This article draws six key lessons from cognitive science for teachers of critical thinking. The lessons are: acquiring expertise in critical thinking is hard; practice in critical thinking skills themselves enhances skills; the transfer of skills must be practiced; some theoretical knowledge is required; diagramming arguments ("argument mapping") promotes skill; and students are prone to belief preservation. The article provides some guidelines for teaching practice in light of these lessons.

This paper has been surprisingly popular; I have been contacted about it by numerous college teachers, particularly in the US.  It was originally commissioned by Dr. Joe Lau at Hong Kong University as part of a major critical thinking project he directed there.  

p.45, first column, second paragraph:  The sentence "The passage expresses in a verbal stream an argument about the origin of some unusual waves."  should be "The passage expresses in a verbal stream an argument about compensation for loss of life."  

The article has appeared as