Why Critical Thinking Skills Are Necessary for Students
4 minute read
In our information-saturated society, the ability to critically evaluate evidence and apply logical reasoning to challenging situations is essential for success. That goes for academic contexts, including high school classrooms, as well as for professional environments, such as student internships and other industry settings. Critical thinking empowers students (and non-students) to parse, analyze, and make sense of information, to evaluate assumptions, to ask important questions, and to generate original and valuable ideas.
Below, we’ll go over what it actually means to think critically, as well as why critical thinking is an essential life skill both during and after high school. We’ll also discuss potential challenges that may impede students from strengthening their critical thinking and effective decision-making skills, as well as concrete strategies for becoming a top critical thinker.
What Critical Thinking Really Means
Is there a singular and agreed-upon definition of critical thinking? The short answer is no. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the “definition [of critical thinking] is contested, but the competing definitions can be understood as differing conceptions of the same basic concept: careful thinking directed to a goal.” In their Writing and Research Guide, the University of Southern California describes critical thinking as “an acquired skill associated with becoming a complex learner capable of discerning important relationships among the elements of, as well as integrating multiple ways of understanding applied to, the research problem.” Cognitive researchers Gómez et al. (2025) explain, “Various authors agree that this competency involves the ability to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information, questioning assumptions and contrasting multiple perspectives in order to make informed judgments.”
While an exact definition of critical thinking can be tricky to nail down, keep this in mind: when researchers and teachers talk about critical thinking, they don’t (usually) mean that you need to critique others’ work, as some students mistakenly believe. Instead, they are referring to the following process:
Asking careful, incisive, and sometimes skeptical questions
Evaluating and analyzing evidence to deepen your understanding while recognizing inherent assumptions and biases
Synthesizing findings and applying logical reasoning to develop an evidence-based argument
Clearly expressing your conclusion and the steps that lead to it
In summary, critical thinking is both a skill and a context-dependent combination of techniques that empowers students to engage actively with the information around them.This crucial skill allows students to approach challenges with an analytical mindset, identify unreliable information, and make well-informed decisions based on their analysis.
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Why Students Need Critical Thinking Skills in School
Critical thinking is an essential skill for conducting research, solving problems, and contributing meaningfully to debates and discussions with peers and colleagues.
Critical thinking is used at every stage of the research process, but is particularly necessary for writing the literature review and discussion sections of a paper. Firstly, when reviewing evidence, students must critically assess the research design of the authors. This includes studying their methods of data and information collection, as well as determining whether their assumptions are based on facts. In this context, critical thinking must be used to evaluate evidence and to address how sources “might perpetuate inequalities or hide the voices of others,” according to USC.
Critical thinking is similarly essential during the discussion section of a paper. Students must use critical thinking skills to reflect on their findings, explain how they lead to their conclusion, and evaluate the importance of their results in larger contexts.
Beyond writing research papers, critical thinking skills are key to effective problem solving. Students with strong critical skills are cognitively flexible, meaning they frequently reassess their own positions to detect biases restricting or influencing their own reasoning. They are then able to adjust and reframe problems with relative ease.
Critical thinking skills also enhance students’ performance in class discussions by empowering them to pinpoint weaknesses in given arguments, pose fundamental questions and knowledge gaps that require addressing, and confidently propose constructive solutions. This builds effective decision-making skills that help students navigate an increasingly complex world, and step into a brighter future with confidence.
Critical Thinking Skills Beyond the Classroom
Outside of high school, critical analysis tools are just as crucial. Students can apply their critical skills learned during school to real-world problems. For example, these challenges can include navigating misinformation online. Researchers Machete and Turpin directly link critical thinking with information literacy as a mechanism for evaluating the credibility of online publications and for identifying fake news.
Additionally, critical thinking overlaps with effective communication skills in a variety of challenging settings. The U.S. Army War College has described the modern work environment as “volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.” Dealing with these conditions requires a set of “21st-century skills” including strong critical thinking and communication abilities. Effective communication (both verbal and nonverbal) requires critically formulating and decoding large amounts of information while keeping in mind specific purposes, intentions, the validity of information, and the communication styles of others.
Furthermore, developing critical thinking skills during or in parallel with high school prepares students to engage meaningfully with the academic environments they will find at the university and higher education level. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign stresses the importance of critical thinking for college success. Brandeis University specifically highlights critical thinking as one of the top criteria they look for in applicants for admission.
Barriers to Developing Critical Thinking
Clearly, critical thinking is a crucial skill for high school and beyond. However, Gómez et al. cite multiple barriers that can impede students’ development of strong critical thinking skills. For example, they discuss how some classrooms exclusively use traditional teaching methods, which rely on rote memorization instead of building metacognitive skills. While these methodologies can seem to be effective in the short term, they ultimately “limit students’ reflective potential.”
