Children will be taught how to spot extremist content and misinformation online under planned changes to the school curriculum, the education secretary said.
Bridget Phillipson said she was launching a review of the curriculum in primary and secondary schools to embed critical thinking across multiple subjects and arm children against “putrid conspiracy theories”.
One example may include pupils analysing newspaper articles in English lessons in a way that would help differentiate fabricated stories from true reporting.
In computer lessons, they could be taught how to spot fake news websites by their design, and maths lessons may include analysing statistics in context.
Critical Thinking has been an established subject in many schools for a long time. My former GF did it in her last year as a mandatory subject.
The problem up until now is it has been mainly an A-Level subject and only really offered in Grammar schools.
I’m glad it’s being rolled out
Here’s one of the syllabi if anyone is interested
Another data point. I was taught critical thinking, particularly as it pertains to news sources as part of GCSE English - in 1987 at a normal comprehensive school in a fairly deprived area. Maybe the problem is that you can lead a horse to water etc.
I don’t remember having the option as i was nearing the end of my education in the late noughties (also a comprehensive). Perhaps it was more prevalent before