Critical Thinking Skills

 Reflect on the question What is Critical thinking?

Critical thinking is what a college education is all about.
In many high schools, the emphasis tends to be on “lower-order
thinking.” Students are simply expected to passively absorb
information and then repeat it back on tests.
In college, by contrast, the emphasis is on fostering “higher-order
Critical thinking”: the active, intelligent evaluation of ideas and information.

Thinking? Instead of teaching the students what to think, the focus is on how to
think. —that is, how to become independent, self-directed thinkers
and learners.
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to
think critically.” —Martin Luther King Jr.
“It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be
entirely uneducated.” — Alec Bourne
  Robert Ennis’s classic definition:
Critical thinking is reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on
deciding what to believe or do.
Definitions of  Matthew Lipman’s definition:
Critical Critical thinking is skillful, responsible thinking that is conducive to
good judgment because it is sensitive to context, relies on criteria,
Thinking and is self-correcting.

 Richard Paul’s definition:

Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking, while you’re
thinking, in order to make your thinking better.
  Often when we use the word critical we mean “negative and
fault-finding But ‘critical’ does not merely mean finding fault
or expressing dislike.
 ‘Critical’, ‘criticism’ and ‘critic’ all originate from the ancient
Meaning of the Greek word kritikos, meaning able to judge, discern or decide.

world critical in In this sense, ‘critical also means giving a fair and unbiased
opinion of something.
Critical  In modern English, a ‘critic’ is someone whose job it is to make
Thinking… evaluative judgements, for example about films, books, music
or food.
 Remember, being critical and thinking critically are not the
same thing.
  Critical thinking is a higher order of thinking: it is the practice
of using a number of different advanced thinking skills in a
variety of complex ways.
 Critical thinking focuses on thought: it looks at how facts are
proven, arguments are formed, conclusions are reached, not just

Critical what the facts, argument or conclusion may be.

Thinking is …  Critical thinking is self-reflexive: it involves reflecting on,

questioning and testing your own thinking processes.
 Critical thinking is discipline-specific: it engages in particular
forms of reasoning, such as mathematical reasoning, historical
analysis or literary interpretation, which are specific to a
particular discipline.
 Good critical thinking meets the criteria of these intellectual
values:
 Clarity
 Accuracy

Critical  Precision
 Consistency
Thinking  Relevance

Standards…  Sound Evidence

 Logical correctness
 Depth
 Breadth
 Fairness
 1. We Begin With the Right Approach
 Reason: We base our thinking in logic, not feelings.
 Self-Awareness: We pay attention to our own and others’
assumptions, biases and perspectives.
How to think  Integrity: We care about doing our intellectual work honestly and

Critically?
accurately rather than about being right.
 Discipline: We put effort into doing our work comprehensively
and precisely.
 Open-mindedness: We consider alternatives and other points of
view.
 2. We Look Deeper and Farther
There are countless ways in which we look deeper and farther

How to think when thinking critically. For example, we look deeper when we
make inferences about an argument’s hidden assumptions and
Critically? values. We look farther when we connect a study to theories in
our discipline. We always think about the implications and
importance of what we find.
 3. We Ask Complex Questions
We develop and pose questions that help us look deeper and more
broadly and that require a variety of thinking processes to answer.
We generate specific, complex questions based on what exactly
we are thinking about, starting with basic critical inquiry:
 Who is the implied audience?
How to think  What are the strengths and weaknesses of this?

Critically?  What are the different possible solutions to this problem and
which seems most effective?
 What is the nature of the relationship between this and that?
 What exactly is the logical flaw in this reasoning?
 Is this really relevant to that? If not, where does the connection
break down?
 What are the underlying assumptions and values?
 4. We Answer Questions Using a Variety of Thinking Processes
 Analysis: breaking something into parts to better understand the
parts and the whole (identifying, classifying, categorizing,
comparing)
 Synthesis: making connections between the parts and the whole to
How to think see the pattern of relationships (organizing, connecting, designing,
predicting)
Critically?  Interpretation: examining the connection (s) between the parts and
the whole to make inferences about the implications and meanings
of the pattern(s) (associating, inferring, decoding)
 Evaluation: forming judgments about meanings, qualities and
values (justifying, critiquing, verifying, deciding)
 5. We Reflect on How We Are Answering the Questions
Throughout the process, we ask ourselves questions such as:
 Is that clear or is there still some confusion I need to clarify?
 Is that really true?
How to think  Do I need to be more specific or detailed?

Critically?  How is that connected to the central focus?

 Am I thinking about this in a complex enough way or should I go
deeper and further in my thinking?
 Do I need to consider a bigger framework or a different point of
view?
 Descriptions: they report information about something, but they
don't perform any kind of reasoning - and nor do they pass
judgement on or analyze the information they contain.

This is an essential element of academic writing but it is used to

set the background and to provide evidence rather than to develop
argument. When thinking descriptively you are informing your
Descriptions reader of things that they need to know to understand and follow
your argument but you are not transforming that information in
any way. This is usually thinking about things you have read,
done (often as part of reflective writing) or observed.
Descriptive writing focuses on answering the ‘what?’ ‘when’ and
‘who’ type questions.
 Descriptive writing Critical writing

States what happened Identifies the significance of what

happened

States what something is like Evaluates the strengths and weakness of

something

Gives the story so far Analyses how the story so far impacts on

Table comparing
the current state

functions of Says how to do something Analyses why things are done a certain
way

descriptive and Explains what a theory says Shows why a theory is relevant.
Identifies the strengths and weaknesses of a

critical writing theory in practice.

Explains how something works Indicates why something will work (best)

Notes the method used Identifies whether a method was suitable

or appropriate
 Descriptive writing Critical writing

Says when something occurred Identifies why the timing is of importance

Identifies the different components Weighs up the importance of component

of something parts

States options Gives reasons for selecting each option

Table comparing Lists details Evaluates the relative significance of

functions of Lists in any order

details

Structures information in order of

descriptive and States links between items

importance

Shows the relevance of links between

critical writing pieces of information

Gives evidence Argues a case according to the evidence

Provides information for Makes a reasoned judgement on provided

comparison information

Gives information Draws conclusions

 Inferences are steps in reasoning, moving from premises to
logical consequences; etymologically, the word infer means
to "carry forward".
Inference is theoretically traditionally divided into deduction
and induction, a distinction that in Europe dates at least to
Aristotle (300s BCE).
Deduction is inference deriving logical conclusions from
premises known or assumed to be true, with the laws of valid
Inference inference being studied in logic.
Induction is inference from particular evidence to a universal
conclusion. The process by which a conclusion is inferred
from multiple observations is called inductive reasoning. The
conclusion may be correct or incorrect, or correct to within a
certain degree of accuracy, or correct in certain situations.
Conclusions inferred from multiple observations may be
tested by additional observations.
  Deductive reasoning
"All spiders have eight legs. A tarantula is a spider. Therefore,
tarantulas have eight legs."
For deductive reasoning to be sound, the hypothesis must be

Examples of correct. It is assumed that the statements, "All spiders have eight
legs" and "a tarantula is a spider" are true. Therefore, the
inductive and conclusion is logical and true.

deductive  Inductive reasoning

reasoning In inductive inference, we go from the specific to the general. We

make many observations, discern a pattern, make a
generalization, and infer an explanation or a theory
"Penguins are birds. Penguins can't fly. Therefore, all birds can't
fly."