Lay Conceptions About Critical Thinking: Opportunities or Obstacles for Teaching?

ABSTRACT This article presents the results of a mixed‐method study investigating lay conceptions of critical thinking (CT) among 506 English‐ and French‐speaking participants, with a focus on beliefs relevant to the teaching of CT: its value, its teachability and participants' beliefs about their own CT skills. Our results suggest that CT is widely perceived as important and valuable, and as a skill that can be taught rather than an innate ability. However, most participants, regardless of age, tend to consider themselves more critical than others. This better‐than‐average effect is partly explained by positive beliefs about CT skills and by the idealization of CT. We discuss the implications of these results for the teaching of CT and its potential pitfalls.