Argumentation-Based Critical Thinking in General Education : A Scene-Based Instructional Design Using Hamlet

This paper proposes an instructional design that integrates critical thinking and argumentation in general education by using Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a structured source of argumentative tasks. The core contribution is a practical translation of widely used intellectual standards (e.g., clarity, accuracy, relevance, depth, and breadth) into reusable assessment questions, coupled with scene-based assignments that require students to produce explicit argument components. For each selected scene, students articulate (1) a claim, (2) evidence, (3) a warrant as a rule-like bridge from evidence to conclusion, and (4) at least one objection or alternative interpretation. The design aims to move students beyond impressionistic readings toward visible, revisable inference structures. It also embeds common reasoning errors into diagnostic activities tied to the text’s context and provides a six-criteria rubric that rewards revision and resubmission rather than one-shot correctness. The paper is design-oriented (with a minimal evaluation plan), not an empirical effectiveness test; follow-up work is suggested to validate outcomes through pre-post comparisons of student argument products.