45 minutes | Year 8 Critical Thinking
NZ Political Speech Examples:
"My opponent clearly doesn't understand economics - just look at their haircut!"
Fallacy: Ad Hominem (attacking the person, not the argument)
"If we allow more refugees, soon we'll be completely overrun and lose our culture entirely!"
Fallacy: Slippery Slope (extreme consequence prediction)
1. Ad Hominem: Attacking the person instead of their argument
2. Straw Man: Misrepresenting someone's position to defeat it easily
3. False Cause: Assuming X causes Y just because they happen together
4. Appeal to Authority: "Famous person says it, so it must be true"
Student Task: Analyze 5 NZ advertisements/political statements, identify fallacies, create Canva infographic
Compare Western linear logic with Māori whakapapa (holistic connections):
Western: A causes B causes C (linear reasoning)
Māori: All things connected, multiple relationships considered simultaneously
Discussion: When might each approach be more useful?
Assessment: Students identify fallacies in provided media examples, explain why they're flawed
Students will engage with this resource to develop te whakaaro māramatanga — critical and analytical thinking skills — examining claims, evaluating evidence, identifying bias, and constructing reasoned arguments. This unit frames critical thinking through both Western analytical traditions and the kōrero-based reasoning of Te Ao Māori.
Scaffold support: Provide argument frames (claim → evidence → reasoning → counter-argument) for entry-level access. Use structured controversy activities where students argue assigned positions. Offer extension tasks requiring students to analyse a real media article or policy document using the lesson's critical framework.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach argumentative language structures ("I argue that…", "The evidence suggests…", "However, one might counter…"). Allow oral argument as a first step before written production. Sentence frames and argument maps lower the language barrier while maintaining cognitive demand.
Inclusion: Structured debate and discussion formats benefit all learners — particularly neurodiverse students who thrive with explicit rules and clear roles. Affirm that disagreement done respectfully is a high-value academic and civic skill. Allow quiet processing time before group discussion. Offer written alternatives for students who find oral argument challenging.
Mātauranga Māori lens: Te whakaaro māramatanga — enlightened thinking — reflects a long tradition of reasoned debate in Te Ao Māori. The whare (meeting house) is a place of kōrero, where multiple perspectives are heard before decisions are made. Tikanga requires that arguments be made with integrity and respect (mana). Māori oratory (whaikōrero) is a sophisticated critical tradition — whakataukī encode compressed wisdom that often challenges surface-level thinking.
Prior knowledge: Best used within a sequence building critical thinking skills progressively. No specialist knowledge required for entry-level engagement with structured tasks.