A guide for Educators to By Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder

The Growing Importance of Critical Thinking 

Critical thinking is becoming increasingly important due to four trends: accelerating 

change, intensifying complexity, escalating interdependence, and increasing danger. In 

a world charged with fear and insecurity, masses of people are unthinkingly following 

leaders who tendentiously divide the world into good versus evil, who use force and vio-

lence to enforce their views.

We are daily faced with a glut of information. And much of that information has been 

cunningly packaged to serve vested interest groups, not the individual citizen nor the 

public good. Students need to take charge of their own minds, to recognize their own 

deepest values, to take action that contributes to their own and the good of others. To do 

this, they must learn how to learn and to become, in the process, lifelong learners. 

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© 2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press

www.criticalthinking.org

Critical Thinking Competency Standards