Teaching children critical thinking? What is this fashionable term?

I heard the word critical thinking a few years ago when I was preparing for the LSAT to apply for law school. It is said that those who don’t have critical thinking don’t need to go to law school. In the past two months, I chatted with two friends who work on education accounts and said that I wanted to do some courses on critical thinking. The programmer\’s dad looked at me in surprise: \”You liberal arts students also have critical thinking?\” Don\’t use any profanity. In public, let\’s talk things through. The so-called critical thinking, let me use the definition from Wikipedia: \”A judgment is obtained after objective analysis of facts.\” Obviously there are three elements: facts, analysis, and judgment. 1. Facts Many articles mention that children should be allowed to distinguish between \”opinions\” and \”facts.\” But as a student of journalism + law, I would like to ask a deeper question: Can people really grasp the facts? In court, when lawyers from both sides argue, is one of them necessarily lying or making excuses? No, cases where the truth is clear from the false and the outcome is clear will generally not go to court—trials are very expensive in the United States, right? They are simply presenting to judges and juries: different versions of the truth. All \”facts\” are true, but the facts are filtered, emphasized, and presented in different ways, resulting in different \”views.\” In reality, “facts” and “opinions” are not distinct. For example, girl A spreads bad words about girl B everywhere, saying: \”B is the most selfish.\” Is this an opinion or a fact? It sounds more like an opinion. Taking this a step further, girl A said: \”Last time the class arranged seats, B was so tall that he had to sit in the first row. When we were raising money for poor students, B just refused to donate money. As a result, our class was at the bottom in terms of donations and was not honored as an outstanding class. B. B is the most selfish.\” But is this the whole truth? If there are other facts, such as: B has vision problems and must sit in the first row to see the blackboard clearly; for example, B himself is a registered poor student. It sounds like B is about to make a comeback again. And A continued to add facts: There were many students with problems, but no one else received preferential treatment. Only B was given preferential treatment because he was a relative of the principal. In addition, although B is considered to be a poor student, it is obvious that she keeps changing to the latest mobile phones… Facts, in addition to \”true or false\”, must also consider whether it is \”comprehensive\”. It is true that Luo Yixiao was seriously ill, but Luo Er did not disclose that he owned three houses; he complained that he had not received any money for his husband\’s game company after several years of starting a business; nor did he disclose how he squandered all his previous dividends. In news reports, professionalism requires \”balance\” and listening to both sides. Unbalanced and unobjective. In court, the plaintiff and defendant must have equal opportunities to present their evidence. Therefore, the first requirement of critical thinking is the ability to collect and screen data. Verify the authenticity of the facts through relatively objective channels, and recover from clues the facts that have not been emphasized or disclosed. Among them, social experience is also very important. Second, it is probably this step that analyzes programmers who think they can laugh at liberal arts students. The most important thing in the analysis process is logic. I tell you with a smile: The conclusion that liberal arts students have no logic is neither a sufficient condition nor aNecessary conditions. Logic can be tested in two ways. One is to give you facts and see if you can deduce the correct conclusion; the other is to give you a wrong conclusion and see if you can find the logical fallacy in it. Let’s take a question from the logic section of the LSAT, the American Law School Admission Test. \”Known: No congressman will speak at the convention unless he is a Democratic congressman. No Democrat will be both a congressman and speak at the convention. Which of the following options is correct?\” A. No one except the congressman will speak at the convention. B. No Democrats will speak at the convention. C. Only Democrats spoke at the convention. D. No members spoke at the convention. E. Some Democratic congressmen spoke at the convention. The answer to this question is D. As for logical fallacies, you can use Baidu to search for various lists, such as generalizations, blind recognition of authority, circular arguments, etc. And I think the easiest way is to learn to list the implicit inference (analysis) process. It doesn’t matter what beautiful scientific name the logical fallacy is called, you can see the error at a glance. For example: Jam Xiao went to Nanjing, and it rained in Nanjing; Jam Xiao went to Changsha, and it rained in Changsha. So Jam Teng will go to Guangzhou tomorrow, and it will also rain in Guangzhou. Fact: Jam Hsiao went to Nanjing, and it rained in Nanjing; Jam Hsiao went to Changsha, and it rained in Changsha. Jam Hsiao will go to Guangzhou tomorrow. Conclusion: It also rains in Guangzhou. Inference process: Wherever Jamel Xiao goes, it will rain. In other words, Xiao Jingteng’s going to a certain place is a sufficient condition for rain in a certain place. The scientific names of the two logical fallacies here are \”generalizing from partial to complete\” and \”treating relevant connections as causal connections\”, but you don\’t need to know the scientific names, you only need to refute the inference process: from the two examples of Nanjing and Changsha, it is true Can Jam Hsiao go to any place where it will rain? Even if everything rains, can\’t it be a coincidence? Third, I think the important element of critical thinking is judgment. And it is not