As a follow-on to recent posts here and here, I’d like to offer a crisp example of the standards of cognitive reflection that were taught in the once-upon-a-time United States: a sample from Studies in Civics (1897), a high school textbook.
TO STUDENTS.
You will notice in chapter one that at the close of nearly every paragraph questions are thrown in. They are inserted to help you cultivate in yourself the very valuable habit of rigid self-examination….
You will soon discover that these questions are so framed as to require you to read not only on the lines and between them, but also right down into them. Even then you will not be able to answer all of the questions. The information may not be in the book at all….
If you occasionally come to a question which you can neither answer nor dismiss from your mind, be thankful for the question and that you are bright enough to be affected in this way. You have doubtless discovered that some of your best intellectual work, your most fruitful study, has been done on just such questions.
[emphasis added in bold]
These paragraphs are about metacognition and information search strategies, and they set a high standard. If you’ve seen similar advice to students in modern textbooks, please comment on it. The quality of current textbooks in this regard may be higher than I expect, and that would be good news.
