Learning Projects for Critical Thinking
Critical thinking projects: comparative analysis of competing approaches, reverse engineering successful systems, assumption mapping.
Page Summary
A set of hands-on projects for developing critical thinking, opening with the 1998 CIA failure to predict India's nuclear tests, which stemmed from unexamined assumptions rather than missing information. It frames critical thinking as learnable skills and presents eight projects: comparative analysis with opposing sources, assumption mapping, fact-checking popular claims, decision autopsy, argument mapping, pre-mortem analysis, steel-manning, and base-rate research, with what research shows about developing critical thinking and common failure modes.
Contributions
Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.
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India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests occurred in May 1998, not 1999.
BeforeIn 1999, a group of CIA analysts failed to predict India's nuclear tests
AfterIn 1998, a group of CIA analysts failed to predict India's nuclear tests
Why: Verified live: body content already correctly states 1998 (Pokhran-II). FAQ field contains no mention of India, the nuclear tests, or the year. No further action needed; contribution's fix was already fully applied.
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