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Kirby and Goodpaster An open mind is essential to critical thinking. Chap 2, p.

35 What we consider to be critical thinking ability is located in the outer part of the brain, that wrinkled skin called the cortex. Chap 4, p. 68 Thinking logically and identifying reasoning fallacies in ones own and in others thinking is the heart of critical thinking. Chap 9, p. 156. Paul and Elder
Critical thinking is that mode of thinkingabout any subject, content, or problemin which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it. Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem-solving abilities, as well as a commitment to overcome ones native egocentrism and socio centrism.
To analyze thinking: Identify its purpose, question, information, conclusion(s), assumptions, implications, main concept(s), and point of view. To assess thinking: Check it for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance, logic, and fairness.

The best thinkers pay close attention to thinking. They analyze it. They evaluate it. They improve it. Page xvii Critical thinking is the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances. Page xvii Critical thinking, then, has three dimensions: an analytic, an evaluative, and a creative component. As critical thinkers, we analyze thinking in order to evaluate it. We evaluate it in order to improve it. In other words, critical thinking is the systematic monitoring of thought with the end of improvement. When we think critically, we realize that thinking must not be accepted at face value but must be analyzed and assessed for its clarity, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, and logicalness. Page xxiv

Critical Thinking About: page xxv Teaching and learning Well-being Speaking Creativity Listening Politics Emotions Medicine Religion Intuition Writing Problem solving Habits Nursing Reading

One of the most important skills in critical thinking is that of evaluating information. Chap 4, p. 72.

One of the primary goals of critical thinking is to establish a disciplined, executive component of thinking in our thinking, a powerful inner voice of reason, to monitor, assess, and repairin a more rational directionour thinking, feelings, and action. Socratic questioning provides that inner voice. Chap 6, p. 124

Importance of decision-making and problem solving

in human life. Chap 10, p. 209. Problem solving is the process of reaching solutions. Whenever a problem cannot be solved formulaically or robotically, critical thinking is required.

Our thinking seems to us to be right, true, good, and justifiable. Our egocentric nature, therefore, creates perhaps the most formidable barrier to critical thinking. Chap 11, p. 214

We naturally think of the world in terms of how it can serve us. Chap 11, p. 214 How does critical thinking help us with forming generalizations and abstractions? Again, the answer is quite simple. Critical thinking enables us to take command of the abstractions we create in our own minds, the generalizations we make about the world, and therefore, ultimately, the quality of our reasoning. Without critical thinking skills, one doesnt know how to form reasonable and useful abstractions and generalizations. One does not know how to bring them alive in the mind or apply them with discipline in the world. Chap 13, p. 299 Scriven and Paul (Paul, 1995) define critical thinking (for the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking) as follows: 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 can be seen as having two components: (1) a set of information and belief generating and processing skills, and (2) the habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to guide behavior. It is thus to be contrasted with: (1) the mere acquisition and retention of information alone, because it involves a particular way in which information is sought and treated; (2) the mere possession of a set of skills, because it involves the continual use of them; and (3) the mere use of those skills (as an exercise) without acceptance of their results.
In our introductory psychology book, Carol Tavris and I have a definition we thought quite a bit about. We define critical thinking as the ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments on the basis of well-supported reasons.

Critical Thinking (1) Disciplined, self-directed thinking that exemplifies the perfections of thinking appropriate to a specific mode or domain of thinking; (2) thinking that displays mastery of intellectual skills and abilities; (3) the art of thinking about ones thinking while thinking, to make ones thinking better: more clear, more accurate, or more defensible; (4) thinking that is fully aware of, and continually guards against, the natural human tendency to self-deceive and rationalize to selfishly get what it wants. Critical thinking can be differentiated by two forms: (1) selfish or sophistic, on the one hand, and (2) fair-minded, on the other. In thinking critically, we use our command of the elements of thinking and the universal intellectual standards

to adjust our thinking successfully to the logical demands of a type or mode of thinking. See also critical listening, critical person, critical reading, critical society, critical writing, domains of thought, elements of thought, intellectual virtues, perfection of thought.

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