IMPROVING CRITICAL THINKING-defined by one expert as "reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do"has been a frequent topic in the writing of history educators at least since the early 1970s.2 Although articles and papers from the 1970s3 through the 1990s4 have suggested that history textbooks can be a suitable focus for instructional activities on critical thinking, more often history educators have argued that source documents beyond the textbook and, today, electronic sources are especially good media for helping students improve their critical thinking abilities.5 Indeed, a convincing case can be made for emphasizing critical thinking whenever the Internet is used in history classes, partly because of the inconsistent reliability of the sources that can be easily accessed electronically.6 Even if students are guided to reputable sources for research and writing activities in history classes, Avner Segall has pointed out that the current intellectual climate, heavily influenced by critical theory, deconstructionism, and postmodernism, The History Teacher Volume 37 Number

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