Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Critical Thinking Tools and Techniques

Good Essays
1380 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Critical Thinking Tools and Techniques
Critical Thinking Tools and Techniques

What is Critical Thinking? Merriam-Webster (2004) defines thinking as: the action of using one 's mind to produce thought. Although when trying to define "Critical" thinking, you have to take it even further. Critical thinking is a process that your mind has to go through to produce that thought. Critical thinking can be defined as being able to examine and issue by breaking it down, and evaluating it in a conscious manner, while providing arguments/evidence to support the evaluation (Unknown, 2004). .Within this paper I will address the how and why critical thinking is so important in our everyday lives.

Asking questions and using the answers to understand the world around us is what drives critical thinking. There are eight characteristics of critical thinking, perception, assumption, emotion, language, argument, fallacy, logic and problem solving (Wade 1995).

Perception is the way we view and understand things. How we look at them. We will not have the total view of things if we do not question them. Using questioning, we sharpen our perception of the event. Perception is not always reality; it is formed around past experience and available resources. Influences of those around us also effect our perception. Merriam-Webster (2004) defines perception to be knowledge by the senses and/or intellect by the mind of what is presented to it. Perception therefore, can be both physical and intellectual.

Tools and Techniques 3

Assumptions are evaluations or generalizations influenced by values and based on observing cause and effect (Carter, Bishop, Lyman, 2002 pg. 100). They can often hide within truthful statements. An assumption can influence your

choices and many people don 't question whether their assumptions make sense. Assumptions can be learned from many sources such as parents, educators, the media and personal experiences. They can close you 're your mind to opportunities and even cause harm (Carter, et all, pg 100). Using your critical thinking you must analyze them to be true or false. We must learn to see and think without assumptions, stereotypes, or expectations.

Emotion and personal feelings are often referred to as barriers to critical thinking. They do have the ability to "bury, twist, and fragment the thinking process" (Kirby & Goodpaster, 1999, p. 30). However, these same emotions and feelings are a necessary part of the critical thinking process. "Thinking without feeling is often cold and sterile" (Kirby, p. 291). In order to use feelings to an advantage versus a disadvantage, a person must become aware of the feelings that exist about a topic or situation. Rather than view feeling and emotions as barriers to critical thinking, use them as a positive force to empower creative thought.

Language plays a critical role in our thinking. Without it most of our thinking would not be possible. (Kirby and Goodpaster, p. 94 (1999). We can still use our critical thinking skills by using the images in our mind or our emotions, but language is the main source of thinking. To have an even richer

Tools and Techniques 4

understanding of language we need to understand metaphors. Merriam-Webster online dictionary (www.meriam-webster.com) defines a metaphor as: "a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them". The

more words and metaphors that we learn the better our critical thinking skills will be.

An argument has one or more premises and one conclusion. A premise is a statement that is either true or false, that is offered in support of a claim being made. The conclusion is also a sentence that is either true or false. There are two main types of arguments, relevance and insufficient. A relevance argument is an argument such that the premises provide complete support for the conclusion. An insufficient argument is an argument that the premises provide some support but not enough for the conclusion. A valid argument means that all of its premises are true, then all of the conclusion must be true. If it is invalid it has one or more false premises and it will be insufficient.

Fallacies should be in a report all by themselves but they are a part of the critical thinking process. A fallacy is an error in the reasoning of arguments. All of the premises could be true and still have a false conclusion. Fallacies are common in everyday life and knowing how to identify them prevents us from falling victim to their deceit. To do so would cause our thinking to be unreasonable and inhibit good decision making or problem solving. Fallacies fall into two categories: fallacies of relevance and fallacies of insufficient evidence.

Tools and Techniques 5

A fallacy of relevance happens when the ideas are logically irrelevant to a conclusion even though they appear to be good ideas. A fallacy of insufficient evidence are ideas that do not have enough evidence to support the conclusion, even though the evidence they do have is significant to the conclusion.

