Nurturing Critical Thinking in Library Instruction

The Role of Critical Thinking Skills in Evaluation

Abstract

In the age of a surfeit of information, an important issue is how we select suitable information and use it effectivly. In American education the concept of critical thinking has come to public consciousness, because it is believed that teaching critical thinking improves thinking skills and information literacy, but emphases upon it differ between Japan and America.
With this in mind, this paper discusses the idea that critical thinking skills can be at the core of thinking skills and/or evalluation skills, and argues that they are useful for improving information literacy in Japanese library instruction.