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THE CONCEPT OF CRITICAL THINKING

2019, CHAPTER 3 LECTURE NOTES FOR Logical reasoning, conceptualization and critical

As humans we think all the time because we possess the ability and capacity to do so. However, it is not all types of thinking that is productive or relevant to our own very existence. Although we have the natural abilities to think as humans, this mental ability is an art and a craft. Consequently, the art of correct thinking can be acquired through learning. There are several different types of thinking such as: creative thinking, design thinking, innovative thinking, positive thinking, and of course critical thinking. For the purpose of this course, we will concentrate on critical thinking.

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International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature [ISC]

Atefeh Rezanejad

Critical thinking defined as the ability to think about your own thinking with a more analytical perspective, has long been an important side of education history. Recently there has been much attention devoted to this concept, particularly in the domain of language education. The present study is a review of the literature and previous studies done on the issue of critical thinking. In the first section an introduction to the study is presented. In the next section, the definitions of the notion of critical thinking from different scholars are put forth. In the third part, we discussed the features and characteristics of a real critical thinker. In the fourth part, the idea of teachability of critical thinking is discussed. It is tried to present some strategies which can enhance critical thinking in students.

DR KUNTAL BARUA

— Critical thinking has been a controversial issue among philosophers, researchers and educationalists, although there is no general consensus on a definition. Everyone thinks; it is our nature to do so. But much of our thinking, left to itself , is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or downright prejudiced. Yet the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought. Excellence in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated. Critical thinking is that mode of thinking-about any subject, content, or problem-in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them. Critical thinking is not a matter of accumulating information. A person with a good memory and who knows a lot of facts is not necessarily good at critical thinking. A critical thinker is able to deduce consequences from what he/she knows, and he/she knows how to make use of information to solve problems, and to seek relevant sources of information to inform himself / herself. Critical thinking should not be confused with being argumentative or being critical of other people. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing fallacies and bad reasoning, critical thinking can also play an important role in cooperative reasoning and constructive tasks. Critical thinking can help us acquire knowledge, improve our theories, and strengthen arguments. It is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way.

halimah Farin

According to Laws of The Republic Indonesia Number 12 in 2012 about Higher Education article 5, one of the main purposes of higher education is to promote the potentially development of students in order to be man of faith and fear of God Almighty and noble, healthy, knowledgeable, skilled, creative, independent, skilled, competent, and cultured for the sake of the nation. Therefore, the students of higher level should be promoted to have critical, reflective and analytical abilities. Although students at university levels should be able to develop this kind of thought, thinking critically is not simply acquired; it ought to be promoted and practiced constantly trough effective aids. A useful mean to foster critical thinking in this context is reading, and more specifically comprehension reading game " Brain Teasers ". Reading without comprehension is simply word calling. Effective comprehends not only make sense of the text, but are also able to use the information it contains. They are able to think thoughtfully or deeply and to make personal connections as they analyze and question what they are reading, hearing, and seeing. Studies showed that developing students' abilities to take critical literacy boldness when reading texts is an important aspect of literacy instruction. Interpreting texts through a critical literacy lens can help students become aware of the messages that texts communicate; who should receive privileges; and who has been or continues to be oppressed. As students learn how to engage in critical

masifah hashim

help to do asignment

Ulrich de Balbian

I belong to a group of academics offering our work for FREE downlaod as commercial publishers charge too much for books. https://www.academia.edu/31099506/_Meta-philosophy_Where_to_begin_Philosophy If you wish to think/write about many dimensional things like the‭ ‘‬world‭’‬,‭ ‬persons,‭ ‬consciousness,‭ ‬human thinking etc,‭ ‬you should at least think multi-dimensional and many levelled. Questioning the purpose,‭ ‬the subject-matter and the methodology,‭ ‬methods of the discipline. I have already dealt in detail about the disappearance of different subject from the philosophical discourse with the differentiation of other disciplines, as well as the involvement in philosophy in inter-disciplinary areas such as cognitive sciences, the creation of experimental philosophy and the philosophies of other discourses, eg art, religion, science, mathematics, sport and every subject possible. Philosophy has/is often interpreted as consisting of logic, which in has its own discourse, while other aspects or forms of logic really form part of mathematics. The doing of philosophy as the doing of (usually informal) logic is in some way related to this belief. As far as the method of philosophy goes, it is always seen as employing arguments, argumentation and reasoning. But all kinds of writing and talking employ arguments, argumentation, reasoning and informal logic – not just philosophy. I conclude with a discussion from theoretical physics (in the past associated with the philosophical discourse) that provides us with ontologies as philosophy used to do. Against that background I present articles on the multiverse, more conventional articles on our universe, our world, our physical reality and the origins of life. I think these are some of the many things that it is necessary that philosophy should take note of and consequently question itself, its aims, objectives, subject-matter and methodologies. We might then have something different than one-levelled and one-dimensional thinking and more many layered and levelled and multi-dimensional thinking. Is this not how our consciousness functions? On many levels, layers and dimensions simultaneously? So should this not be the manner in which we conceive of ‘it’, its nature and functioning? We, philosophy, should at least be thinking ( instead of individual concepts, or statements, linear thinking - we should simultaneously think on many layers, on many levels and in several dimensions) in terms of 3D, for example 3D scatter plots .By this I mean the many different aspects of the person (mentally and physically, socially, culturally, as well as our environment, planetary and universe context should be included in every concept we employ; each concept should therefore be at least like a 3D scatter plot image, including all these levels and information)

