The Big and the Little of What Critical Thinking Means in Economics Education
The practice of critically questioning accepted ideas and explanations and separating those that are logical and reasonable from those that lack sufficient support or a sufficiently sound basis to be accepted is a tradition that Socrates started. An IB economics tutor in India says that, “The Plato preserved the legacy of critical thought and documented Socrates' ideas”. Many, if not all, fields, including the great majority of economics courses, usually say that one of their goals is to teach students how to employ critical thinking abilities. This could be a response to companies' requests that educational institutions provide graduates who can resolve problems and draw connections between disparate ideas, notwithstanding their inability to specify the precise competencies that characterize such critical thinkers . Economists generally concur those encouraging students to be critical thinkers is a commendable goal for economics education. There's still a ma...