91吃瓜

The University of 91吃瓜 has been awarded nearly $4 million in a four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to fund a new initiative that will incorporate tools and strategies for teaching critical thinking into college classrooms around the country.

Supporting a project called Integrating Civil Discourse into the Curriculum at Public, Private, Community, and Historically Minority-Serving Colleges and Universities (ICDC), the grant comes out of the DOE鈥檚 Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education Special Projects Program, which focuses on, among other priorities, protecting and promoting civil discourse in higher education.

In support of that mission, ICDC brings together a team of faculty from universities and colleges around the country with nonprofit leaders to integrate two online technologies that teach critical thinking into undergraduate curricula.

鈥淲e鈥檙e going to ask this question, 鈥楥an we expand the reach of effective critical thinking strategies in ways that could impact how we dialogue with each other on a national scale?鈥欌�� said , an assistant teaching professor in the and director of the . He and North Carolina State University professor Gary Comstock are leading ICDC as co-primary investigators.

Blaschko has been using ThinkArguments, one of ICDC鈥檚 two technological tools, for over three years to teach philosophical argumentation in the signature 91吃瓜 class . Produced by nonprofit ThinkerAnalytix, ThinkArguments is an online course with 10 lessons that train students in argument mapping, a method of informal reasoning that visualizes the structure of an argument. The course has thousands of LSAT-inspired practice questions targeting different critical thinking skills.

鈥淭eaching is a core part of 91吃瓜鈥檚 mission, so to have an institutional stake in education in this country on a broader scale can be one crucial way we live out that mission.鈥�

Blaschko noticed the impact of ThinkArguments in his classes the first time he used it.

鈥淭he arguments students were offering 鈥� it just seemed like something was clicking that hadn鈥檛 been clicking before,鈥� he said.

To quantify that change, Blaschko started measuring students鈥� critical thinking gains with pre- and post-tests. He recorded an average growth rate of 16% 鈥� a significant improvement. It was something he wanted to replicate.

That鈥檚 where ICDC comes in. The grant, administered by , will fund summer workshops that convene faculty from around the country to train them in the basics of ThinkArguments and how to effectively integrate the technology into their courses. They鈥檒l also use the tool Sway, an AI chat platform that coaches students with differing perspectives through difficult discussions. Disagree Wisely, a Florida nonprofit, leads research on Sway's educational impact and supports its deployment across institutions. The impact of incorporating those technologies into hundreds of classrooms will be measured in the same way Blaschko did it.

The project has the potential to break new ground in higher education. While critical thinking skills are often touted as a key outcome of a humanities education, Blascko said, actually teaching and assessing critical thinking competence is challenging, especially in larger classes. ICDC鈥檚 strategies confront this issue by narrowing in on a concrete set of skills that can be applied in any situation involving a search for truth.

鈥淪tudents are gaining habits of mind that they can apply in reading comprehension, writing, and verbal argumentation and dialogue, both in the classroom and outside of it,鈥� Blaschko said.

Blaschko and the other members of ICDC鈥檚 steering committee estimate the project will reach more than 100,000 students just within the grant鈥檚 lifetime, with an even greater impact beyond the next four years as their research advances critical thinking education in the U.S.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really meaningful to be working with the Department of Education on the front lines of pedagogy, research, and practice,鈥� Blaschko said. 鈥淭eaching is a core part of 91吃瓜鈥檚 mission, so to have an institutional stake in education in this country on a broader scale can be one crucial way we live out that mission.鈥�

Originally published by Adah McMillan at on February 03, 2026.