The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking

The Miniature Guide to The Foundation for Critical Thinking www.criticalthinking.org 707-878-9100 cct@criticalthinking.org By Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder Critical Thinking ConCepts and tools Client: FCT Project Title: Concepts/Tools — Conf ©2008 (07-069) Proof 5 Proof 6 Proof 7 Proof 8 12/3/07 11:35a 12/3/07 12:40p 12/3/07 3:20p 12/4/07 1:15p Announ cing the 28th An nual Int ernation al Confe rence on Critical Thinkin g Near Un iversity of Califo rnia at B erkeley July 1 9 – 24, 2 008 Specia l editio n Please join us for the 28th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking Near University of California at Berkeley July 19 – 24, 2008 For more than 25 years, the Foundation For Critical Thinking has emphasized the importance of teaching for critical thinking in a strong, rather than a weak, sense. We are committed to a clear and substantive concept of critical thinking (rather than one that is ill-defined); a concept that interfaces well wwith the disciplines, that applies directly to the needs of everyday and professional life, that emphasizes the affective as well as the cognitive dimensions of thought. We advocate a concept of critical thinking that organizes instruction in every subject area at every educational level, around it, and on it, and through it. One implication of such an emphasis is this: that only through long-term planning can a substantive concept of critical thinking take root in instruction and learning. We need short-term strategies, of course. But without long-term planning nothing substantial occurs. Deep learning does not result. The 28th International Conference will focus on The Art of Teaching for Intellectual Engagement. Intellectually engaged students take ownership of content through actively thinking it through, value questions more than answers, seek understanding over rote memorization. As an integral part of these processes, students learn how to learn, using disciplined reading, writing, speaking, and listening as modalities in learning. In the same spirit, all conference sessions will be interactive—integrating reading, writing, and teaching as modes for internalizing the ideas. To register, visit our website: www.criticalthinking.org Or call toll-free 800.833.3645. The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools 1 Fifth Edition © 2008 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org contents Why Critical Thinking? � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 2 The Elements of Thought � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 3 A Checklist for Reasoning� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 4 Questions Using the Elements of Thought � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 6 Three Levels of Thought � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 7 Universal Intellectual Standards � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 8 Template for Analyzing the Logic of Articles and Textbooks � � � � � � 11 Criteria for Evaluating Reasoning � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 12 Essential Intellectual Traits � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 13 Three Kinds of Questions � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 16 A Template for Problem-Solving � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 17 Analyzing and Assessing Research� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 18 What Critical Thinkers Routinely Do� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 19 Stages of Critical Thinking Development� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 20 The Problem of Egocentric Thinking � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 21 The Problem of Sociocentric Thinking � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 22 Envisioning Critical Societies� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 23 © 2008 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 2 The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools Why Critical Thinking? The Problem: Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or down-right prejudiced. Yet the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money and in quality of life. Excellence in thought, however, must be system- atically cultivated. A Definition: Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it. The Result: A well cultivated critical thinker: • raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely; • gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively; • comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards; • thinks openmindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and • communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems. Critical thinking is, in short, self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self- corrective thinking. It requires rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem solving abilities and a commitment to overcoming our native egocen- trism and sociocentrism. © 2008 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools 3 The Elements of Thought Point of View frames of reference, perspectives, orientations Purpose goals, objectives Question at issue problem, issue Implications and Consequences Assumptions presuppositions, axioms, taking for granted Information data, facts, observations, experiences Interpretation and Inference conclusions, solutions Concepts theories, definitions, laws, principles, models Elements of Thought Used With Sensitivity to Universal Intellectual Standards Clarity  Accuracy  Depth  Breadth  Significance Precision Relevance © 2008 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 4 The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools A Checklist for Reasoning 1) All reasoning has a PURPOSE.   • State your purpose clearly.   • Distinguish your purpose from related purposes.   • Check periodically to be sure you are still on target.   • Choose significant and realistic purposes. 2) All reasoning is an attempt to FIGURE something out, to settle some QUESTION, solve some PROBLEM.   • State the question at issue clearly and precisely.   • Express the question in several ways to clarify its meaning and scope.   • Break the question into sub-questions.   • Distinguish questions that have definitive answers from those that are a matter of opinion and from those that require consideration of multiple viewpoints. 3) All reasoning is based on ASSUMPTIONS.   • Clearly identify your assumptions and determine whether they are justifiable.   • Consider how your assumptions are shaping your point of view. 4) All reasoning is done from some POINT OF VIEW.   • Identify your point of view.   • Seek other points of view and identify their strengths as well as weaknesses.   • Strive to be fairminded in evaluating all points of view. © 2008 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools 5 5) All reasoning is based on DATA, INFORMATION and EVIDENCE.   • Restrict your claims to those supported by the data you have.   • Search for information that opposes your position as well as information that supports it.   • Make sure that all information used is clear, accurate, and relevant to the question at issue.   • Make sure you have gathered sufficient information. 6) All reasoning is expressed through, and shaped by, CONCEPTS and IDEAS.   • Identify key concepts and explain them clearly.   • Consider alternative concepts or alternative definitions of concepts.   • Make sure you are using concepts with care and precision. 7) All reasoning contains INFERENCES or INTERPRETATIONS by which we draw CONCLUSIONS and give meaning to data.   • Infer only what the evidence implies.   • Check inferences for their consistency with each other.   • Identify assumptions that lead to inferences. 8) All reasoning leads somewhere or has IMPLICATIONS and CONSEQUENCES.   • Trace the implications and consequences that follow from your reasoning.   • Search for negative as well as positive implications.   • Consider all possible consequences. © 2008 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 6 The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools Questions Using the Elements of Thought (in a paper, an activity, a reading assignment...) Purpose: What am I trying to accomplish? What is my central aim? My purpose? Questions: What question am I raising? What question am I addressing? Am I considering the complexities in the question? Information: What information am I using in coming to that conclusion? What experience have I had to support this claim? What information do I need to settle the question? Inferences/ Conclusions: How did I reach this conclusion? Is there another way to interpret the information? Concepts: What is the main idea here? Can I explain this idea? Assumptions: What am I taking for granted? What assumption has led me to that conclusion? Implications/ Consequences: If someone accepted my position, what would be the implications? What am I implying? Points of View: From what point of view am I looking at this issue? Is there another point of view I should consider? © 2008 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools 7 Level 3: Highest Order Thinking t��&YQMJDJUMZ�SFøFDUJWF�������t��)JHIFTU�TLJMM�MFWFM t��3PVUJOF�VTF�PG�DSJUJDBM�UIJOLJOH�UPPMT�JO� analyzing and assessing thinking t�$POTJTUFOUMZ�GBJS Level 2: Higher Order Thinking t��4FMFDUJWFMZ�SFøFDUJWF�����t��)JHI�TLJMM�MFWFM t��-BDLT�DSJUJDBM�UIJOLJOH�WPDBCVMBSZ t�*ODPOTJTUFOUMZ�GBJS �NBZ�CF� skilled in sophistry Level 1: Lower Order Thinking t��6OSFøFDUJWF�����t��-PX�UP�NJYFE�TLJMM�MFWFM t��'SFRVFOUMZ�SFMJFT�PO�HVU�JOUVJUJPO t�-BSHFMZ�TFMG�TFSWJOH� TFMG�EFDFJWFE Three Levels of Thought Lower order thinking is often distinguished from higher order thinking. But higher order thinking can be inconsistent in quality. It can be fair or unfair. To think at the highest level of quality, we need not only intellectual skills, but intellectual traits as well. © 2008 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 8 The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools Universal Intellectual Standards: And questions that can be used to apply them Universal intellectual standards are standards which should be applied to thinking to ensure its quality. To be learned they must be taught explicitly. The ultimate goal, then, is for these standards to become infused in the thinking of students, forming part of their inner voice, guiding them to reason better. Clarity: Could you elaborate further on that point? Could you express that point in another way? Could you give me an illustration? Could you give me an example? Clarity is a gateway standard. If a statement is unclear, we cannot determine whether it is accurate or relevant. In fact, we cannot tell anything about it because we don’t yet know what it is saying. For example, the question “What can be done about the education system in America?” is unclear. In order to adequately address the question, we would need to have a clearer understanding of what the person asking the question is considering the “problem” to be. A clearer question might be “What can educators do to ensure that students learn the skills and abilities which help them function successfully on the job and in their daily decision-making?” Accuracy: Is that really true? How could we check that? How could we find out if that is true? A statement can be clear but not accurate, as in “Most dogs are over 300 pounds in weight.” Precision: Could you give me more details? Could you be more specific? A statement can be both clear and accurate, but not precise, as in “Jack is over- weight.” (We don’t know how overweight Jack is, one pound or 500 pounds.) Relevance: How is that connected to the question? How does that bear on the issue? A statement can be clear, accurate, and precise, but not relevant to the question at issue. For example, students often think that the amount of effort they put into a course should be used in raising their grade in a course. Often, however, “effort” does not measure the quality of student learning, and when that is so, effort is irrelevant to their appropriate grade. © 2008 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools 