How does critical thinking work?

Duration

2 lessons (90 min.)

Level

Grades 5–12

Cost

voluntary contribution

Participants

1 class

Devices

Laptop or smartphone

Flyer

Why?

Critical thinking is a key skill for the future — especially in the face of fake news, hallucinating AIs and authoritarian politics.
Our workshop «Critical Thinking» is not just about questioning information, but the world itself. Almost everything around us is socially constructed: rules, roles, institutions, taken-for-granted assumptions. And what is constructed can also be made differently.
Students should experience that they have the right and the means to challenge what exists — and thereby help shape the world around them.
To reimagine the world, students need reliable knowledge. That is precisely what savoir public offers them, through access to researchers.

Students learn the cultural technique of questioning.
They practise critical thinking through two types of questions: questioning the given ('Why is it actually like this?') and imaginative questioning ('What if?').
Students develop an independent and innovative research question.
Students exchange with researchers via savoir public and receive an answer.

The workshop «How does critical thinking work?» is made possible by the Beisheim Foundation. Voluntary contributions help us sustain the programme in the future.

Time

Content

Format

15' Introduction to savoir public and workshop overview Plenary

15' Critical exploration of a question object Group work

10' Collecting all questions Group work

5' Transforming closed into open questions Group work

15' Selecting imaginative and critical questions Group work

20' Submitting questions on savoir public Individual / Group

10' Feedback round Plenary

14 days Answer from a researcher on savoir public savoir public

corinna.virchow@savoirpublic.ch | +41 61 421 21 82