CRITICAL THINKING

Critical Thinking

Abstract

Critical thinking includes the component skills of analyzing arguments, making inferences using inductive or deductive reasoning, judging or evaluating, and making decisions or solving problems. Background knowledge is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for enabling critical thought within a given subject. Critical thinking involves both cognitive skills and dispositions. These dispositions, which can be seen as attitudes or habits of mind, include open and fair-mindedness, inquisitiveness, flexibility, a propensity to seek reason, a desire to be well-informed, and a respect for and willingness to entertain diverse viewpoints. There are both general- and domain-specific aspects of critical thinking. Empirical research suggests that people begin developing critical thinking competencies at a very young age. Although adults often exhibit deficient reasoning, in theory all people can be taught to think critically. Instructors are urged to provide explicit instruction in critical thinking, to teach how to transfer to new contexts, and to use cooperative or collaborative learning methods and constructivist approaches that place students at the center of the learning process. In constructing assessments of critical thinking, educators should use open-ended tasks, real-world or "authentic" problem contexts, and ill-structured problems that require students to go beyond recalling or restating previously learned information. Such tasks should have more than one defensible solution and embed adequate collateral materials to support multiple perspectives. Finally, such assessment tasks should make student reasoning visible by requiring students to provide evidence or logical arguments in support of judgments, choices, claims, or assertions.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

INTRODUCTION1

Critical thinking1

Nature of the Problem1

Purpose of the Project3

Background and Significance of the Problem3

LITERATURE REVIEW8

Definition of Critical Thinking8

Areas for Agreement12

Areas for Disagreement15

Relationships to Other Concepts21

METHODOLOGY25

Development of Critical Thinking25

Evaluation Plan25

Challenges in Assessing Critical Thinking34

Assessment Recommendations35

Summary38

References42

INTRODUCTION

Critical thinking

Many of us have heard of 'Critical Thinking' and most of us use it in some way or form - without giving much thought to it. As human beings with conscious cognizance, we all think - without ever being conscious of our thought processes. Many of us hardly ever try to control the way we think and fail to realize the potential benefits of developing critical thinking skills. Yes, Critical thinking and critical and creative thought processes can be developed by practice and by putting a conscious effort.

It is not necessary that only critical situations call for critical thinking skills. Critical thinking can help rationalize decision making processes and improve the competitive streak within you, to better the career competitiveness and help you to move ahead of the competition.

Nature of the Problem

Many researchers working in the area of critical thinking lament the poor state of critical thinking in most educated adults and children. For example, Halpern (1998) points to research from the field of psychology, concluding that many, if not most, adults fail to think critically in many situations. Kennedy et al., (1991) and Van Gelder (2005) have likewise concluded that many adults lack basic reasoning skills. Halpern (1998) cites the example that large numbers of people profess to believe in paranormal phenomena, despite a lack of evidence in ...