“For example, Norris (1985), in a summary of critical thinking work through the early 80s, defined critical thinking as “rationally deciding what to do or believe” (p. 40). Sternberg (1986), reflecting additional developments in cognitive science, defined critical thinking as “the mental processes, strategies, and representations people use to solve problems, make decisions, and learn new concepts” (p. 3). He proposed a three-part taxonomy of critical thinking, consisting of metacomponents, performance components, and knowledge-acquisition components.”(Plucker et al., 2015d, p.1)
It is maybe more important now than ever before that students are able to rationally decide what to believe and do. We have so much information at our fingertips and much of what is said on the internet especially is not necessarily true. Citizens need to be able to fact-check and decide what is true.