Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines

Volume 30, Issue 2, Summer 2015

Review of The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education Part V “Critical Thinking and the Cognitive Sciences”

This review essay discusses three articles from the Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education (eds. Martin Davies and Ronald Barnett) concerned with outlining the connection between cognitive science and critical thinking. All of the authors explain how recent findings in cognitive science, such as research on heuristics and cognitive biases (e.g. framing effects, the availability heuristic) might be incorporated into the critical thinking curriculum. The authors also elaborate on how recent findings in metacognition can reshape critical thinking pedagogy. For instance, the essays articulate how critical thinking instructors would be wise to broaden the scope of traditional critical thinking content by instructing students in the metacognitive strategies of self-regulation, cognitive monitoring, and evaluation in order to encourage better decision making both inside and outside the classroom.