Critical Thinking Activities for Deeper Student Learning

Critical thinking is a vital life skill to possess—now more than ever. In the age of the Internet, students need to know how to approach, navigate, and understand information in the most efficient and accurate way possible. Implementing critical thinking activities in the classroom will not only engage students but help them use their best judgment to make decisions and form confident, well-researched conclusions.

Educators have the opportunity to help their students build these critical skills in the classroom. Through activities and self-reflection, students can build new thinking habits that lead them beyond surface-level conclusions. Below, you’ll find critical thinking activities for the classroom that are simple to implement into lesson plans and promote deeper, analytical thought. 

What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is the act of analyzing, questioning, and thoroughly evaluating information. Instead of accepting surface level assumptions, critical thinking requires us to go a step further to arrive at the most sound conclusion. 

Unsurprisingly, this type of thinking doesn’t come naturally to the human brain.¹ Too often, we can be naive or go along with popular opinion without really understanding or considering why—a phenomenon called copying bias.²

But those who consistently use critical thought go against the grain. Instead, they consider all sides of a situation or argument, ask deeper questions, and arrive at more nuanced conclusions. If students adopt a growth mindset, they can do the same—slowly changing how they react and accept information until critical thinking is a part of their daily thought process.

Why Critical Thinking is an Important Life Skill to Develop

Here are a few key advantages of developing critical thinking—and how strong reasoning skills can positively impact you throughout life:

• Forming Opinions. Critical thinking allows us to arrive at our own conclusions instead of solely relying on the opinions of others. Instead of taking things at face value, those who use critical thinking synthesize information, helping them form ideas based on their own values and perspective.
• Better Decision Making. Critical thinking has been shown to improve our brains’ decision making functions.³ With these skills, we’re able to evaluate and make the best logical choices in any given circumstance.
• Improved Workplace Performance. Undergraduates equipped with critical thinking skills were found to be more adaptable to change and more innovative in the workplace.⁴ Not only does critical thinking help students with specific choices, but it allows them to thrive in their careers, no matter the industry.
• Improved Media Literacy. With so much of our news accessed online, critical thought helps students understand bias, credible sources, and how easily opinion can be swayed. With these skills, students learn to examine and ask questions like: Where did this information come from? Is this from a trusted source? Is this an opinion or a proven fact?
• Understand Different Perspectives. Critical thinking considers all sides of an argument, which can lead to open-mindedness and increased empathy. ⁵With proper research, students can even end up agreeing with perspectives they would have otherwise discounted.

In the age of the Internet, students need to know how to approach, navigate, and understand information in the most efficient and accurate way possible.

Developing Core Critical Thinking Skills

Based on Dr. Peter A. Facione’s groundbreaking and influential research,⁶ several components make up critical thinking. Let’s explore each of these, along with examples of how to encourage these skills in the classroom:

Interpretation

Interpretation refers to comprehension and identifying significance to clarify meaning. To help students in this skill, encourage them to summarize information in their own words, like assigned reading material or difficult textbook paragraphs.

Analysis

Analysis is the act of examining ideas, arguments, and evidence. In the classroom, this can be done by encouraging students to examine all arguments for research projects, essays, and presentations. Remind them to consider and respect every perspective. 

Evaluation

Evaluation involves assessing the credibility and strength of an argument or source. Remind students to always be mindful where they get their information from. Here are some questions to help identity if a source is credible:

• Who is the author or publisher?
• Does this source provide facts or opinions?
• When was this source published? Is the information outdated?
• Is there evidence to support the claims?
• Is the source reputable and trustworthy?

Inference

Inference is making a clear hypothesis and conclusion of the given information. For school projects, students should have a clear understanding and sources to back up their statements and research. The stronger their research, the stronger their thesis statement will be!

Explanation

Explanation is clearly communicating your reasoning process. A great way to help students build this skill is through class presentations and asking them to explain their process, whether it’s for a math problem, essay conclusion, or research project.

Self-Regulation

Self-regulation is continuing to reflect and improve on our thinking and reasoning skills. This is sometimes referred to as metacognition, or “thinking about thinking.” Using writing exercises after class, ask students to self reflect after lessons and class assignments. Here are some starter questions that can lead to cognitive growth:

• What was something about this assignment I don’t understand?
• Are there any research strategies that can help me in this project?
• Are there any blindspots in this essay/research presentation/group project?

