Outline of the problem

• According to many commentators, as artificial intelligence supplants many existing roles, critical thinking will become one of the most valued skills in future workplaces.  Therefore, universities and many other tertiary institutions strive to enhance the critical thinking skills of students

• Yet, as research shows, courses and programs that are designed to enhance critical thinking are not invariability effective in all fields of education.

• In addition, in many organizations, managers do not always think critically—and therefore may underestimate the value of these skills.

 

Outline of the solution

• Tertiary institutions should, either individually or collectively, construct a template that students can utilize to persuade other people. 

• In addition to persuasion techniques, this template should couple various logical fallacies—such as false dichotomies and circular arguments—with information that helps students recognize and counter these fallacies

• Next, tertiary institutions should choose a few causes they would like to promote, such as opportunities to assist neurodiverse students

• Then, teacher should set assignments in which students first need to identify which of these causes they espouse

• Second, students should attempt to uncover counterarguments to these clauses in social media

• Third, guided by the template, students should submit posts that are designed to demonstrate the flaws in these counterarguments

• To improve the template, these institutions can also subject these counterarguments, student posts, and responses to natural language processing. 

• For example, these algorithms might uncover fallacies that had been overlooked in the template or responses that are especially likely to be persuasive in particular circumstances. 

• The benefit of this campaign is that tertiary institutions can utilize this assignment to promote a valued cause and to counter fallacious thinking about this cause.  In addition, students will not only be able to access a template that enhances their critical thinking and persuasion skills but will be motivated to apply these skills to support a cause they value.