9 Depth: How does your answer address the complexities in the question? How are you taking into account the problems in the question? Are you dealing with the most significant factors? A statement can be clear, accurate, precise, and relevant, but superficial (that is, lack depth). For example, the statement “Just Say No”, which is often used to discourage chil- dren and teens from using drugs, is clear, accurate, precise, and relevant. Nevertheless, it lacks depth because it treats an extremely complex issue, the pervasive problem of drug use among young people, superficially. It fails to deal with the complexities of the issue. Breadth: Do we need to consider another point of view? Is there another way to look at this ques- tion? What would this look like from a conservative standpoint? What would this look like from the point of view of…? A line of reasoning may be clear, accurate, precise, relevant, and deep, but lack breadth (as in an argument from either the conservative or liberal standpoints which gets deeply into an issue, but only recognizes the insights of one side of the question). Logic: Does this really make sense? Does that follow from what you said? How does that follow? Before you implied this and now you are saying that, I don’t see how both can be true. When we think, we bring a variety of thoughts together into some order. When the combination of thoughts are mutually supporting and make sense in combination, the thinking is “logical.” When the combination is not mutually supporting, is contradictory in some sense, or does not “make sense,” the combination is “not logical.” Fairness: Are we considering all relevant viewpoints in good faith? Are we distorting some infor- mation to maintain our biased perspective? Are we more concerned about our vested interests than the common good? We naturally think from our own perspective, from a point of view which tends to privilege our position. Fairness implies the treating of all relevant viewpoints alike without reference to one’s own feelings or interests. Because we tend to be biased in favor of our own viewpoint, it is important to keep the standard of fairness at the fore- front of our thinking. This is especially important when the situation may call on us to see things we don’t want to see, or give something up that we want to hold onto. © 2008 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 10 The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools Clarity Could you elaborate further? Could you give me an example? Could you illustrate what you mean? Accuracy How could we check on that? How could we find out if that is true? How could we verify or test that? Precision Could you be more specific? Could you give me more details? Could you be more exact? Relevance How does that relate to the problem? How does that bear on the question? How does that help us with the issue? Depth What factors make this a difficult problem? What are some of the complexities of this question? What are some of the difficulties we need to deal with? Breadth Do we need to look at this from another perspective? Do we need to consider another point of view? Do we need to look at this in other ways? Logic Does all this make sense together? Does your first paragraph fit in with your last? Does what you say follow from the evidence? Significance Is this the most important problem to consider? Is this the central idea to focus on? Which of these facts are most important? Fairness Do I have any vested interest in this issue? Am I sympathetically representing the viewpoints of others? © 2008 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools 11 Template for Analyzing the Logic of an Article Take an article that you have been assigned to read for class, completing the “logic” of it using the template below. This template can be modified for analyzing the logic of a chapter in a textbook. The Logic of “(name of the article)” 1) The main purpose of this article is ________________________________. (State as accurately as possible the author’s purpose for writing the article.) 2) The key question that the author is addressing is ____________________. (Figure out the key question in the mind of the author when s/he wrote the article.) 3) The most important information in this article is ___________________. (Figure out the facts, experiences, data the author is using to support her/his conclusions.) 4) The main inferences/conclusions in this article are __________________. (Identify the key conclusions the author comes to and presents in the article.) 5) The key concept(s) we need to understand in this article is (are) ____________. By these concepts the author means _________________________. (Figure out the most important ideas you would have to understand in order to understand the author’s line of reasoning.) 6) The main assumption(s) underlying the author’s thinking is (are) ___________. (Figure out what the author is taking for granted [that might be questioned].) 7a) If we take this line of reasoning seriously, the implications are ______________. (What consequences are likely to follow if people take the author’s line of reasoning seriously?) 7b) If we fail to take this line of reasoning seriously, the implications are __________. (What consequences are likely to follow if people ignore the author’s reasoning?) 8) The main point(s) of view presented in this article is (are) _________________. (What is the author looking at, and how is s/he seeing it?) © 2008 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 12 The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools Criteria for Evaluating Reasoning 1. Purpose: What is the purpose of the reasoner? Is the purpose clearly stated or clearly implied? Is it justifiable? 2. Question: Is the question at issue well-stated? Is it clear and unbiased? Does the expression of the question do justice to the complexity of the matter at issue? Are the question and purpose directly relevant to each other? 3. Information: Does the writer cite relevant evidence, experiences, and/or information essential to the issue? Is the information accurate? Does