Inside Higher Ed: Ethics for Moral Fundamentalists

I am a philosophy professor whose specializations include ethics and politics, and my recent semesters have inevitably spotlighted current conditions of American moral and political discourse. I invite you to sit in on one of my spring 2019 ethics classes. There’s nothing exceptional about this class, but a visit may reveal one of many ways […]

The Conversation: What is critical thinking? And do universities really teach it?

There has been a spate of articles and reports recently about the increasing importance of critical thinking skills for future employment. A 2015 report by the Foundation for Young Australians claims demand for critical thinking skills in new graduates has risen 158% in three years. This data was drawn from an analysis of 4.2 million online job postings from […]

The Learning Scientists: Can We Teach Critical Thinking?

Arguably one of the most valued and sought after skills that students are expected to learn is critical thinking. The ability to think critically, and by extension solve problems and exercise effective decision making, is highly prized among employers and academics. Instructors and programs therefore face a lot of pressure to improve this valuable skill. […]

Degree of Freedom: Civics and Critical Thinking

From the new blog… One of the reasons last month’s Civic Learning Impact and Measurement Convening in California was so familiar, even for this relative newbie to the community, was that the challenges faced by those dedicated to civic education and the teaching of critical thinking are very similar. As the experts at the event pointed out, while […]

LessWrong: Double Crux — A Strategy for Resolving Disagreement

Preamble Double crux is one of CFAR’s newer concepts, and one that’s forced a re-examination and refactoring of a lot of our curriculum (in the same way that the introduction of TAPs and Inner Simulator did previously). It rapidly became a part of our organizational social fabric, and is one of our highest-EV threads for […]

Carnegie: Why Education Improvement Strategies Always Disappoint

Those of us who work for change in education need a new set of habits to avoid a repeat of recent reform disappointments. We must learn how to study the problems we aim to solve in the contexts in which they occur, before latching onto solutions. We must listen more closely to students and practitioners, […]

Medium: The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb

There’s a fun game I like to play in a group of trusted friends called “Controversial Opinion.” The rules are simple: Don’t talk about what was shared during Controversial Opinion afterward and you aren’t allowed to “argue” — only to ask questions about why that person feels that way. Opinions can range from “I think […]