Critical Thinking Activities (for Adults, Groups & the Classroom)
Twelve ready-to-run critical thinking activities for adults, teams, and the classroom — each with setup, steps, and a debrief question that turns the activity into real reasoning practice.
Critical thinking grows fastest when you do it, then reflect. Each of these activities ends with a debrief question — that reflection step is where the skill is built, so don't skip it. They work for adults and teams, the classroom, and kids. When you want to measure the skills they build, take the free critical thinking test.
1. Steel-man the opposition
Setup: Pick any decision your group disagrees on.
How to run it: Each person argues the side they personally oppose — and must make it as convincing as possible before anyone rebuts.
Debrief: What was the strongest point on the side you disagree with? Did it move you at all?
2. Red-team the plan
Setup: Take a current plan or proposal.
How to run it: Split into a "blue team" defending it and a "red team" whose only job is to find how it could fail. Red team presents the three most likely failure modes.
Debrief: Which failure mode were we most blind to, and why?
3. What's the assumption?
Setup: Read out a short claim ("We should ban phones in class").
How to run it: Students list every unstated assumption the claim depends on before anyone argues for or against it.
Debrief: Which assumption, if false, would break the whole argument?
4. Evidence sort
Setup: Hand out a mix of statements about one topic.
How to run it: Sort each into fact, inference, or opinion, and defend each placement.
Debrief: Which statements were hardest to classify, and what made them ambiguous?
5. Five whys
Setup: Start with a problem ("our meetings run long").
How to run it: Ask "why?" five times in a row, each answer feeding the next question, to reach a root cause.
Debrief: Did the real cause surprise you? How far was it from the symptom?
6. Two truths and a flaw
Setup: Find a short news article or advert.
How to run it: Identify two things it gets right and one flawed inference or missing piece of evidence.
Debrief: How did the flaw change what the piece was trying to make you believe?
7. The criteria game
Setup: Choose something to decide (where to eat, which tool to buy).
How to run it: Before naming any option, agree the criteria and weight them. Only then score the options.
Debrief: Did deciding the criteria first change your answer versus going on gut feel?
8. Devil's advocate rotation
Setup: Any discussion with an emerging consensus.
How to run it: Appoint one person to challenge the consensus each round; rotate so everyone takes a turn.
Debrief: Did forcing dissent surface a risk the group was glossing over?
9. Would you rather — because?
Setup: Ask a "would you rather" question.
How to run it: The answer doesn't matter; the child must give two reasons and then one reason the other choice might be better.
Debrief: Can you change my mind about your choice?
10. Spot the trick
Setup: Show a kid-friendly advert or cereal box.
How to run it: Find what it wants you to believe and one way it tries to convince you that isn't really a good reason.
Debrief: What would you need to know to decide if it's actually true?
11. Fact vs. headline
Setup: Take a bold headline.
How to run it: Write down what the headline implies, then what it actually proves. Compare the gap.
Debrief: How often did the headline claim more than the facts supported?
12. The 10-minute decision journal
Setup: Before a real decision you face this week.
How to run it: Write the decision, your prediction, your confidence, and what would prove you wrong. Revisit it later.
Debrief: When you looked back, was your confidence justified by the outcome?
How to choose an activity
For a quick warm-up, use Five Whys or What's the Assumption. For a team off-site, Red-team the Plan and the Criteria Game expose blind spots in real decisions. For children, keep it concrete and always ask "why?" — the reasoning matters more than the answer.
Turn activities into measurable progress
Activities build habits; to see them improve, pair them with feedback. Work through the exercises with worked solutions, use our bank of critical thinking questions to run discussions, and retake the test to track your weakest skill over time.
Frequently asked questions
What are good critical thinking activities for adults?
The most effective adult activities force a decision under uncertainty and then a debrief: structured debates, "steel-man the other side", red-team a plan, or rank options against explicit criteria. Each activity on this page ends with a debrief question, which is where the actual learning happens.
What are critical thinking activities for the classroom?
Classroom favourites include Socratic discussion, "what's the assumption?" rounds, evidence-sorting, and role-play from multiple viewpoints. They work because students have to justify their reasoning out loud and respond to challenge.
Do critical thinking activities actually work?
Yes, when they include feedback. An activity that ends with a debrief — comparing your reasoning to others and to the evidence — builds skill far faster than one done in silence. Pair these with the free test to measure progress.