Teaching value-loaded critical thinking in philosophy education

It is important that secondary school students learn to reason critically about normative issues.
Philosophy teachers can contribute to this educational objective by promoting value-loaded
critical thinking during philosophical dialogues. Value-loaded critical thinking is critical and
reflective reasoning focused on deciding what is the right thing to believe or to do (Frijters et
al. 2008). This paper describes the theoretical foundations of value-loaded critical thinking and
presents four design principles for promoting value-loaded critical thinking during
philosophical dialogues. The four design principles are: teachers should explicitly address
moral values in dialogue (1), apply moral values to engaging or realistic examples (2), promote
critical reasoning about moral values (3), and provide opportunities for reflection (4). To
provide authentic illustrations and practical suggestions for teachers, each design principle
includes selected excerpts of classroom dialogues of 10th grade philosophy classes in Dutch.