Is critical thinking still a thing?

Abi | Jul 26, 2026Jul 24, 2026

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

• engage in talking about critical thinking, misinformation and bias;
• practise key vocabulary for discussing critical thinking;
• watch a video about why people are starting to sound like AI.

In this lesson, students discuss critical thinking, reflect on its practical application and analyse multiple scenarios. They work with useful words and phrases (e.g. fall for, take something at face value, manipulate), give their opinions and watch a TED Talk video about why we sound more like AI. Students also debate how social media algorithms influence our lives, explore texts about real-life cases of deception and share more examples.

WARM-UP AND USEFUL VOCABULARY

This lesson starts with a warm-up. Students examine a statement about the effects of coffee on sleep and say which questions they would ask before deciding whether to believe it or not. Afterwards, they think about the questions they asked in the previous task and complete the definition of ‘critical thinking’. Then, students finish sentences about this topic (e.g. People who are good critical thinkers…) with their own ideas. Moving on, they look at different situations (e.g. reading news articles) and engage in talking about critical thinking, its practical application and importance. After that, students review statements related to how cognitive biases and unchecked information mislead people. They then match words and phrases for discussing critical thinking (e.g. biased, mislead, reinforce beliefs) with their definitions. Next, students read the statements from the previous exercise again and say to what extent they agree or disagree with them. 

VIDEO AND DISCUSSION

In this part of the lesson, students read the question “Why are people starting to sound like ChatGPT?” and think of a possible answer. They then watch the first part of a TED Talk video and compare their ideas. Afterwards, students watch the rest of the video and engage in talking about critical thinking, viral trends and digital media bias. Moving on, they discuss how social media algorithms influence our lives, choices and perception of reality. Following that, students read situations involving media manipulation, misinformation and cognitive bias. They say what problems they illustrate using the target vocabulary from the lesson. Then, students rank the situations from most to least harmful and explain their choices. Finally, they read texts about real-life cases of deception. Students use them to discuss misinformation, identify warning signs and share examples.

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This lesson also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students choose the correct words for talking about critical thinking in sentences with different methods. They then choose two they find most useful and explain why. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.

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