Answer:
The best statement in the options to replace the underlined section in the question: Critical-thinking instruction is predicated on two assumptions: that there are clearly identifiable thinking skills that students can be taught to recognize and apply appropriately, and if recognized and applied, students will become more effective thinkers, would be, E: that if students recognize and apply these skills, they.... As such, the full response to your question, would be:
Critical-thinking instruction is predicated on two assumptions: that there are clearly identifiable thinking skills that students can be taught to recognize and apply appropriately, and that if students recognize and apply these skills, they will become more effective thinkers.
Step-by-step explanation:
The first reason to choose E comes from the structure provided by the initial sentence. Since after the colon, the sentence initiates with a "that" and the clause, then the answer, in grammatical agreement, will have to have the same format in its beginning. From the options, only two fit that requirement, D and E. However, D relies the meaning that it is the students, and not the application of the skills, that will reach the goal stated in the final clause, which is not at all logical. Also, E, aside from completing the full statement in a logical manner, does so clarifying all the necessary information to make sense of the importance of what is being said.