What is Critical Thinking

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What is Critical Thinking?

• Pedagogy Seminar Series (Spring 2009)
• Critical Thinking Strategies Across the
  Curriculum
• Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning,
• QCC-CUNY

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What is Critical Thinking?

• Critical thinking is a descriptive phrase that
  refers to a collection of
• overlapping mental activities in order to
  evaluate the credibility,
• quality, impact, significance, usefulness or
  desirability of an entity.
• The evaluation is usually based on an implicit or
  explicit value
• system and a set of criteria.
• The entity being evaluated can be a knowledge
  claim, a research
• article, a work of art, a proposal, a social
  practice, an institution, a
• person, and so on. Instead of an unquestioning
  adoption of ideas,
• the goal of critical thinking is to pay attention
  to both the positive
• and the negative aspects of what is being
  evaluated.

Centre for Development of Teaching Learning,
CDTL NUS
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Collection of overlapping mental activities
Clarifying
Reflecting
Judging
Critical Thinking
Inferring
Intuiting
Connecting
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Types of Critical Thinking
Academic Domain
Critical Thinking
Ability to evaluate the credibility
of discipline-specific research findings, claims,
frameworks, ideas, etc.
Public Domain
Professional Domain
Ability to evaluate ideas policies, formulate
informed opinions, participate in public matters
as responsible citizens
Ability to Evaluate options (evaluating career
prospects)
Private Domain
Ability to evaluate options in ones private
life (Making an informed decision whether to
undergo surgery)
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Elements of Critical Thinking
http//academic.udayton.edu/LegalEd/CTSkills/CTski
lls02.htmelements
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Blooms Taxonomy of Higher Thinking
One of the most influential of the critical
thinking models is Bloom's Taxonomy of Higher
Thinking. Bloom categorized thinking into the
following six processes
Evaluation
To be able to judge.
Synthesis
To connect the knowledge with other knowledge.
To break information down to smaller parts and to
see how the parts work together.
Analysis
Application
To find some practical use for the information.
Comprehension
To understand what it means.
Knowledge
To have a fact or bit of information at your
disposal. One can "know" something without
understanding it or being able to put it into a
higher context.
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Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum

• Because virtually all courses in the curriculum
  intend to use techniques
• of critical thinking and to improve students
  critical thinking abilities, this
• seminar will focus on the following objectives
• developing usable critical thinking strategies to
  enrich courses
• incorporating critical thinking techniques in
  writing assignments to improve the quality of
  submissions
• challenging students to probe concepts more
  energetically in class discussions
• testing critical thinking abilities in quizzes
  and exams

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Critical Thinking Strategies and Pedagogical
Choices

• Lectures Periodically ask students thoughtful
  questions about the material you have just
  presented and suggest how the information can be
  used
• Laboratories Students learn the scientific
  method by actually practicing it.
• Homework Both traditional homework and online
  practice sets or questions can be used to enhance
  critical thinking.
• Quantitative Exercises Math exercises and
  quantitative word problems teach problem solving
  skills that can be used in everyday life.
• Term Papers Students acquire, synthesize, and
  logically analyze information and then present
  their conclusions in written form.
• Exams Both essay question exams and
  multiple-choice exams promote critical thinking.

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What Is Critical Thinking?

• A Set of Values
• Thinking for yourself, as compared to accepting
  unquestioningly what others want you to believe.
• Exploring new ideas, points of view and
  possibilities.
• Using reason to investigate questions, evaluate
  ideas, advocate positions, and resolve conflicts.
• Including the voices and perspectives of diverse
  groups in the discussion of issues.
• Weighing ideas based on their merits, not who
  advocates them.
• Achieving the best possible resolution of
  questions
• A Set of Skills
• Inquiry Skills the ability to frame questions
  and gather information.
• Understanding evaluation skills the ability
  to understand others ideas and evaluate
  arguments offered in support of them.
• Advocacy Skills the ability to formulate
  positions and support them in a manner that
  promotes reasoned discussion.