Metacognitive Education: Going beyond Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is one of the central aims of education, and many schools and universities have courses specifically devoted to critical thinking. Ennis (1989) defines critical thinking as “reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do.” There are of course many other definitions of critical thinking, but most of them emphasize the importance of rationality, clarity, analysis, and independence of thought. In a typical university course on critical thinking, students might study logic, argument analysis, basic scientific methodology, fallacies, and other related topics. They learn how to distinguish between good and bad reasoning, and use this knowledge to improve their own thinking.