Critical Thinking for young children

Critical Thinking is a useful tool to avoid being fooled by the various hoaxes, conspiracy theories and scams that plague our world.

While discussing why some doctors turn their back on proven scientific medicine to practice methods that have no scientific basis, Dr Harriet Hall posted the following:

"I think the ultimate solution is to teach critical thinking to children from an early age, and to make them aware of how human psychology can lead us into error. Science education "about" science doesn't do much good by itself. We need to challenge students to "think" scientifically by figuring out how they could test a hypothesis and by figuring out what could go wrong and how to rule out alternative explanations for results. We should be teaching them about how experiments have gone awry (N-rays, cold fusion, etc.) and how to distinguish good science from pseudoscience."

Dr. Hall has hit the nail on the head.

It is not as hard as you would think to teach critical thinking to young children. I found that I have been doing this for the last 18 months or so with my own child without realising it.

I will post some suggested activities that you can do with your children to help them learn to think for themselves and to help them become better and more critical thinkers. This does not mean destroying their childhood or imagination.

Psychic Powers?

With Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon and Neopet cards being all the rage, many young children will have these cards at home. Take the time to find out what their favourite card is. Usually Dark Magician for Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Pikachu for Pokemon cards.

The cards will likely be well used and severely marked. Note the scratches and other markings on the back of your child's favourite and then show your "magic" skills by picking that card when placed face down among others.

Do this a couple of times to show it's not pure luck, but you know which card it is. Ask your child to do the same. If they cannot pick the right card every time, show them what the trick is. Explain that it's not "magic", but simply a trick.

Discuss with them that other people called "Psychics" will claim that they can do the same using "magic" or "Psychic power". It will not take them long to grasp the concept that psychics have no power, but just know how to do "tricks".

A small step for a child, but it is a start to placing them on the road to learning to think critically.