Kids should be encouraged to talk back – 5 tips for teaching them critical thinking skills

Every school holiday, many parents find themselves caught in an emotional tug-of-war: on the one hand, relief at bidding farewell to homework battles, bedtime struggles, and the lamenting of lost lunchboxes; on the other, terror at the daunting prospect of a barrage of “whys” and “buts” from their relentless interrogators.

To avoid logic-defying arguments and endless debates, it is often not long before they play the ultimate parental trump card: “Because I said so”.

As a parent, I can relate. But I’m also a moral philosopher with almost two decades of teaching experience. In philosophy classes, students who question ideas – and sometimes challenge authority in doing so – are praised.

Why isn’t the same true for children? Is a child who questions their parents “being cheeky”? Or are they flexing the mental muscles necessary for their intellectual growth and ability to navigate the world?

The job of a moral philosopher is to grapple with ideas about right and wrong, good and bad, seeking to answer the ultimate question: “How ought we to live?” While we use various strategies to tackle these fundamental ethical questions, critical thinking is one of the most important tools.

Critical thinking is the ability to analyse and evaluate information and arguments clearly, rationally, and objectively. When confronted with information, we must consider why this person says that. What could be their motive? Is there a different possible explanation?

I’m not suggesting that the goal is to raise argumentative children. Rather, as philosopher, strategic thinker, and author Peter Facione explains, it is important to nurture inquisitive minds that can interpret, analyse, evaluate, and infer from information.

“In other words, parents should raise their children to be curious, critical thinkers who question everything, even if this means they question us in the process.

How can parents teach critical thinking? Here are 5 top tips:

1. Ask open-ended questions and encourage children to do the same.

2. Provide children with opportunities to make decisions and solve problems rather than doing it for them.

3. Discuss the reasoning behind the rules and decisions you make for them.

4. Encourage children to consider alternative perspectives rather than just their own.

5. Model critical thinking by thinking aloud when approaching problems.

Thinking about our thinking

Critical thinking requires metacognition: thinking about our thinking.

Reflecting on our views allows us to recognise that they should be scrutinised and evaluated. If we choose to be vegan, for example, is it because we care about reducing harm to animals, the environment, or both, or because it’s fashionable to be vegan? Once we’ve determined our reasons for something, we can evaluate whether these are “good” reasons.

Critical thinking also means evaluating other people’s reasons. This requires us to be open to others’ points of view – including our children’s – rather than being blinded by our biases.

At the same time, to be a critical thinker is to take seriously the fact that everyone “has an agenda” (which may not be explicit), and we should not take everything at face value.

We can teach our children to be critical thinkers by getting them to consider the quality of the evidence presented for a position.

Simply put, parents and caregivers can promote critical thinking in children by encouraging them to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and explore alternative perspectives. Critical thinking requires not to accept everything we read, hear, and see passively but to question, evaluate, and make judgments.

Here’s what that might look like in practice.

A practical example

Let’s say your child asks why she needs to eat vegetables.

You could respond by saying, “That’s a good question. What do you think? Why do you suppose we eat vegetables?” This would encourage the child to start thinking about the issue herself.

She replies: “Because you said I have to.”

To get her to consider whether there are reasons beyond parental authority that may be important, you might want to ask: “Is that the only reason? Let’s think about it some more. Do you know anyone else who thinks we should eat vegetables?”

Then, to encourage her to explore alternatives, you could ask: “What do you think would happen if we never ate any vegetables? What if we only ate sweets instead?”

Researching with your child might also be useful in introducing the idea of seeking evidence and reliable information. You could suggest that the two of you look up some facts about what vegetables do for our bodies.

Finally, you could return the original question to your child, allowing her to synthesise what she’s learnt and form her conclusion.

Throughout the process, you guide your child to question, consider, and arrive at a reasoned understanding rather than simply accepting a statement at face value.

*Heidi Matisonn is a senior lecturer in bioethics at The EthicsLab, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town.

*This article was initially published by The Conversation.

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