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Try solving this simple problem with your students: A bat and a ball together cost $1.10. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

Most will respond quickly that the ball must cost 10 cents. That鈥檚 incorrect. The ball costs 5 cents.

鈥淲e know a significant fact about anyone who says that the ball costs 10 cents,鈥� writes Nobel Prize鈥搘inning psychologist Daniel Kahneman in his seminal 2011 book, Thinking, Fast and Slow. 鈥淭hat person did not actively check whether the answer was correct.鈥� We also know they relied on instinct to rapidly deliver an answer鈥攚hat Kahneman calls fast thinking.

At any given moment, our brains encounter an immense amount of stimuli to which we react intuitively鈥攍ike deciding in an instant if someone鈥檚 tone denotes anger or confusion, or quickly understanding simple sentences as we read. These are near-automatic thought processes that require very little effort.

This type of instinctive, reactive thinking is essential for survival, but an overreliance on fast thinking can also lead to errors and bias, Kahneman contends. Slow thinking, by contrast, is analytical and deliberate, like when students raise their hand instead of impulsively calling out an answer, or they pause to solve a math problem that requires some degree of computational work, like 15 x 42.

But overconfidence has a tendency to creep in during learning, tricking students into believing that their first reflexive response is correct. Our brains have to work harder and expend more energy to think slowly, one of the main reasons that fast thinking can become a go-to cognitive reflex. In the rush to answer a question or solve a problem, fast thinking can lead students astray, causing them to reach conclusions based on incomplete information or make snap judgments influenced by cognitive bias.

Teaching students how the brain is wired for decision-making is an important part of creating conscious learners who can develop nuanced opinions and make smart, informed choices, says Renee Hobbs, a researcher and professor of communication studies at the University of Rhode Island. Educators can help students learn how to navigate the cognitive tricks our minds can play on us while instilling a sense of intellectual humility鈥攁n underemphasized life skill that combats overconfidence and encourages curiosity and vigilance when faced with new information or uncertainty. 鈥淭hat awareness propels intellectual curiosity while also leaving them with an appreciation for what they don鈥檛 know,鈥� Hobbs says.

Here are four strategies to help students understand the benefits of slowing down their thinking:

Identify stealthy brain tricks: Despite having limited knowledge of a subject, kids often trick themselves into 鈥攁 tendency known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. Students鈥� first instincts about what they do or don鈥檛 know are often wrong: guessing that the ball cost 10 cents without slowing down to check their work, for instance. The problem is, on top of being incorrect, the mind tricks them into feeling confident that they are right.

Before exams, Woo-Kyoung Ahn, a psychology professor at Yale University, directs her students to explain aloud concepts they鈥檝e learned to a friend or family member, as if the other person has never encountered this information. That process of explanation can open students鈥� eyes to what they know and what they don鈥檛, Ahn says.

鈥淚n an experiment, researchers asked, 鈥楧o you know how a toilet works, how a helicopter works?鈥� and so on. Of course, subjects can鈥檛 build one from scratch, but they know there鈥檚 a propeller at the top,鈥� she explains. Still, the subjects respond affirmatively and provide a brief description. Next, they鈥檙e asked to write out a detailed explanation of how these things actually work鈥攊t can be quite clarifying. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 enough for them to realize they didn鈥檛 quite understand what they thought they did,鈥� Ahn says.

Before an exam, students may feel like they understand all the materials because they skimmed their notes and highlighted key terms, but when they鈥檙e asked to articulate exactly what they claim to know, they come up short.

Making students aware of the Dunning-Kruger effect鈥攊n addition to creating more opportunities for students to actively demonstrate their learning and incorporating occasional checks for understanding throughout the unit鈥攑rovides kids with a more nuanced view of what they know, as well as what they only sort of know or don鈥檛 know at all. This identifies areas they should slow down and target, before and during test prep.

Connect to students鈥� own lives: Being able to recognize examples of cognitive bias in their own lives, Hobbs says, puts students on a path toward making better, more strategic choices.

Instead of providing examples from your own adult life, Hobbs suggests, have kids come up with examples of cognitive bias鈥攄igital amnesia, in-group favoritism, and authority bias, for example鈥斺�渇rom their own lives and write those down as stories,鈥� she says. "Those are going to be super-powerful for helping students build that awareness where they understand 鈥楬ere鈥檚 how my brain is biased to work, and here鈥檚 how I experience that in daily life.鈥欌��

Middle school history teacher Jordan Mattox uses the Gulf of Tonkin incident to illustrate real-world confirmation bias, the propensity of people to seek out information or evidence that confirms their own opinions, beliefs, and values. 鈥淭he lesson guides students through how President Johnson looked for a way to justify his invasion plans,鈥� Mattox writes. 鈥淪tudents connect Johnson鈥檚 actions to modern examples of confirmation bias by looking at Russian involvement in the 2016 election through social media.鈥� Students are then encouraged to reflect on how confirmation bias can, and has, affected them while using social media.

Instill healthy skepticism: Teaching students to exercise a degree of caution when approaching new information online鈥攊nstead of accepting everything they read as fact鈥攊s important, explains Julie Coiro, an associate professor of education at the University of Rhode Island. To strengthen her students鈥� abilities to critically analyze and parse information during online research before jumping to quick conclusions, Coiro asks them to consider the following prompts:

• What is the purpose of this site?
• Who created the information at this site, and what is this person鈥檚 level of expertise?
• Where can I go to check the accuracy of this information?
• Why did this person or group put this information on the internet?

In addition to explaining the concept of echo chambers鈥攁n environment where a person solely encounters information or perspectives that mirror and support their own鈥攁nd the power they have to perpetuate misinformation and warp people鈥檚 perspective, middle school history teacher Chris Orlando suggests that students slow down and ask the following questions when consuming information:

• Does the source give only one perspective of an issue?
• Is that perspective primarily supported by rumor or partial evidence?
• Are facts ignored whenever they oppose that viewpoint?

Hold each other accountable: People鈥攏ot just kids鈥攈ave a tendency to forget where they learned something as soon as they learn it, which is known in psychology as source monitoring bias. 鈥淲e stumble upon a piece of media content, take it in, and completely forget where we got it from,鈥� Hobbs explains. 鈥淭hen we come up with an idea and we think it鈥檚 our own, but we鈥檝e just forgotten where we read it the first time.鈥�

In our media-saturated culture, this has serious negative impacts, and in the classroom it can even lead to inadvertent plagiarism. While educators can recommend that students pay more attention to the source in the first place, that won鈥檛 solve the problem entirely.

To encourage slow thinking when someone shares a fact they鈥檝e read, heard, or seen somewhere, Hobbs suggests encouraging students to ask the person, 鈥榃here did you hear that from?鈥� in an attempt to connect the piece of information to its original source, instead of simply accepting it without question. There鈥檚 a big difference between something a student read in a New York Times article versus a conspiracy theory video on YouTube.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important for students to learn that these cognitive biases aren鈥檛 things that we have to figure out on our own鈥攚e can help each other,鈥� Hobbs says. 鈥淩ely on other people to help you slow down by asking you questions about the basis of your beliefs, or how and why you came to have certain attitudes and values.鈥