Stephen Downes

"Is this real?" This should be our first reaction these days to any new content, whether it shows up on TikTok, Twitter, cable news, or a major newspaper. And "the question 'Is this real?' is a call to action for critical thinking." Quite so. But what, and how? Ross offers a rough and ready account of critical thinking, one that could use some polish, and suggests 'infusion' - "explicitly teaching principles of critical thinking embedded in specific subject-matter content within a discipline" - is the best way to teach it. My own preference is the reverse - teach the subject-specific content matter as material embedded in a single cross-disciplinary critical thinking focus. But imagine asking students to ask of textbooks, "is this real?" And yet, how necessary.