It's always nice to see a reference to my old friend Tim van Gelder (I spent three months on a fellowship with him in Australia in 2001). Here the reference is to Teaching Critical Thinking: Some Lessons From Cognitive Science. In this undated article (a repost from some time in the past) author Althea Need Kaminske summarizes the paper but also slants it to a degree, I think. For example, I don't think that when van Gelder says 'critical thinking requires practice' he is saying "instruction on critical thinking needs to done explicitly and deliberately." I also don't think he is saying critical thinking skills in one domain cannot be transferred to another domain, only that "students also must practice the art of transferring the skills from one situation to another." Critical thinking can be taught, and the skills by their very nature are general and widely applicable, but (says van Gelder) instructors have to do more than teach theory and hope students acquire the skills. Learning critical thinking requires practice.
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