I am not one who is easily led or swayed. I am stubborn to the point that if someone tells me to do one thing, I will probably do the opposite. A dogmatic or independent thinker? My wife would say the first. Come to think of it, so would my head of faculty. So when the editor suggested that I consider writing a column looking at how to get university students to think critically, I thought—no, I’m not doing that. Then, I thought more critically, and realized that dogmatism (based on a priori assumption rather than empirical evidence) is the antithesis of critical thinking. Enough rhetoric. This column is, after all, about science education in oceanography and not an impalpable discursion into the English language.

Boxall, S. 2012. The oceanography classroom: Don’t be too critical in thinking about our students’ abilities. Oceanography 25(4):72–74, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2012.109.

Glaser, E.M. 1941. An Experiment in the Development of Critical Thinking. Teacher’s College, Columbia University, New York, NY, 212 pp.

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