Teach your mini-me critical thinking

Parents and caregivers, take note: teaching children critical thinking is a good way to help them navigate the world, become social citizens and develop into adults who are thoughtful, rational and capable of steering complex issues with reason and insight, said Dr Heidi Matisonn.

Dr Matisonn is a senior lecturer in the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) EthicsLab, based at the Neuroscience Institute. In a recent interview with UCT News, she said children who simply accept things as they are, rather than learn to question whether this is how things should be, lose out on developing their moral imagination. They are also less likely to become those changemakers the world so desperately needs.

“Critical thinking has always been important as it helps us understand not just how the world is, but how it could or should be. But I think today, in the age of misinformation and disinformation and especially fake news, it’s even more important,” she said. “Teaching children critical-thinking skills when they are young may be taxing for parents and teachers in the short-term. But it’s our duty because it will benefit them in the long-term.”

Understanding critical thinking

In a nutshell, Matisonn said, critical thinking is the ability to carefully examine information and arguments to help individuals make fair and logical judgements. What this means, she added, is not accepting information at face value. Instead, it encourages constant questioning.

“It discourages accepting information as is and encourages asking: ‘Why are they saying this? What might their reasons be? Could there be another way to look at it?’,” she said. “In other words, instead of taking the ‘what’ at face value, critical thinking means asking about the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’.”

Nurturing the problem-solvers of tomorrow

When it comes to children, Matisonn said, critical thinking is innate because of their curiosity and genuine desire to want to know more.

“They realise they don’t have all the answers or don’t understand the answers and so they want more information to help them navigate the world in which they find themselves. It’s only as children grow up – after being confronted with years of ‘because I said so’ or ‘because that’s the right answer’ – that they lose this natural curiosity,” she said.

Therefore, Matisonn explained, it’s parents’ and caregivers’ responsibility to nurture a strong foundation in critical thinking. By doing so, she said, children automatically learn to become:

• Open-minded – they will become better at considering different perspectives and are less likely to accept information at face value.
• Independent and confident – trust their own reasoning and will not easily be swayed by peer pressure and misinformation.
• Problem-solvers – analyse situations logically, weigh evidence and make informed decisions in both personal and professional settings.
• Resilient to manipulation – make them less susceptible to propaganda and biased information because they will evaluate sources critically.
• Adaptable – constantly assess new information and adjust their views and strategies as needed, making them more flexible in an ever-changing world.

“Most importantly, critical thinking makes them more likely to develop into ethical decision-makers. They are more likely to recognise biases, question assumptions and make choices that align with fairness and integrity,” Matisonn said.

Teaching critical thinking

Matisonn has five basic tips to teach critical thinking at home.

She said asking open-ended questions is high on the list. It teaches children to think about their answers and encourages them to pose similar questions in return. In addition, providing children with opportunities to make decisions and solve problems, openly discussing with them the reasons behind the rules and decisions parents make on their behalf are essential. Further, Matisonn said, encouraging children to consider alternative perspectives rather than just their own, and modelling critical thinking by thinking aloud when approaching problems is fundamental.

“We as parents need to have a different approach to the dreaded ‘but why?’ question. We need to see it not as children being insubordinate or cheeky but rather as their genuine desire to understand a world that is not yet clear to them, a world where the rules of the game are not yet explicit,” she said.

“It’s not easy. But it is essential. It’s our duty to raise children who will contribute positively to a world that we as adults have made a bit of a mess of. The worst thing we can do is quell their natural curiosity. We need to change our mindsets and those of our children.”

The role of schools

According to Matisonn, schools have an enormous role to play with coaching children on critical thinking. She described the classroom as the “perfect safe space” to teach and learn the concept from a young age.

“Our focus is broadly on working towards a world where people can live a flourishing life.”

However, she acknowledged that teachers are overburdened and have a list of in-class demands that take priority daily, making it difficult to add an additional deliverable to their to-do list. This is where the EthicsLab steps in. And while it comes at a cost, Matisonn and colleagues are hard at work behind the scenes to secure the necessary funding to implement and run critical-thinking programmes at schools in the country, to benefit children of all ages.

“Our focus is broadly on working towards a world where people can live a flourishing life and because we think critical thinking is pivotal to this, we want to develop a mass of critical thinkers in youth populations,” she said.

To get involved with critical thinking programmes contact Dr Heidi Matisonn.