ABSTRACT
Many of us regularly engage with adult students who accept falsehoods uncritically, and who reject off-hand the peer-reviewed research on which we rely in our pursuit of understanding and truth. In the twenty-first century, propagandists use media to manipulate emotions and suppress reason by bombarding users with disinformation. In this environment, teaching students to think critically is essential, but doing so may be more difficult than at any point in history. This chapter discusses current scholarship on teaching critical thinking before reviewing recent research on how the explosion of social media has impacted adults’ concepts of critical learning and scholarship. This is followed by an attempt to grapple with the task of teaching students to think critically in this environment and offers suggestions for classroom activities and assignments that may support that task. Finally, the chapter concludes with thoughts on where we might focus our energies and efforts going forward.
