In this article, I introduce a framework for guiding future citizens to think critically about nature of science (NOS) and "with" NOS as they engage in socioscientific decision making. The framework, referred to as the critical thinking--nature of science (CT-NOS) framework, explicates and targets both NOS as a learning objective and NOS as a means for socioscientific decision making, has critical thinking as its foundational pillar, and provides the possibility of creating a developmental pathway for NOS learning. I provide a theoretical basis for the framework, followed by a description of its characteristics and an illustrative example.