4 Critical Thinking Activities for Students

Though critical thinking can be fostered every day, activities are a great way to engage students while helping them develop life skills. Below, we’ve compiled four critical thinking activities for classroom use that each target different important aspects of critical thought. For a brief overview, here’s a reference sheet to better understand targeted skills, time needed, and materials. Click on the name to jump directly to detailed instructions!

Activity Name	Grade Range	Time Required	Materials Needed	Skills Targeted
Headline Game	7th–12th grade	~20 minutes	Minimal	Media literacy, bias detection, evaluation skills
Fact or Opinion?	6th–10th grade	~20 minutes	Minimal	Analysis and evaluation skills, media literacy
What’s Going on Here?	6th–12th grade	~10 minutes	Minimal	Observation, inference, understanding different perspectives
Error Analysis	6th–10th grade	~15 minutes	Minimal	Evaluation and analysis skills, logic and reasoning

The Headline Game: Spotting Media Bias

For this activity, students consider how personal bias and opinion can influence perception of the same event. At the end of this examination, students should have a clearer understanding of the power of language and the importance of looking at multiple sources and perspectives.

• Grade Range: 7th–12th grade
• Group Size: Any
• Time: ~20 minutes
• Materials: Collected headlines
• Skills Practiced: Media literacy, bias detection, evaluation skills

Part 1: Present Articles

Select articles that cover a recent event (pop culture, political protest, ect). These should come from various sources and all have a different tone—neutral, biased, sensational, etc. Don’t show the actual content of the article yet—present only the headlines to your class.

Part 2: Discuss

Ask students questions about the language of each headline to start the critical thinking process. Here are some questions that can open up discussion:

• What emotions do these headlines evoke?
• Why do you think certain words were chosen? What do they imply?
• Which headline is the most factual?

Part 3: Read

After discussion, reveal the source of each headline and the content of the articles. Ask students to read through each article and compare the writing to one another. Students can reflect on the following questions to further understand how language frames perspective and meaning:

• Which article used the most emotional language? What effect did it have?
• How do sources play a role in the article’s headlines and perspective?
• Is bias always a bad thing? And is it possible to be completely free from bias?

Fact or Opinion?: Evaluating Statements

For this activity, students are asked to analyze and identify facts or opinions in an article. This can help students when evaluating sources and further understanding the role of bias in writing.

• Grade range: 6th–10th grade
• Group size: Any
• Time: ~20 minutes
• Materials: Chosen article to discuss, highlighters
• Skills practiced: Analysis and evaluation skills; media literacy

Part 1: Present

Provide students with a short article or editorial. To keep them engaged, let the topic be about something relevant to them and their age range. Here are a few article topic ideas to get you started:

• For younger students: School uniforms, homework, popular celebrity news
• For older students: Technology in schools, mental health, recent political event

Part 2: Identity

Using different colored highlighters or different writing utensils, have students identify which statements in the article are fact or fiction.

Part 3: Rewrite

Using laptops or smartphones for research, let students try and find sources to support every opinion they’ve highlighted. After they’ve found a source, have them rewrite the sentence to present fact instead of opinion. An example might look like this:

• Opinion Sentence in Original Article: Social media can make people feel isolated.
• Sentence Rewritten as Fact: A recent study found that U.S. adults aged 30–70 that were in the top 25% of social media usage frequency were twice as likely to feel lonely. ⁷

By the end of the exercise, students will improve in their ability to evaluate content and think critically about source credibility.

What’s Going on Here?: Sharpening Observation Skills

In “What’s Going on Here?” students must figure out the context of an image based on the given clues. This exercise not only supports inference skills but challenges perspectives and assumptions for broader thinking.

• Grade range: 6th–12th grade
• Group size: Any
• Time: ~10 minutes
• Materials: Images to project/pass out (a great resource can be found on the NYT Learning Network)
• Skills practiced: Observation; inference; understanding different perspectives

Part 1: Present

Present an image to the class without revealing the caption for context (for an excellent free library of interesting pictures, visit the NYT Learning Network!). Ask students:

• What do you notice?
• What do you think is happening?
• What evidence supports your hypothesis?
• What questions do you have?

Part 2: Reveal

After discussing possible interpretation, reveal what’s really going on in the image. Ask students what assumptions formed their first interpretation and the role of observation in coming up with conclusions. 