An example of a Fallacy of Relevance is a personal attack fallacy. This is the denial of someone 's ideas or arguments by attacking the person rather than the idea or argument (Kirby, 1999). By attacking the person instead of the idea, one tired to prove that the person 's ideas are bad because the person 's character is bad. You can see allot of this type of fallacy during election campaigns. An example of a Fallacy of Insufficient Evidence would be a questionable cause fallacy. This fallacy is when a person states that one thing is the cause of something else, even though there is not enough evidence to support that claim. The ability to identify facts and fallacies in an argument can help a person to understand the significance they have to critical thinking and decision making.

To think logically is the heart of critical thinking (Kirby et all, pg 134). There are two types of logical thinking. They are deductive and inductive thinking. Deductive thinking must have two or more premises and the conclusion must come from those premises. The basic form of deductive thinking is a syllogism (Kirby, pg 135). An example of a syllogism would be:

All flowers are plants.

A rose is a flower.

Therefore, a rose is a plant.

Tools and Techniques 6

Inductive thinking only deals with some members of a class. We then draw a conclusion that all members will fit that class. An example of inductive thinking would be:

All men are dogs.

Charlie is a man.

Therefore, Charlie is a dog.

When you get to the point that you can think logically about the world around you, you are well on your way to becoming a great critical thinker.

Problem solving is applying critical thinking to achieve goals and personal harmony that are important in our lives. (Kirby, et all pg. 251). There are two methods of problem solving. They are algorithm and heuristics. Algorithms deal with a step by step procedure and is generally very time consuming. This method of problem solving is more efficiently used by computers. The other type is heuristics and it is based on trial and error. This method is faster, but it can also lead to less accurate solutions (Unknown, 2004 pg. 451). Each person forms concepts, decisions, and solutions in a different way. It is important to first define what exactly the problem is. When the source is found steps can then be made to fix the problem at hand.

In conclusion there are many ways in which we may improve our critical thinking skills. Mastering the eight characteristics will undoubtedly make you a better thinker. Scientist have recently been making amazing progress in figuring out how human being think, we still don 't know quite how we do it. But for centuries we have been applying different way of reasoning from what we

Tools and Techniques 7

already know, and arriving at something that we didn 't know before we started thinking.

Tools and Techniques 8

References

Carter C., Bishop J, Lyman S. (2002). Keys to college studying: becoming a lifelong learner. Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Kirby, G.R., Goodpaster, J.R., & Levine, M (1999). Critical thinking (2nd ed.). Boston Pearson.

Merriam-Webster Online (2004). Retrieved on August 9, 2004, from http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

Wade, C. (1995). Using writing to develop and assess critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 24-28.

Unknown (2004). Student handbook, college and university edition, vol 4. Harper Collins Publishers.

Unknown, Promoting and assessing critical thinking. Retrieved from http://www.trace.uwaterloo.ca/PandACThinking.html on August 9, 2004.

References: Carter C., Bishop J, Lyman S. (2002). Keys to college studying: becoming a lifelong learner. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Kirby, G.R., Goodpaster, J.R., & Levine, M (1999). Critical thinking (2nd ed.). Boston Pearson. Merriam-Webster Online (2004). Retrieved on August 9, 2004, from http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary Wade, C. (1995). Using writing to develop and assess critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 24-28. Unknown (2004). Student handbook, college and university edition, vol 4. Harper Collins Publishers. Unknown, Promoting and assessing critical thinking. Retrieved from http://www.trace.uwaterloo.ca/PandACThinking.html on August 9, 2004.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Critical thinking means correct thinking in the pursuit of relevant and reliable knowledge about the world. A person who thinks critically can ask appropriate questions, gather relevant information, efficiently and creatively sort through this information, reason logically from this information, and come to reliable and trustworthy conclusions about the world that enable one to live and act successfully in it. Critical thinking enables an individual to be a responsible citizen who contributes to society, and not be merely a consumer of society 's distractions (Schafersman, 1991).…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    What are assumptions? How do you think assumptions might interfere with critical thinking? What might you do to avoid making assumptions in your thinking?…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    HU260 week2

