Evaluating the Credibility of Sources: A Missing Link in the Teaching of Critical Thinking

Abstract

Good decisions depend on starting with good information and then reasoning with it logically. Texts and instruction in courses in critical thinking by philosophers and psychologists focus almost exclusively on how we should reason with information, and they provide little or no help in guiding students toward selecting sources of credible information. I argue that we necessarily depend on others for most of the important information we use and that a major payoff of good education is learning whom to believe. Instruction in criteria to use in selecting valid sources should be an explicit and important part of instruction in critical thinking.