Critical Thinking

What is Critical Thinking?

• Critical thinkers: distinguish between fact and opinion; ask questions; make detailed observations; uncover assumptions and define their terms; and make assertions based on sound logic and solid evidence.

Ellis, D. Becoming a Master Student, 1997

• Critical thinking is best understood as the ability of thinkers to take charge of their own thinking.  This requires that they develop sound criteria and standards for analyzing and assessing their own thinking and routinely use those criteria and standards to improve its quality.

Elder, L. and Paul, R. "Critical thinking: why we must transform our teaching." Journal of Developmental Education, Fall 1994

Attributes of a Critical Thinker

• asks pertinent questions 
• assesses statements and arguments 
• is able to admit a lack of understanding or information 
• has a sense of curiosity 
• is interested in finding new solutions 
• is able to clearly define a set of criteria for analyzing ideas
• is willing to examine beliefs, assumptions, and opinions and weigh them against facts 
• listens carefully to others and is able to give feedback 
• sees that critical thinking is a lifelong process of self-assessment 
• suspends judgment until all facts have been gathered and considered
• looks for evidence to support assumption and beliefs 
• is able to adjust opinions when new facts are found 
• looks for proof 
• examines problems closely
• is able to reject information that is incorrect or irrelevant 

Ferrett, S. Peak Performance (1997).

Applying Critical Thinking to Reading

CRITICAL READING STRATEGIES
(from Longview Community College, Lee's Summit, Missouri)

These seven critical reading strategies can be learned readily and then applied not only to reading selections in a Literature class, but also to your other college reading. Mastering these strategies will help you handle difficult material with confidence. 

• Annotating: Fundamental to each of these strategies is annotating directly on the page: underlining key words, phrases, or sentences; writing comments or questions in the margins; bracketing important sections of the text; constructing ideas with lines or arrows; numbering related points in sequence; and making note of anything that strikes you as interesting, important, or questionable. 
  • Most readers annotate in layers, adding further annotations on second and third readings.
  • Annotations can be light or heavy, depending on the reader's purpose and the difficulty of the material.
     
• Previewing: Learning about a text before really reading it. Previewing enables readers to get a sense of what the text is about and how it is organized before reading it closely. This simple strategy includes seeing what you can learn from the headnotes or other introductory material, skimming to get an overview of the content and organization, and identifying the rhetorical situation.
  
• Contextualizing: Placing a text in its historical, biographical, and cultural contexts. When you read a text, you read it through the lens of your own experience.
  • Your understanding of the words on the page and their significance is informed by what you have come to know and value from living in a particular time and place. But the texts you read were all written in the past, sometimes in a radically different time and place.
  • To read critically, you need to contextualize, to recognize the differences between your contemporary values and attitudes and those represented in the text.
     
• Questioning to understand and remember: Asking questions about the content. As students, you are accustomed to teachers asking you questions about your reading.
  • Questions are designed to help you understand a reading and respond to it more fully, and often this technique works.
  • When you need to understand and use new information though it is most beneficial if you write the questions, as you read the text for the first time.
  • With this strategy, you can write questions any time, but in difficult academic readings, you will understand the material better and remember it longer if you write a question for every paragraph or brief section.
  • Each question should focus on a main idea, not on illustrations or details, and each should be expressed in your own words, not just copied from parts of the paragraph.
     
• Reflecting on challenges to your beliefs and values: Examining your personal responses. The reading that you do for this class might challenge your attitudes, your unconsciously held beliefs, or your positions on current issues.
  • As you read a text for the first time, mark an X in the margin at each point where you fell a personal challenge to your attitudes, beliefs, or status.
  • Make a brief note in the margin about what you feel or about what in the text created the challenge.
  • Now look again at the places you marked in the text where you felt personally challenged.
  • What patterns do you see?
     