Error Analysis: Finding the Fallacy

In “Error Analysis,” students examine a flawed argument and identify the fallacy. Through this activity, students learn how to dissect poor logic and strengthen their analysis skills. 

• Grade range: 6th–10th grade
• Group size: Any
• Time: ~15 minutes
• Materials: None
• Skills practiced: Evaluation and analysis skills; logic and reasoning

Part 1: Present

Present students with a statement with weak reasoning. Here are some examples to get started:

• I failed the last math test, so I must be terrible at math. (Hasty Generalization)
• Schools enforce uniforms because they want to squash individuality and make students feel controlled. (Straw Man)
• Because everyone goes to the football games, it must be the best sport. (Bandwagon Fallacy)

Part 2: Discuss

Ask students why they believe each prompt is misleading. Remind them to point out overgeneralizations and unsupported claims. Here are some questions to help guide the discussion:

• Is this type of language supported with real evidence?
• What weaknesses or gaps are present in each of these statements?
• How can we reframe these to be more accurate?

Questions to Inspire Critical Thought

To inspire students to be reflective in their thinking, here are some critical thinking prompts that can be used in the classroom. You can also download our free PDF version to use as a poster or classroom handout!

Interpretation: 

• What’s the main idea?
• Can I summarize this information in a sentence?
• Is there something else going on beneath the surface?

Analysis:

• What are the main arguments and counterarguments?
• Are there facts to support these claims?
• Are there any hidden biases or assumptions?

Evaluation:

• Is this source credible?
• Does this reasoning make sense?
• Who is the author?

Inference:

• What conclusions can I draw from my research?
• What does all this information point to?
• Is my conclusion based on fact or opinion?

Explanation:

• What is my thesis statement?
• Can I support my statement with evidence?
• Is my reasoning clear to understand?

Self-Regulation:

• Have I considered all sides fairly?
• Is there a perspective I’m missing?
• How can I learn from this process?

Bringing Critical Thinking to Life

With critical thinking skills, students are equipped with the right tools to navigate and evaluate information every day. These skills are valuable in every aspect—from school to the workplace to forming our own opinions on a topic.  By using these critical thinking activities and others in school, educators can help students build strong analytical and assessment habits that will last beyond the classroom.

This is why at ERA, we’re so passionate about bringing life skills to education—because we know that’s where transformative learning starts. Our mission centers on giving students the tools they need to succeed so they can thrive in our ever-changing world. Instead of relying on the same stale, test-centered curricula, we want an education refresh—one that will help students be the best they can be.

Interested in getting involved? Send us a message or learn more about ERA’s Life Discovery curriculum designed to Teach to the Test of Life™!­

P.S. Don’t forget to download our free critical thinking questions PDF for student use!

References:

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2. Rahwan, I., Krasnoshtan, D., Shariff, A., & Bonnefon, J.-F. (2014). Analytical reasoning task reveals limits of social learning in networks. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 11(93), 20131211. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2013.1211 ↩︎
3. Helsdingen, A. S., van den Bosch, K., van Gog, T., & van Merriënboer, J. J. (2010). The effects of critical thinking instruction on training complex decision making. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 52(4), 537–545. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720810377069 ↩︎
4. Indrašienė, V., Jegelevičienė, V., Merfeldaitė, O., Penkauskienė, D., Pivorienė, J., Railienė, A., Sadauskas, J., & Valavičienė, N. (2021). The value of critical thinking in higher education and the labour market: The Voice of Stakeholders. Social Sciences, 10(8), 286. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10080286 ↩︎
5. Guamanga, M. H., Saiz, C., Rivas, S. F., & Bueno, P. M. (2025). Critical thinking and metacognition: Pathways to empathy and psychological well-being. Journal of Intelligence, 13(3), 34. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence13030034 ↩︎
6. Facione, P. A. (1990). Critical thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction: Research Findings and recommendations. American Philosophical Association. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED315423.pdf ↩︎
7. Gorman, J. R., Kim, H., Sakuma, K.-L. K., Koneru, G., Aslam, M., Arredondo Abreu, C., & Primack, B. A. (2025). Time and frequency of social media use and loneliness among U.S. adults. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 22(10), 1510. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22101510 ↩︎