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Many Houston ISD students are taking a new course this year, called “Art of Thinking,” that aims to teach them concepts like logic, bias and correlation.

HISD’s first-year superintendent, Mike Miles, said the class delivers much-needed lessons that will prepare kids to critically think in the workplace of the future. But some scholars, teachers and families argue students aren’t prepared for the complexity of the class.

The Houston Landing obtained a unit quiz from a sixth-grade Art of Thinking class that illustrates some of the concepts being taught. Take the quiz below to sample the lessons being taught — and see how you’d fare in the class. (The Landing was unable to obtain an answer key that explains why each answer is correct, and HISD officials declined to provide the key.)

Sample questions from Houston ISD Art of Thinking quiz

In which scenario would using a Venn diagram be most useful in literature?
If the author consistently presents only positive aspects of a topic and ignores the negatives, what can you infer?
What is the main objective of the first step in the problem-solving process: Identify the problem?
Is the following statement true, false, probable, or unknown? "Earth is the only planet where life can be found."
What is metacognition?
What does it mean to determine an author's point of view?
If a student refuses to participate in a group project, what is a likely consequence?

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Asher Lehrer-Small is a K-12 education reporter for the Houston Landing. He previously spent three years covering schools for The 74 where he was recognized by the Education Writers Association as one...