ALT In debates about critical thinking, there is perhaps one single point on which virtu- ally all agree, this is that teaching students to be ‘critical’ in their studies is an intrinsic good and that it is this, perhaps more than anything else, that should be the goal of a higher education. The possession of a critical outlook is seen not only as an essential part of engaging with knowledge in the academy, but also crucially to being an engaged citizen in the world (Barnett, 1997). But beyond consensus around the basic desirability of this quality, there is – one must concede – a good deal of disagreement and dispute. A central issue is the question of what critical thinking is exactly and whether we can ever hope to define it in some simple and unproblematic way. Does it mean, for example, as Iago in Othello suggested, a propensity to see fault in whatever one is considering?…