AIM OF THE MODULE
The present module provides a guide for teachers and educational professionals for analysing the basic aspects of thinking processes, in order to support students in creating their own opinions independently, being able to analyse and evaluate the reliability of information, discourses and arguments, questioning assumptions and detecting logical fallacies and thinking biases.
In the era of hyper-connection we are living, we are bombarded with a continuous flow of information and news: young people in particular if not well trained in critical thinking, will tend to absorb any information without reformulating and questioning it, thus ending up believing immediately everything they read or hear. Critical thinking is important especially in a world that is often made of fake news, voluntary distortions of facts or reality and propaganda.
With particular reference to controversial issues, such as migration, terrorism, gender violence and sexual orientations, left to rely on friends and social media for their information, young people can be frustrated or confused about some of the major issues which affect their communities and European society today. In the absence of help from school, they might have no reliable means of dealing with these issues constructively and no one to guide them.
The role of school and teachers becomes fundamental in this sense, to support students in developing their critical thinking, approaching news, data and information in logical and conscious ways, to understand and handle life in pluralist social environments, becoming resilient against extreme views, social polarisation and radicalisation processes.
After the completion of this module, you will be able to:
- Understand the links between ideas
- Determine the importance and relevance of arguments and ideas
- Recognise arguments
- Identify inconsistencies, weaknesses and errors in reasoning
- Recognise biases
- Evaluate sources and data