Imagine That, as an Educator, One of Your Long-Term Goals

Imagine that, as an educator, one of your long-term goals for students is that they acquire critical thinking skills: You want them to evaluate the soundness of logical arguments in persuasive essays, determine whether scientific research studies truly support certain conclusions, and so on.At a school board meeting, a father of one of your students complains about your emphasis on critical thinking.He insists that the purpose of education should be simply to teach students facts that experts have determined to be "true" in various academic disciplines.Of the following ways in which you might respond to the father, which one is most accurate and defensible?

A) Standards developed by professional groups in various academic disciplines often include critical thinking.
B) Critical thinking is the most basic cognitive process identified in the recent revision of Bloom's taxonomy; all other cognitive processes build on it.
C) Students are more motivated by long-term, abstract goals than by shorter, concrete objectives.
D) Virtually any instructional method you might use-whether it be a lecture, mastery learning, cooperative learning, or some other approach-requires students to engage in critical thinking.