Thinking Skills

INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THINKING

What Is Thinking?
 Activity of the brain.
 Potential for communication
 2 activities:-
 Gathering Information (Perception)
 Processing Information (Cognition)

 The action of using one's mind to produce thoughts

 Thinking involves mentally manipulating information, as
when we form concepts, solve problems, reason, and
make decisions
What is CT?

"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of

actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing,
synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from,
or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, rea-
soning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action"
(Scriven, 1996).

Available HTTP: http://www.criticalthinking.org/University/univlibrary/li-

brary.nclk
What Is Critical Thinking?

 Cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed to

effectively:
 Identify, analyze and evaluate arguments and truth claims
 Discover and overcome personal prejudices and biases
 Formulate and present convincing reasons in support of
conclusions
 To make reasonable, intelligent decisions about what to be-
lieve and what is true
What is CT?

 Thinking critically does not mean simple criticism.

 The essence centers NOT on answering questions
but on questioning answers!
 CT is not about being negative!
 What does it mean to NOT thinking critically?

We accept whatever we are told as truth w/o question.

Learn to do something in a particular way because that is what we were told.
What does not Thinking Critically
Look Like?
 Blindly reproducing old learned reactions
 Blindly accepting all justifications of organizations & po-
litical leaders
 Blindly believe TV commercials
 Blindly trust political commercials
 Blindly accept and say that if the textbook says it, it must
be so
 Blindly accept and say that if the organization does it, it
must be right
Characteristics of CT
Critical thinking involves asking questions, defining a prob-
lem, examining evidence, analyzing assumptions and bi-
ases, avoiding emotional reasoning, avoiding oversimplifi-
cation, considering other interpretations, and tolerating am-
biguity.

Sources:- Wade, C. (1995). Using writing to develop and assess critical thinking.
Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 24-28.
What does Critical Thinking Look
Like?

 Contextual sensitivity - being sensitive to stereotypes about

people of particular group & accept others unconditionally
 Perspective thinking - trying to get into other person's head
or walk in other’s shoes to see the world way that person
sees it (empathy)
 Tolerance for ambiguity - ability to accept multiple interpre-
tations of same situation
What are the Major Concepts in
Critical Thinking?
 Perception
 Assumptions
 Emotion You will learn all these
 Language major concepts
 Argument throughout the course
 Fallacy
 Logic
 Problem Solving
Need “the Critical Spirit”
(affective dispositions)
 A probing inquisitiveness
 A keenness of mind
 A zealous dedication to reason
 A hunger or eagerness for reliable information
Fundamental to CT is..
Questioning

Why? How do I know?

Five levels of questioning :

1. Comprehension
2. Application
3. Analysis
4. Synthesis
5. Evaluation
Exercise in Class
1.What are the reasons for ….?
2.How can … be used to ….?
3.What is an example of …?
4.Is …ethical or unethical?
5.If … occurs, then what happens?
6.What are the advantages or disadvantages of …?
7.What is the main argument or thesis of …?
Critical Thinkers Strive for these
Intellectual Standards
 Clarity
 Precision
 Accuracy
 Relevance
 Consistency
 Logical correctness
 Completeness
 Fairness
Ideal Critical Thinker (Ennis,
1991)
1. Focus on a question
 Identify or formulate a question
 Identify or formulate criteria for judging possible answers
2. Analyse arguments
• Identify conclusions
• Identify stated and unstated reasons
• Identify and handle irrelevance
• See the structure of an argument
Summarise
3. Ask and answer questions of clarification
• Why
• What is the main point?
• What would be an example?
• How does this apply to this case?
• What difference does it make?
Ideal Critical Thinker (Ennis,
1991)
4. Judge the credibility of a source
• Expertise
• Agreement among sources
• Reputation
• Ability to give reasons
• Corroboration
5. Explain conclusions
• Causal claims
• Interpretation of author’s intended meanings
• Reported definitions
• Claims about the beliefs and attitudes of people
Ideal Critical Thinker (Ennis,
1991)
6. Make and value judgments
• Typicality of data
• Breadth of coverage
• Acceptability of evidence
• Alternatives
• Balancing, weighing, deciding

(Ennis, Robert H. 1991. Critical thinking : a streamlined

conception. Teaching Philosophy, 41(1), pp. 5-25)
In what ways does critical thinking
truly benefit us?
1. IT ENCOURAGES CURIOSITY
• inquisitiveness about the world and about people, and have an understanding of
and appreciation for the cultures, beliefs, and views that are a shared quality of
our humanity
• Effective critical thinkers don't take anything at face value, either. They never stop
asking questions and enjoy exploring all sides of an issue and the deeper facts
hiding within all modes of data.

