Background: Increasing students' ability to think critically allows them to engage more fully with psychology material. Objective: The current study used a critical thinking assignment called PsychBusters to examine critical thinking and interest in psychology in two sections of introductory psychology designated for first-year psychology majors.…

In accordance with the development of technology, the disinformation known as "fake news" has become a global issue, leading to the labeling of these times as the "post-truth" era. Discussion of global citizenship education, intended to shape citizens with critical thinking abilities, is thus essential in this era. This paper,…

This study examines the media literacy and critical thinking levels of students of West African higher educational institutions as tools for combating misinformation in the sub-region. Data analysis using the mediation approach revealed differences in students' understanding of media literacy and critical thinking and partially predicted their…

Numerate people tend to make more informed judgments and decisions because they are more risk literate (i.e., better able to evaluate and understand risk). Do numeracy skills also help people understand regular science reporting from mainstream news sources? To address this question, we investigated responses to regular science reports (e.g.,…

Much of the literature exploring Chinese international student engagement with critical thinking in Western universities draws on reductive essentialisations of 'Confucianism' in efforts to explain cross-cultural differences. In this paper I review literature problematising these tendencies. I then shift focus from inferences about how philosophy…

In our mathematics methods courses for elementary preservice teachers, we work to uncover and confront students' understandings as well as misconceptions about important mathematical topics. Karp and colleagues' ("Teaching Children Mathematics", 21(1), 18-25) "13 Rules That Expire" article has been a useful resource for us to…

Purpose: The aim of this article is to contribute new knowledge about critical thinking in social studies and conspiracy beliefs in Norwegian schools. We explore Norwegian high school pupils' self-reported learning about critical thinking in social studies and their attitudes toward conspiracy theories. Design/methodology/approach: The survey…

Fake news can have enduring effects on memory and beliefs. An ongoing theoretical debate has investigated whether corrections (fact-checks) should include reminders of fake news. The familiarity backfire account proposes that reminders hinder correction (increasing interference), whereas integration-based accounts argue that reminders facilitate…

In difficult situations as the COVID-19 crisis, people try to find explanations in order for their mind not to be in an alert state anymore. The new pandemic did not spread only the SARS-COV-2 virus, but also it spread a lot of misinformation and disinformation, a lot of fake news and plenty of conspiracy theories. Even if before COVID-19 there…

This study aimed to determine the influence of critical thinking skills on misconceptions using a five-tier instrument in mixed-method research. The sampling technique used is simple random sampling. The data collection instrument used a critical thinking skills questionnaire, a misconception test of electric field material, and interviews. Data…

Personal trainers are a popular source of exercise guidance for the public but have been shown to have fundamental errors in their knowledge, and hold misconceptions about some exercise and nutritional concepts. Critical thinking skills have been found to relate inversely to misconceptions in other populations but this has not been examined in…

Bias and prejudice are well known aspects of all societies and political arenas. They motivate a wide variety of fear-mongering policies and seem to be deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of people, interfering with their reasoning and better judgement. In this paper, I explore how bias and prejudice come about and how they can be put to more…

Background: The study of myths in psychology has conceptual and educational relevance: How to adapt the teaching of psychology to confront myths with grounded knowledge? A first step is to know which myths prevail and its relation to training in psychology. Objective: To explore myth's prevalence among Spanish first-year university students of…

Lately conspiracy theories (CT) are increasingly hovering over Education Studies, mostly as problems in search of a solution. This paper problematizes this educational solutionist discourse by reflecting critically on different framing of CT (i.e., epistemological and ethico-political) and some related educational responses, ranging from…

This experimental field study (pre-post-follow-up design) with 184 student teachers examined the effectiveness of an intervention to reduce misconceptions about psychology within an introductory psychology course. For this purpose, over the course's one-semester duration, all students attended six lectures and, in addition, worked individually on…