Techniques for Critical Thinking

A teacher who agrees in principle with critical thinking still has to do it in practice. The day-to-day work happens through small techniques applied in real moments. Sixteen techniques cover most of the ground. Each one targets a specific way thinking goes wrong.

The techniques and what they target

The techniques are not abstract principles. Each one corrects a specific failure of careless thinking.

1. Clarify

State one point at a time. Elaborate, give examples, ask others to clarify or give examples.

A vague claim is hard to think about. “How can we fix education?” is unclear. “How can teachers better prepare students for the future?” is clearer. The technique is to keep narrowing until the question becomes one a person could actually answer.

2. Be accurate

Check your facts. A claim like “most students do not know how to learn” sounds confident and may not be true. Critical thinking begins with checking whether claims are accurate before reasoning from them.

3. Be precise

Make sure the claim is specific enough to be checked. “Maliha is a problem student” is imprecise. “Maliha has an attention deficit” is more precise. The first hides what is actually being claimed; the second makes the claim available for examination.

4. Be relevant

Stick to the main point. Notice how each idea connects to the main idea. A teacher discussing why a particular method works for her students may drift into general claims about teaching. Pulling back to the relevant question is part of the discipline.

5. Know your purpose

What are you trying to accomplish? What is the most important thing here? Distinguish your purpose from related purposes. A reflection that loses sight of its purpose drifts. A discussion without a shared purpose talks past itself.

6. Identify assumptions

All thinking is based on assumptions. Identifying them is what stops the thinking from running on autopilot.

A short example. A teacher whose female students are not succeeding in her science class can think:

• Unidentified assumption: “Girls are no good at science.”
• Identified assumption: “Science is a subject like any other. If my female students are not succeeding, something in the way I am teaching is not working for them.”

The second framing surfaces a different assumption (the teaching matters) and produces a different next move (examine the teaching).

7. Check your emotions

Emotions shape thinking. The technique is not to remove emotion but to notice when it may be pushing thinking in a particular direction. A teacher tired from a long day evaluates a student’s essay differently from one who is rested. Naming the emotion lets the thinker correct for it.

8. Empathise

Try to see things from others’ perspectives. Imagine how others feel. Imagine how you sound to them. A discussion that takes the other person’s view seriously usually produces sharper thinking than one that does not.

9. Know your own ignorance

Each person knows only a small fraction of the available knowledge in the world. Even if you know more about a particular issue than your students or a colleague, you might still be wrong. Educate yourself; stay humble.

10. Be independent

Think critically about important issues for yourself. Do not believe everything you read. Do not conform to the priorities, values, and perspectives of others without examination.

This technique is in tension with technique 8 (empathise) and technique 13 (consider others’ points of view). The tension is productive. The thinker takes others’ views seriously and then makes her own judgement.

11. Think through implications

Consider the consequences of your viewpoint. A claim that sounds reasonable may have implications that do not.

A short example. “Not planning my lessons is wrong” is a direct claim. Thinking through implications produces: “If my lessons are unplanned, I cannot be sure of the journey my students are taking in their learning. I need to consider planning as a road map to help them reach their destination.” The implication makes the original claim concrete.

12. Suspend judgement

Do not make a decision and then use critical thinking to back it up. The discipline is to genuinely consider before deciding.

A short example. “We are here to promote the school’s curriculum reform; what arguments can we construct in its favour?” is a closed question. “What do we want from our curriculum, and let us use critical thinking to find the best ways to achieve it?” is open. The first uses critical thinking to defend a fixed position; the second uses it to find a position.

13. Consider others’ points of view

Listen seriously to other viewpoints. Consider their most persuasive arguments. The technique works against narrow-mindedness.

A short example. Reading some research and letting it persuade you is narrow-minded. Reading the research, then reading other research that argues the opposite point, and weighing both, is open-minded.

14. Recognise cultural assumptions

People from different cultures think differently. The technique is to notice when one’s own perspective is being treated as the universal default.

A teacher in Karachi, a teacher in Lagos, and a teacher in Bonn each carry cultural assumptions that shape what they take to be obvious about teaching. Each one can usefully ask why her perspective is treated as more right than others.

15. Be fair, not selfish

Each person’s most basic bias is for themselves. Fairness requires noticing the bias and working against it.

A short example. “I cannot know everything; it is not my fault I made a mistake” is selfish framing. “I cannot know everything, but I could easily have done some basic research before attempting that strategy” is fair framing. The second accepts responsibility where the first deflects it.

Patterns across the techniques

Several patterns connect the techniques.

Self-correction

Most techniques are checks that a thinker can apply to her own thinking. Be accurate, be precise, identify assumptions, check emotions: each one assumes the thinker may be wrong and offers a way to check.

Other-mindedness

Empathise, consider others’ points of view, recognise cultural assumptions, be fair: each one widens the lens from the thinker’s own view to others'.

Discipline

Be precise, be relevant, suspend judgement, think through implications: each one slows the thinking down and stops it from skipping steps.

A teacher who builds these habits over a year tends to find her thinking sharper across the board. The techniques are not separate skills; they reinforce each other.

Flashcard

What is the difference between technique 12 (suspend judgement) and technique 11 (think through implications)?

Tap to reveal

Answer

One is about the start of thinking, the other about its consequences

Suspend judgement asks the thinker to wait before deciding, so that the thinking can be open rather than defending a pre-formed view. Think through implications asks the thinker to follow a claim out, considering what would be true if the claim were accepted. The two techniques work at different points in the process and reinforce each other.

Using the techniques in working life

The full list is not a daily checklist. A teacher who tries to apply all sixteen at once will produce nothing. The list is more useful as a self-audit.

A practical pattern:

1. Pick two or three techniques that target your most common failure modes.
2. Work on those for a term.
3. Review at the end of the term: which ones became habits, which ones did not.
4. Pick the next two or three.

Over a few years, most of the techniques become habits. The remaining ones become the ones the thinker reaches for deliberately when the situation needs them.

A teacher whose habit is to identify assumptions and check emotions has already gained more than most reflective practitioners ever do. Adding suspend judgement and consider others’ points of view adds another layer. The work is slow; the payoff compounds.