2. IT ENHANCES CREATIVITY
• effective critical thinkers are also largely creative thinkers
• Critical thinking in business, marketing, and professional alliances relies heavily
on one's ability to be creative. When businesses get creative with products and
how they are advertised, they thrive in the global marketplace.
• If creativity is within all of us, then we are also limitless.
In what ways does critical thinking
truly benefit us?
3. IT REINFORCES PROBLEM-SOLVING ABILITY
• Those who think critically tend to be instinctual problem-solvers.
• “It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” *(guess who?)
• To prepares ourselves to face complex problems that matter to the world head-on
such as: global warming, overpopulation, pollution, electronic waste management,
energy crises, the need for health care

4. IT’S A MULTI-FACETED PRACTICE

• it’s a cross-curricular activity for the mind, and the mind must be exercised just like
a muscle to stay healthy.
• CT promotes the development of things like Reasoning skills, Analytical think-
ing, Evaluative skills, Logical thinking, Organizational and planning skills,
Language skills, Self-reflective capacity, Observational skills, Open-minded-
ness, Creative visualization techniques, Questioning ability, Decision making
In what ways does critical thinking
truly benefit us?
5. IT FOSTERS INDEPENDENCE
• When students think for themselves, they learn to become independent of us as
well.
• Independent thinking (IT) skills are at the forefront of learning how to be not only a
great thinker, but a great leader.
• IT teaches how to make sense of the world based on personal experience and ob-
servation, making critical well-informed decisions in the same way - gain confi-
dence and the ability to learn from mistakes to build successful and productive
lives.
6. IT’S A SKILL FOR LIFE, NOT JUST LEARNING
• John Dewey, a great educator said it best: "Education is not preparation for life;
education is life itself."
• Educators want their learners to succeed both in and out of the classroom. The
idea is to make sure that once they leave school they no longer need us. In
essence, our learners must become the teachers and the leaders.
So …
 In the classroom….
 Understand materials you are studying
 Critically evaluate what you are learning
 Develop your own arguments on particular issues
 In the workplace….
 Problem-solving
 Analyze information, draw appropriate conclusions
 In Life…
 Avoid making foolish decisions
 Help to free us from unexamined assumptions, dogmas
& prejudices
If critical thinking is so
important, why is that
uncritical thinking is so
common?
Barriers to critical thinking
o Lack of relevant background information
o Poor reading skills
o Bias
o Prejudice
o Superstition
o Peer pressure
o Face-saving
o Resistance to change
o Selective perception
o Rationalization
o Scapegoating
Cont…. (barriers to critical thinking) –
THE MAJOR HINDRANCES

 Egocentrism (self centered thinking)

 Socio centrism (group centered thinking)
 Stereotyping
 Unwarranted assumptions
 Wishful thinking

All these play a powerful role in hindering critical thinking

EGOCENTRISM – the tendency to view one’s
own interests, ideas and values as superior to everyone’s
else

SELF-INTERESTED SELF-SERVING BIAS

THINKING tendency to overrate
tendency to accept and de- oneself
fend beliefs that harmonize
one’s own self-interest
 SOCIO CENTRISM
group centered thinking

 Group bias – the tendency to see one’s own group as be-

ing inherently better than others

 Herd instinct (conformism) – the tendency to follow the

crowd
 Unwarranted Assumptions
&
Stereotyping
 Assumption – something taken for granted, something we
believe to be true without any proof or conclusive evidence
 Unwarranted assumption – something taken for granted
without good reason
 Stereotyping – making a hasty generalization
 Wishful Thinking

 Believing something not because you had good evi-

dence for it but simply because you wished it were true.

 Believing something because it makes one feel good,

notbecause there is good rational grounds for thinking it
is true.