The role of critical thinking in science education

Curiosity, capacity for evidence-based reasoning and problem-solving are key critical thinking skills, as are the ability to analyse, evaluate and synthesise information. When incorporated into fact-based learning, these skills can help pupils achieve academic success and navigate the world beyond education. 

Integrating critical thinking into science teaching can help teachers to guide pupils beyond memorisation of facts, encouraging them to question assumptions, seek evidence and make informed decisions. 

What is scientific thinking made of?  

Critical thinking encourages pupils to consider sources of information critically, assess the quality of evidence and weigh competing explanations. Science relies on evidence, and critical thinking skills can help pupils make informed decisions with evidence-based reasoning.  

For example, teachers can ask their students to analyse real-world problems such as climate change or public health issues and evaluate the strength of the evidence that supports scientific claims.   

Science education is also problem-driven. Pupils engage with problems that require innovative solutions, such as tackling complex concepts in physics, understanding biological systems or solving environmental challenges. Critical thinking equips pupils with the problem-solving skills to break down complex issues, identify key variables and construct logical, evidence-based solutions. 

Ideas to support scientific and critical thinking in your classroom 

Here are a few simple ways that you could start getting your pupils to use their critical thinking skills:  

• Answer a question with another question: Instead of just giving an answer that ends the conversation, lead learners to another question to give them the confidence to solve their own problems. ‘What would you do next?’  ‘Why do you think that will work?’  
• Revise conclusions based on new evidence: Present an exercise in which pupils use evidence to come to a conclusion, and then present them with new evidence and ask them whether that changes their first conclusion. 
• Emphasise data over beliefs: Frame scientific inquiry as generating ideas through interpretation of data and evidence and being open to unexpected conclusions, rather than taking a preconceived idea and picking only the data that fits.  
• Brainstorm of the day: Start each morning with a problem and ask your students to spend time throughout the day thinking about solutions. Brainstorm ways to solve it as a class so pupils can hear different ways interpretations and understand that there is more than one way to solve a problem.  
• Challenging assumptions: Ask pupils to earnestly analyse an idea that they don’t agree with, to demonstrate Aristotle’s famous quote about education: ‘It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it’.