8 Ways Parents Can Support Critical Thinking At Home

1. Think critically as a habit
Practicing critical thinking in their ‘native environments–at home, with friends, reading self-selected texts, on social media, and more–is a useful strategy to build their cognitive muscles.

2. Debate everything!
Science, for example. Debate is useful for a couple reasons: it helps students look at alternate explanations—good for analyzing experimental results—and can also develop teens’ natural communication skills. For example, “Should Bottled Water Be Banned?” Another useful resource here is NPR’s Intelligence Squared debates.

3. Provide access to diverse, quality reading materials
And then give them time to read them and discuss the reading. Even ask students to make claims based on the reading and support those claims with evidence.

4. Practice Claim-Evidence reasoning
Claim-Evidence-Reasoning. When they make a claim, ask for their evidence to build in the analytical habit of mind. My Dad did this every evening at dinner. (See #1.)

5. Help them learn from everything
Help them see that learning is a mindset–as is science and critical thinking. They don’t have to simply learn from ‘school’ or books, but nature and conversations and games and observation. Then help them make claims and provide evidence for those claims as a result

6. Play games

Teach children to play Chess! Download a chess program or find a chess summer camp. This ancient game proves helpful in creating a growth mindset because to be effective a player must consider alternate moves before selecting the best one.

6. Make critical thinking a game
Make critical thinking a kind of game. Use Devil’s Advocate playfully to consider alternative perspectives, for example. This is a useful way to make critical thinking a habit.

7. Teach critical thinking as a mindset

8. Explore the benefits of critical thinking
And do so in ways credible to children rather than espousing the benefits of critical thinking 25 years from now.