Critical Thinking and the ACRL Framework: Fake News and Fallacies

Critical thinking is characterized by the careful, reflective judgement of ideas as a guide for action. The dispositions and skills of critical thinking share a lot with the ACRL Frameworks’ frame, “Authority is Constructed and Contextual,” which many librarians are already attempting to incorporate into their teaching. Informed by the critical thinking education literature, librarians teaching about authority (even in one-shot library sessions) can encourage critical thinking skills and dispositions, which help students overcome their own flawed thinking and make better decisions. This presentation will explore the many decades of research about critical thinking in the classroom, and demonstrate its application to information literacy instruction.