I noticed several comments about critical thinking, but people may not be talking about the same thing. So I googled and found a couple starting points to help clarify the meaning.

Critical Thinking has 7 underlying capabilities:

• Curiosity;

• Ability to look at a problem through different prisms.

• Ability to argue;

• Open mind; Flexibility;

• Impartiality;

• Logical and factual and systematic analysis.

• make inferences.

Critical thinking exercises for elementary education

• Ask questions. ...

• Encourage decision-making. ...

• Work in groups. ...

• Incorporate different points of view. ...

• Connect different ideas. ...

• Inspire creativity. ...

• Brainstorm.