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Groundwork needed: why Critical Thinking is essential in citizenship education

Critical thinking has been an object of study for many decades now, although of course its origins can easily be traced back to at least Aristotle. And while one single definition of ‘Critical thinking’ has not yet been agreed upon, most of those interested in the question will accept that critical thinking can be sub-defined as having two main aspects – related, imbricated, intertwined yet distinct. These two aspects are the skills (properly so-called), and the dispositions . As those names indicate, there are two operations at work when ‘thinking critically’: there is the mental attitude required, the frame of mind: the dispositions. And there is the applying of well-known rules (or mechanisms) to understand where thinking went wrong: the skills. Dispositions are basically habits we must learn to develop: open-mindedness, fair-mindedness, inquisitiveness, the desire to be well-informed, respecting others’ perspective (see E. Lai, reference below). Those dispositions, those habits
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Clarifying the debate: Children and Young Adult books, and the idea of ‘Literature teaching’

  Clarifying the debate: Children and Young Adult books, and the idea of ‘Literature teaching’ There’s a been something of a debate lately concerning the value of Children’s literature, and by extension, YAL (Young Adult lit.). You might have seen it coming by online, and in newspapers: something along the lines of ‘ Which books are good enough (‘rich’ enough) to be given to read to the youth? ’. Some have answered in a restrictive way, pointing out the value of ‘rich content’ books and how those can add value to the reading experience. Some, of course, advocate an ‘anything-goes’ attitude, where whichever book you get someone to read is a good thing: what matters is not really what they read, but the very fact that they read. Among those, it’s fair to say that sometimes their reaction seems informed by their own interests (see Sander Meij in the NRC, October 2024, who quotes his own books as being worthy of being read), or by a research project, or by a desire to be ecumenical,
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