I am in the process of taking three, mandatory, on-line courses for my school district. Their buzzword for critical thinking is “higher order thinking,” abbreviated “H.O.T.”.

Not defined, vague, few examples (none in my area), no information on how it is to be achieved, but constantly held up as the ideal.

It is usually associated with being some kind of social nuisance: letters to the editor, educating elementary school kids about the dangers of kite flying or driving without seat belts, monitoring streams for pollution and then reporting on it, etc.

By the way, thank you. This well-written and informative article has been an antidote to 60 hours (so far) of dreadful coursework and badly written, progressive indoctrination.

It is amazing to me how much bad philosophy and bad instructional pedagogy is also badly written.