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Assumptions are beliefs one takes for granted, usually at the subconscious or unconscious levels of thought…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Critical Thinking

    • 3119 Words
    • 13 Pages

    According to Richard Paul and Michael Scriven (2004) "critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action". Critical thinking (CT) is a cognitive process in which we take nothing for granted, but instead we reflect on the information we receive and establish our own judgment. We are the ones who decide what to and what not to believe or do.…

    • 3119 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    • What are assumptions? How do you think assumptions might interfere with critical thinking? What might you do to avoid making assumptions in your thinking?…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    There are eight traits for critical thinking; intellectual humility, intellectual autonomy, intellectual integrity, intellectual courage, intellectual perseverance, confidence in reason, intellectual empathy and fair-mindedness. Emerging these traits harvests a moral compass for the advanced and accomplished critical thinker and eludes them from barriers such as bias, propaganda and…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Critical thinking is a complex approach to arriving at an educated decision by implementing a strategy for questioning and reasoning that will lead to a well-informed outcome. The process of thinking critically begins with having an open mind. Critical thinking plays an important role because being able to gather and analyze all available data allows me to make decisions to the best of my ability. In the end I have to take into consideration, not only the impact any decision I make will cause me, but also the impact it will cause others. Making any decision, whether it is minor or major,…

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Since critical thinking begins with assumptions we must first be aware of the assumption, then make the assumption and finally assess it. Critical thinking is how a person assesses the reasons for or against a decision being made so the assumption is neither good nor bad until fully assessed. Critical thinking is also done by being completely unbiased. This can be hard sometimes due to our emotions. Our emotions make up who we are which can sometimes cause barriers when making a critical decision. So the trick is to not ignore or deny our emotions but learn how to manage and handle them. In order to manage our emotions we may need to argue with ourselves or others whether or not something is true or not. An argument will allow the issue to be assessed along with the reasons of why or why not a decision is valid. The argument will also lead to one or more conclusions in determining what the final decision should be. The ultimate objective in thinking critically is to come to conclusions that are correct and to make decisions that are wise. (Critical thinking (10th ed.) (Moore & Parker). So to me critical thinking is not ill formed decisions but decisions that have been thought through and weighed to come up with the best conclusion. It usually isn’t our first thought that comes to mind. You have to critically think about the conclusions you are trying to come to without being biased in the process, which as I said can be difficult because we all have emotions.…

    • 282 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Rainbolt G. W., Dwyer S. L. (2008). Critical Thinking in College, (3ed.). Mason, OH. Cengage…

    • 1146 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    • Garbage taken out every night and no dishes left in the sink over night.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Critical thinking is the talent to rationally think. It includes the ability to involve in reflective and liberated thinking. While involved in critical thinking, you are able to understand the reasonable connection with ideas. You will also be able to identify, build, and evaluate opinions. Also, critical thinking helps you identify and find the importance in the ideas of what you are trying to figure out.…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    In simpler terms, Critical thinking is disciplined logical thinking governed by clear intellectual standards. Critical thinkers must always seek truth and reality. It employs not only logic but broad intellectual criteria such as clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance and fairness. While thinking critically we must give due consideration to the evidence, the context of judgment, the relevant criteria for making the judgment correctly, the applicable methods or techniques for forming the judgment, and the applicable theoretical constructs for understanding the problem and the question at hand.…

    • 1588 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    What are assumptions? How do you think assumptions might interfere with critical thinking? What might you do to avoid making assumptions in your thinking?…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Personal Reflection

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages

    a. Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As a general rule, critical thinking involves developing some emotional and intellectual distance between yourself and ideas whether you’re own or others in order to better evaluate their truth, validity, and reasonableness. Critical thinking is an effort to develop reliable, rational evaluations about what is reasonable for us to believe and disbelieve. Critical thinking makes use of the tools of logic and science because it values skepticism over gullibility or dogmatism, reason over faith, science of pseudoscience, and rationality over wishful thinking. Critical thinking does not guarantee that we will arrive at truth, but it does make it much more likely than any of the alternatives do.…

    • 764 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays