How to Build a Critical Thinking Routine That Sticks
Most teachers have tried to teach critical thinking. Fewer have succeeded. Not because they don't know what it is — but because they never built the routine that makes it stick.
Critical thinking strategies and classroom resources for K–12 teachers.
Most teachers have tried to teach critical thinking. Fewer have succeeded. Not because they don't know what it is — but because they never built the routine that makes it stick.
Assessment tools built around answers miss the point of critical thinking. Here's what to look for instead — and four formats that actually reveal how students reason.
Think critically is the most common instruction in education and the least understood. Here's what it actually requires — and why most attempts to teach it miss the point.
Most teacher feedback answers the question for the student. Here's the difference between marking errors and actually improving how students reason, with Before/After examples from real classrooms.
Debate teaches performance. Argumentation teaches reasoning. Here's the difference, why it matters, and the four discussion formats that actually build students' capacity to defend a claim.
AI tutors like Khanmigo are good at getting students to correct answers. That's exactly the problem. Here's why optimizing for answers is the wrong goal — and what teaching thinking actually requires.
AI won't replace teachers. But it is replacing the most passive parts of teaching — starting with worksheets. Here's what the swap looks like in practice, with specific before/after classroom examples.
AI can write your students' essays. It can't be your students. Here's how to redesign assignments that require genuine thinking — and why those happen to be the assignments that were always worth doing.
Ten Socratic prompts drawn from real areas of knowledge and real-world knowledge problems — ready to drop into your next TOK class. Each one builds the kind of thinking the IB examiners are actually looking for.
AI can do something traditional classrooms can't: give every student a patient, persistent Socratic dialogue partner at the same moment. Here's how to use that to actually teach critical thinking.
A new RAND study shows 67% of students believe AI is harming their critical thinking — and they're still using it. Here's how to turn that tension into the best Socratic dialogue of your career.
Most Socratic discussions fail for predictable reasons. A practical guide for teachers on asking better questions, slowing down, and teaching students to think — not just talk.
Most critical thinking worksheets collect dust. These five activities create real cognitive conflict that sticks — practical strategies you can use tomorrow.