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Impact of Critical Thinking Education on Adults’ Ability to Evaluate Everyday Arguments

Abstract

Critical thinking education is important in developing adults’ ability to examine information, assess reasoning, and make sound judgments in everyday situations. Everyday arguments occur in conversations, workplace interactions, advertisements, public discussions, news reports, and digital communication, where individuals are frequently presented with claims supported by different reasons or forms of evidence. Without adequate critical thinking skills, adults may accept weak or unsupported arguments without carefully examining their basis. This study therefore seeks to examine the impact of critical thinking education on adults’ ability to evaluate everyday arguments. Critical thinking education involves providing adults with knowledge and practical skills for examining information and reasoning systematically. It may include identifying claims and conclusions, assessing evidence, recognizing assumptions, comparing reasons, identifying inconsistencies, and determining whether conclusions are adequately supported. Through discussions, practical exercises, problem-based activities, and analysis of everyday arguments, adults can develop greater ability to examine reasoning rather than relying solely on personal impressions. Adults’ ability to evaluate everyday arguments refers to their capacity to examine claims, supporting reasons, evidence, assumptions, and conclusions in order to determine the strength and relevance of an argument. Effective evaluation requires individuals to consider whether the reasons provided adequately support the conclusion and whether the information presented is relevant to the claim. Critical thinking education is expected to strengthen this ability by improving adults’ analytical reasoning, evidence assessment, and judgment skills. The study will adopt a suitable quantitative research design. The population will comprise selected adult learners, from whom a representative sample will be drawn. Data will be collected using a structured questionnaire and an argument-evaluation assessment containing realistic everyday arguments for participants to analyse. The data obtained will be analysed using appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical techniques to determine the impact of critical thinking education on adults’ ability to evaluate everyday arguments. The study is expected to establish that adults exposed to critical thinking education demonstrate improved ability to evaluate everyday arguments compared with those with limited exposure to such education. Participants are also expected to demonstrate greater ability to identify relevant evidence, examine supporting reasons, recognize assumptions, identify weaknesses in reasoning, and determine whether conclusions are adequately supported. These improvements may contribute to more thoughtful judgments in everyday communication and decision-making. The findings are expected to have implications for adult education by emphasizing the importance of practical critical-thinking activities in adult learning programmes. Educators can use everyday conversations, advertisements, workplace discussions, public statements, news reports, and digital information as materials for argument-evaluation activities. The study will be beneficial to adult learners, educators, community facilitators, workplace learners, and individuals who regularly encounter arguments and claims in their daily lives. The study recommends that adult education programmes should incorporate practical critical-thinking activities that enable adults to evaluate everyday arguments systematically. Educators should provide learners with opportunities to identify claims, examine reasons and evidence, recognize assumptions, and assess conclusions using realistic examples. It is concluded that critical thinking education can improve adults’ ability to evaluate everyday arguments and promote more careful reasoning, informed judgment, and effective engagement with information.

Keywords: Critical thinking education, everyday arguments, adult education, adult learners, argument evaluation, critical thinking, analytical reasoning, evidence assessment, logical reasoning, claim evaluation, argument analysis, critical judgment, reasoning skills, information evaluation, decision-making