A thought experiment is an exercise in critical thinking designed to develop students' skills in:

• Raising ethical questions and problems, and formulating them clearly and accurately;
• Collecting and assessing relevant information about the issue;
• Arriving at reasoned solutions and conclusions through argument;
• Thinking freely and maintaining an open mind through recognising the implications and practical consequences of their own assumptions and points of view;
• Communicating their thinking effectively to others.
   
  

Students should be encouraged to approach this is in a similar way to the way they would embark on an experiment in the lab: thinking through predictions and using observations from discussion to test them.

There are several examples in PEEP

• On Alternative fuels
• On Bias in the media
   
  

Why not try developing your own based on these models? We would be very pleased to include them on PEEP. Do send them in using the Contact Us link.

 Teaching Argument