a judgment of pros and cons, but a value judgment. Artificial intelligence AI can do all the work mentioned before, only value judgment cannot. For example, if two Go players play Go, one of them is a terminally ill patient. The patient\’s level is very high, and Go is his lifelong pursuit and last wish in this life. His chess skills are superb, but he is slightly behind. He only has the last piece to determine the outcome. So should the opponent play the piece he has in his hand? A group of people may say that this is the last time the terminally ill chess player plays chess. His lifelong efforts and dedication are on this game. After losing, he will leave forever with regrets. As a person who also loves Go Man, you shouldn\’t bet on this. Another group of people may say that if he truly loves Go, he should respect the results of winning and losing and will never want a false victory. Only by being able to find a real opponent could he satisfy the Go player\’s last wish. If a person is playing chess with a terminally ill patient, he will be tortured by these questions. What made him make the final decision was not his technical analysis, but his conscience and values. Alpha Go won\’t struggle, it will win. haveA defective part in a car would cost the company RMB 100 million to recall. However, based on a compensation amount of RMB 2 million and an accident rate of 2%, if the vehicle is not recalled, the company may end up paying only RMB 50 million. Rationally calculating, it is clear which one is better and which is worse, but before signing this document, would the CEO have thought in his mind that a future accident might cause severe limbs and paralysis? The victim is a living person, just like his parents and children. Is it fair to give more university places to Western students? My child, are you willing to give up this part of your interests? The company veteran is no longer of use, should he be fired? What\’s more important in a company: favors or efficiency? Is this social reward process or reward outcome? Should this society focus on fairness or efficiency? What is fairness? What is justice? Is it fair to eat from a big pot? Justice or injustice? Let the jungle law of capital create the gap between the rich and the poor, fairness and unfairness, justice and injustice? Critical thinking is not only used to solve scientific problems and engineering problems. Scientific problems have solutions, at least there are directions. But many problems are not there. We don’t know what is right or wrong, we don’t even know where the direction is. These problems are the most complex, require the most critical thinking, and are the least likely to be replaced by artificial intelligence and AI. 4. Critical thinking education for children First of all, I think critical thinking education should not start too early. Critical thinking is rational thinking, thinking that deals with complex problems. I am not a child psychologist, but from my own point of view, young children need a sense of order and security. Too complex problems and too many uncertainties will disrupt their sense of order and security. And premature emphasis on rational thinking will also affect perceptual development to a certain extent. I think this starting point is around school age. Secondly, the most important thing about critical thinking education is whether parents have an open mind. If parents can only accept the world in black and white, cannot understand the grayscale of many social issues, and are not inclusive enough, then this education will be difficult to carry out. Thirdly, in critical thinking, there is no right or wrong. When parents discuss with their children, they are not educating them, but learning with them. After talking about the three principles, I will provide some of my ideas. 1. Let children master various information collection methods. For example, when faced with a child\’s \”100,000 Whys\”, parents might as well let him or her check Baidu or look up information; for some questions, the child can be asked to do research, such as interviewing family members, teachers, classmates, or even creating conditions for him or her to interview others. Take your children out more often to see the world. This world not only includes foreign tourist attractions, but also the living conditions of people from all walks of life. 2. Ask your children: Are there any exceptions? Encourage children to consider issues from opposing viewpoints. For example, a child particularly likes to watch iPad and TV, so I would like to ask him or her if he can think of some of the disadvantages brought about by iPad and TV? Another example is when a child says that girls wear skirts. Then ask her, do girls have to wear skirts? It\’s not for girls. Is there anyone wearing a skirt? 3. Make up stories with your children, often making up some \”unexpected\” stories. For example, Xiao Ming received a lot of money during the Chinese New YearNew Year\’s money, but he is not happy, why? 4. Discuss basic concepts of fairness and justice. For example, I have been watching \”Nirvana in Fire\” with my 8-year-old daughter these two days. In the first episode, we discussed whether we should establish a leader or a virtuous person. As the eldest child in the family, she certainly stood up for herself and put forward a strong argument that \”the eldest child has an objective conclusion.\” After confirming her idea, we also discussed the advantages of Lixian. After watching the fourteenth episode yesterday, we discussed again whether innocent people can be sacrificed for a \”just\” goal. Who gets to define what justice is? The emperor wants to keep himself the emperor. Is this justice? Critical thinking is not a mysterious high-tech thing, it is in our lives. Whether they are liberal arts students, science students, or engineering students, everyone can have critical thinking, and everyone can teach it to their children. I hope to continue discussing this experience with you in the future.