledge-Based Education- We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the process of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority. The party opposes the teaching because it believes the purpose is to challenge a student’s “fixed beliefs” and undermine “parental authority.”…show more content…
Willingham defines critical thinking as “seeing both sides of an issue, being open to new evidence… reasoning dispassionately, demanding that claims be backed by evidence, deducing and inferring conclusions from available facts, solving problems, and so forth.” Then Willingham goes on to say that. “…Can critical thinking actually be taught? Decades of cognitive research point to a disappointing answer: not really. People who have sought to each critical thinking have assumed that it is a skill… once you learn it, you can apply it in any situation. Research form cognitive science shows that thinking is not that sort of

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