• Outlining and summarizing: Identifying the main ideas and restating them in your own words.
  • Outlining and summarizing are especially helpful strategies for understanding the content and structure of a reading selection.
  • Whereas outlining reveals the basic structure of the text, summarizing synopsizes a selection's main argument in brief.
  • Outlining may be part of the annotating process, or it may be done separately (as it is in this class).
  • The key to both outlining and summarizing is being able to distinguish between the main ideas and the supporting ideas and examples.
  • The main ideas form the backbone, the strand that hold the various parts and pieces of the text together.
  • Outlining the main ideas helps you to discover this structure.
  • When you make an outline, don't use the text's exact words.
     
• Summarizing begins with outlining, but instead of merely listing the main ideas, a summary recomposes them to form a new text. Whereas outlining depends on a close analysis of each paragraph, summarizing also requires creative synthesis. Putting ideas together again -- in your own words and in a condensed form -- shows how reading critically can lead to deeper understanding of any text.
  
• Evaluating an argument means testing the logic of a text as well as its credibility and emotional impact. All writers make assertions that want you to accept as true.
  • As a critical reader, you should not accept anything on face value but to recognize every assertion as an argument that must be carefully evaluated.
  • An argument has two essential parts: a claim and support.
  • The claim asserts a conclusion -- an idea, an opinion, a judgment, or a point of view - that the writer wants you to accept.
  • The support includes reasons (shared beliefs, assumptions, and values) and evidence (facts, examples, statistics, and authorities) that give readers the basis for accepting the conclusion.
  • When you assess an argument, you are concerned with the process of reasoning as well as its truthfulness (these are not the same thing).
  • At the most basic level, in order for an argument to be acceptable, the support must be appropriate to the claim and the statements must be consistent with one another.
     
• Comparing and contrasting related readings: Exploring likenesses and differences between texts to understand them better. 

Many of the authors on the subject of thinking critically approach the topic in different ways. Fitting a text into an ongoing dialectic helps increase understanding of why an author approached a particular issue or question in the way he or she did.

Success for Strategies Critical Thinking: http://www.accd.edu/sac/history/keller/ACCDitg/SSCT.htm

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy divides the way people learn into three domains. One of these is the cognitive domain which emphasizes intellectual outcomes. This domain is further divided into categories or levels. The key words used and the type of questions asked may aid in the establishment and encouragement of critical thinking, especially in the higher levels.

Level 1: Knowledge - exhibits previously learned material by recalling facts, terms, basic concepts and answers.

Key words: who, what, why, when, omit, where, which, choose, find, how, define, label, show, spell, list, match, name, relate, tell, recall, select

Questions:

What is . . . ? How is . . . ?

Where is . . . ? When did _______ happen?

How did ______ happen? How would you explain . . . ?

Why did . . . ? How would you describe . . . ?

When did . . . ? Can you recall . . . ?

How would you show . . . ? Can you select . . . ?

Who were the main . . . ? Can you list three . . . ?

Which one . . . ? Who was . . . ?

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Level 2: Comprehension - demonstrating understanding of facts and ideas by organizing, comparing, translating, interpreting, giving descriptions and stating main ideas.

Key words: compare, contrast, demonstrate, interpret, explain, extend, illustrate, infer, outline, relate, rephrase, translate, summarize, show, classify

Questions:

How would you classify the type of . . . ?

How would you compare . . . ? contrast . . . ?

Will you state or interpret in your own words . . . ?

How would you rephrase the meaning . . . ?

What facts or ideas show . . . ?

What is the main idea of . . . ?

Which statements support . . . ?

Can you explain what is happening . . . what is meant . . .?

What can you say about . . . ?

Which is the best answer . . . ?

How would you summarize . . . ?

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Level 3: Application - solving problems by applying acquired knowledge, facts, techniques and rules in a different way.

Key words: apply, build, choose, construct, develop, interview, make use of, organize, experiment with, plan, select, solve, utilize, model, identify

Questions:

How would you use . . . ?

What examples can you find to . . . ?