Furthermore, the researchers reveal that high levels of anxiety (for example, about making mistakes) can act as barriers preventing students from practicing critical thinking. Excessive anxiety is a physiological factor that “reduces cognitive flexibility,” they write, making it harder for students to analyze information in a “reflective and systematic manner.”
Finally, they discuss digital tools like AI as a double-edged sword in developing critical thinking skills. While they note that the availability of technological resources can “expand opportunities for accessing knowledge,” it can also “generate dynamics of information dependence that reduce students’ ability to analyze independently.”
In spite of these challenges, there are proven ways for high school students to strengthen as critical thinkers.
How to Think Critically: Ways to Strengthen Critical Thinking
The importance of critical thinking can not be undermined. Several concrete strategies have been shown to foster the development of critical thinking skills in students. For example, Ian, a Polygence alum, recently completed a research project on the effect of metacognition on learning outcomes. According to his paper, learning is “a skill that can be continually honed and improved.” Ian goes on to explain how learning frameworks that include both knowledge acquisition and experiential reflection can support “critical thinking, creativity, and application to real world skills…”
Other authors in the field back up Ian’s findings linking experiential learning to critical thinking development. Janet Eyler, Professor Emerita at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development, focuses on incoming college students. She notes that “Students often arrive at college with simplistic ways of viewing knotty problems…. The process by which students develop the capacity to use advanced formal reasoning processes involves confronting dissonant information and making sense of it.” In other words, intentionally addressing ambiguity can be helpful for strengthening students’ critical and analytical abilities.
Eyler demonstrates that experiential learning strategies such as independent projects can prepare students to more fully comprehend challenging situations in the real world. According to Eyler, these strategies can lead to significant benefits like:
“a deeper understanding of subject matter than is possible through classroom study alone,”
“the capacity for critical thinking and application of knowledge in complex or ambiguous situations,” and
“the ability to engage in lifelong learning, including learning in the workplace.”
In summary, practicing experiential learning and engaging with ambiguous situations are proven strategies for strengthening critical thinking skills while allowing students to make better decisions.
How Mentors Support the Growth of Critical Thinkers
Great mentorship should foster critical thinking in students. Mentors can help students build their critical thinking abilities by:
Encouraging questioning. In a mentorship setting, there are no bad questions. Students should feel free to ask questions whenever they don’t understand, and to follow up with clarifying thoughts, ideas, and reflections. This type of dynamic intellectual environment encourages discussion and debate, fosters curiosity, and prevents students from over-worrying about making mistakes.
Modeling analytical reasoning. Mentors can also model analytical reasoning for students by walking them through their thought processes step by step. They can provide real-world examples from their academic or professional experiences, and discuss with the student how and why they came to their evidence-based conclusions.
Challenging assumptions. In addition, mentors can help students cultivate a strong critical stance when reading and writing and make informed decisions. For example, they can point out examples in which the student, the mentor, or another researcher or author may have inherent assumptions and biases. They can then evaluate those assumptions to determine whether or not they are based on fact. Finally, they can assess the best strategies for accounting for non-neutrality, such as providing rigorous and evidence-based counter-arguments from other authors who have different biases and perhaps contradictory conclusions.
Guiding independent research. Finally, mentors can support students’ critical thinking growth by guiding them through independent research projects. As discussed above, experiential learning leads students to critically reflect on their knowledge and on their knowledge gaps. This results in deeper problem-solving, greater cognitive flexibility, and improved academic outcomes.
Polygence is a valuable resource for students to strengthen their critical and analytical skills through project-based learning. Our core Research Mentorship Program is renowned for connecting students with experienced mentors who guide them through the process of conducting independent research. Each student gets 10 individual sessions with their mentor to brainstorm project ideas, plan out and design their project, conduct research, and showcase their work through a paper, presentation, or creative reflection.
In addition to the Core Program, our new Work Lab program is designed for students who are interested in gaining hands-on experience in exciting startups. Whereas Core Program students work with researchers, Work Lab participants connect with founders and executives at real-world companies. These aren’t your typical high school internships: participants engage with meaningful and challenging projects that require critical thinking and intellectual curiosity. In Work Lab, the problems that you’ll be working on have real stakes, which means you’ll get to see a real impact. That said, the program includes mandatory industry training with the host company. Students are expected to be self-motivated and able to handle significant responsibility.
On the other hand, Polygence Pods is ideal for those students who are excited to gain foundational knowledge on cutting-edge topics alongside a small group of like-minded peers. Each condensed course takes place over just six weeks, meaning you’ll get straight into the core of the subject matter from the very first session. This is perfect for busy students who prefer to explore a subject in a seminar format before committing to a full-length independent project.
Apply online to learn how Polygence can help you build and showcase your critical thinking skills!