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Cornerstone 2
8A & 8B
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Critical Thinking | art of thinking about thinking while thinking in order to make thinking better. |
One direction in which learning is NOT natural: | inward learning (self-knowledge; how and why we do things). |
Critical thinking is | the way you do do everything you do. |
Critical thinking is that mode of thinking- | about any subject, content or problem-in which the thinker improves the quality of her thinking by skillfully ANALYZING, ASSESSING, and RECONSTRUCTING it. |
To ANALYZE thinking: | identify its purpose, question, information, conclusions, assumptions, implications, main concepts, and point of view. |
To ASSESS thinking: | check it for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance, logic and fairness. |
Critical thinking defined as | thinking explicitly aimed at well-founded judgment, utilizing appropriate evaluative standards in an attempt to determine the true worth, merit, or value of something. |
3 Dimensions of Critical Thinking | analytic, evaluative and creative. |
Critical thinking is the | systematic monitoring of thought with the end of improvement. |
Second-Order Thinking | is first-order thinking raised to the level of CONSCIOUS REALIZATION (analyzed, assessed, and reconstructed). |
First-Order Thinking | is SPONTANEOUS and NON-REFLECTIVE. It contains INSIGHT, PREJUDICE, TRUTH AND ERROR, GOOD AND BAD REASONING, INDISCRIMINATELY COMBINED. |
Standard measures of intelligence often impede learning. | true |
The best thinkers are: | those who systematically and carefully reason their way through problems. They ask questions when they don't understand. They don't allow other people to define their level of intelligence. |
One of the fundamentals of critical thinking is the ability to assess one's own reasoning: | clarity; accuracy; precision; relevance; depth; breadth; logic; significance; fairness |
The ultimate goal of asking questions about a matter is: | for these questions to become so spontaneous in thinking that they form a natural part of our inner voice, guiding us to better and better reasoning. |
Clarity | a gateway standard. If a statement is unclear, we cannot determine whether it is accurate or relevant. |
Accuracy | to be accurate is to represent something in accordance with the way it actually is. People often misinterpret or falsely describe things, especially when they have a vested interest in the description. |
Precision | to be precise is to give the details needed for someone to understand exactly what is meant. |
Relevance | something is relevant when it is directly connected with and bears upon the issue at hand. Something is relevant when it is pertinent or applicable to a problem we are trying to solve. |
Depth | we think deeply when we get beneath the surface of an issue/problem, identify the complexities inherent in it, and then deal with those complexities in an intellectually responsible way. |
Breadth | when we consider the issue at hand from every relevant viewpoint, we think in a broad way. |
Logic | when the combined thoughts are mutually supporting and make sense in combination, the thinking is logical. |
Fairness | to be justified is to think fairly in context. It is to think in accord with reason. |
One source of problems in human reasoning is traceable to defects at the level of: | goal, purpose or end. For instance, if the goal is unrealistic or contradictory to other goals we have, the reasoning we use to achieve it will suffer as a result. |
Question at Issue or Problem to Be Solved: | Requires determining whether the question you are addressing is important, whether it is answerable, whether you understand the requirements for settling the question, for solving the problem. |
Point of View or Frame of Reference | Adopt a POV that is fair to others, even to opposing POV. POV should be broad, flexible, and justifiable, to be stated clearly and adhered to consistently. |
Information, Data, Experiences | Assess whether information you are using in reasoning is relevant to the issue at hand and adequate for achieving your purpose. Asses whether you are taking the information into account consistently or distorting it to fit your own POV. |
Concepts, Theories, Ideas | Focus more deeply on the concepts you use. Assess the extent to which you are clear about those concepts, whether they are relevant to the issue at hand, whether your principles are slanted inappropriately by your POV. |
Assumptions | Assessing our ability to recognize and articulate assumptions, again according to relevant standards. Our assumptions may be clear or unclear, justifiable or unjustifiable, consistent or contradictory. |
Implications and Consequences | Understand implications whenever and wherever they occur. We want to be able to trace logical consequences. We want to see what our actions are leading to. We want to anticipate possible problems before they arise. |
Inferences | Become adept at making sound inferences. Learn to identify when you or someone else has made an inference. |
Could you elaborate more? | Clarity |
Could you express that point in another way? | Clarity |
Could you give me an example? | Clarity |
How could we check on that? | Accuracy |
How could we verify or test that? | Accuracy |
Could you be more specific? | Precision |
Could you be more exact? | Precision |
What factors make this difficult? | Depth |
What are some of the difficulties we need to deal with? | Depth |
How does that relate to the problem? | Relevance |
How does that help us with the issue? | Relevance |
Does all of this make sense together? | Logic |
Does your first paragraph fit in with your last one? | Logic |
Does what you say follow the evidence | Logic |
Is this the most important problem to consider? | Significance |
Which of these facts are most important? | Significance |
Do we need to look at this from another perspective? | Breadth |
Do we need to look at this in other ways? | Breadth |
Do we need to consider another point of view? | Breadth |
Is my thinking justifiable in context? | Fairness |
Is my purpose fair given the situation? | Fairness |
Am I using my concepts in keeping with educated usage, or am i distorting them to get what I want? | Fairness |
Purpose | clarity, significance, achievability, consistency, justifiability |
Purpose (issues) | unclear, trivial, unrealistic, contradictory, unfair |
Questions at Issue/Central Problem | clarity and precision, significance, answerability, relevance |
Questions at Issue/Central Problem (issues) | unclear and unprecise, insignificant, not answerable, irrelevant |
Point of View | flexibility, fairness, clarity, breadth, relevance |
Point of View (issues) | restricted, biased, unclear, narrow, irrelevant |
Information | clear, relevant, fairly gathered and reported, accurate, adequate, consistently applied |
Information (issues) | unclear, irrelevant, biased, inaccurate, insufficient, inconsistently applied |
Concepts and Ideas | clarity, relevance, depth, accuracy, justifiability |
Concept and Ideas (issues) | unclear, irrelevant, superficial, inaccurate, justifiable |
Assumptions | clarity, justifiability, consistency |
Assumptions (issues) | unclear, unjustified, contradictory |
Implications and Consequences | significance, logic, clarity, precision, completeness |
Implications and Consequences (issues) | unimportant, unrealistic, unclear, imprecise, incomplete |
Inference and Interpretation | clarity, logic, justifiability, profundity, reasonability |
Inference and Interpretation (issues) | unclear, illogical, unjustified, superficial, unreasonable |