How would you solve _______ using what you have learned . . . ?

How would you organize _______ to show . . . ?

How would you show your understanding of . . . ?

What approach would you use to . . . ?

How would you apply what you learned to develop . . . ?

What other way would you plan to . . . ?

What would result if . . . ?

Can you make use of the facts to . . . ?

What elements would you choose to change . . . ?

What facts would you select to show . . . ?

What questions would you ask in an interview with . . . ?

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Level 4: Analysis - examining and breaking information into parts by identifying motives or causes; making inferences and finding evidence to support generalizations.

Key words: analyze, categorize, classify, compare, contrast, discover, dissect, divide, examine, inspect, simplify, survey, take part in, test for, distinguish, list, distinction, theme, relationships, function, motive, inference, assumption, conclusion

Questions:

What are the parts or features of . . . ?

How is _______ related to . . . ?

Why do you think . . . ?

What is the theme . . . ?

What motive is there . . . ?

Can you list the parts . . . ?

What inference can you make . . . ?

What conclusions can you draw . . . ?

How would you classify . . . ?

How would you categorize . . . ?

Can you identify the difference parts . . . ?

What evidence can you find . . . ?

What is the relationship between . . . ?

Can you make a distinction between . . . ?

What is the function of . . . ?

What ideas justify . . . ?

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Level 5: Synthesis - compiling information together in a different way by combining elements in a new pattern or proposing alternative solutions.

Key Words: build, choose, combine, compile, compose, construct, create, design, develop, estimate, formulate, imagine, invent, make up, originate, plan, predict, propose, solve, solution, suppose, discuss, modify, change, original, improve, adapt, minimize, maximize, delete, theorize, elaborate, test, improve, happen, change

Questions:

What changes would you make to solve . . . ?

How would you improve . . . ?

What would happen if . . . ?

Can you elaborate on the reason . . . ?

Can you propose an alternative . . . ?

Can you invent . . . ?

How would you adapt ________ to create a different . . . ?

How could you change (modify) the plot (plan) . . . ?

What could be done to minimize (maximize) . . . ?

What way would you design . . . ?

What could be combined to improve (change) . . . ?

Suppose you could _______ what would you do . . . ?

How would you test . . . ?

Can you formulate a theory for . . . ?

Can you predict the outcome if . . . ?

How would you estimate the results for . . . ?

What facts can you compile . . . ?

Can you construct a model that would change . . . ?

Can you think of an original way for the . . . ? 

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Level 6: Evaluation - presenting and defending opinions by making judgments about information, validity of ideas or quality of work based on a set of criteria.

Key Words: award, choose, conclude, criticize, decide, defend, determine, dispute, evaluate, judge, justify, measure, compare, mark, rate, recommend, rule on, select, agree, interpret, explain, appraise, prioritize, opinion, ,support, importance, criteria, prove, disprove, assess, influence, perceive, value, estimate, influence, deduct

Questions:

Do you agree with the actions . . . ? with the outcomes . . . ?

What is your opinion of . . . ?

How would you prove . . . ? disprove . . . ?

Can you assess the value or importance of . . . ?

Would it be better if . . . ?

Why did they (the character) choose . . . ?

What would you recommend . . . ?

How would you rate the . . . ?

What would you cite to defend the actions . . . ?

How would you evaluate . . . ?

How could you determine . . . ?

What choice would you have made . . . ?

What would you select . . . ?

How would you prioritize . . . ?

What judgment would you make about . . . ?

Based on what you know, how would you explain . . . ?

What information would you use to support the view . . . ?

How would you justify . . . ?

What data was used to make the conclusion . . . ?

Why was it better that . . . ?

How would you prioritize the facts . . . ?

How would you compare the ideas . . . ? people . . . ?

Taken from:
Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum Project - Longview Community College: http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/longview/ctac/index.htm
Bloom's Taxonomy and Critical Thinking: http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/longview/ctac/blooms.htm