Tracy Irani

If you wish to think/write about many dimensional things like the‭ ‘‬world‭’‬,‭ ‬persons,‭ ‬consciousness,‭ ‬human thinking etc,‭ ‬you should at least think multi-dimensional and many levelled. Questioning the purpose,‭ ‬the subject-matter and the methodology,‭ ‬methods of the discipline. I have already dealt in detail about the disappearance of different subject from the philosophical discourse with the differentiation of other disciplines, as well as the involvement in philosophy in inter-disciplinary areas such as cognitive sciences, the creation of experimental philosophy and the philosophies of other discourses, eg art, religion, science, mathematics, sport and every subject possible. Philosophy has/is often interpreted as consisting of logic, which in has its own discourse, while other aspects or forms of logic really form part of mathematics. The doing of philosophy as the doing of (usually informal) logic is in some way related to this belief. As far as the method of philosophy goes, it is always seen as employing arguments, argumentation and reasoning. But all kinds of writing and talking employ arguments, argumentation, reasoning and informal logic – not just philosophy. I conclude with a discussion from theoretical physics (in the past associated with the philosophical discourse) that provides us with ontologies as philosophy used to do. Against that background I present articles on the multiverse, more conventional articles on our universe, our world, our physical reality and the origins of life. I think these are some of the many things that it is necessary that philosophy should take note of and consequently question itself, its aims, objectives, subject-matter and methodologies. We might then have something different than one-levelled and one-dimensional thinking and more many layered and levelled and multi-dimensional thinking. Is this not how our consciousness functions? On many levels, layers and dimensions simultaneously? So should this not be the manner in which we conceive of ‘it’, its nature and functioning? We, philosophy, should at least be thinking ( instead of individual concepts, or statements, linear thinking - we should simultaneously think on many layers, on many levels and in several dimensions) in terms of 3D, for example 3D scatter plots .By this I mean the many different aspects of the person (mentally and physically, socially, culturally, as well as our environment, planetary and universe context should be included in every concept we employ; each concept should therefore be at least like a 3D scatter plot image, including all these levels and information)

Peter A Facione

Neak Piseth

In this research project has looked deeply down into the ground of twenty first century skills: a case study in Cambodian teacher and student’s perspectives about critical thinking in higher education. In this sense, this research project aims at projecting a full image of the critical thinking into four angles such as (1) based on the teacher and student’s perspectives what critical thinking is, (2) the significance of studying this subject, (3) the challenges of teaching and studying it, and (4) the practical methods on how to make students learn it better. Mixed method should be an ideal for utilizing as a tool to conduct this research finding due to two main reasons. First, we are planning to conduct semi-structured interview with three expertise who work in the best Cambodian university in order to absorb knowledge and their perspectives regarding the critical thinking in higher education within four angles. Second, as to digest our understanding about critical thinking from the students’ perspectives, we decided to do a survey which involves 100 university students as our participants. Moreover, in the sampling selecting techniques, fishbowl technique is employed by writing down all the well-known universities’ names and putting them into a bowl, so we randomly selected one university. Then, we continued to selecting which departments, and generation. By so doing, we could make our research validity and credibility. Because the wide range experiences of three lecturers and the purposive and responsive students, we are able to fully understand about the critical thinking in the Cambodian university within four angles. Finally, we find that critical thinking skills is not just an ability to make human think critically and logically in dealing with issues relating to their study, but it also helps them see issues in the different perspectives and sides with rational thinking by absorbing this knowledge from the outside environment.

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Critical Thinking Competency Standards

Description: critical thinking competency standards, read the text version.

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A Guide for Educators to Critical Thinking Competency Standards Standards, Principles, Performance Indicators, and Outcomes With a Critical Thinking Master Rubric By Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder The Foundation for Critical Thinking www.criticalthinking.org ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press Critical Thinking Competency Standards Letter to the Reader Much lip service is given to the notion that students are learning to think critically.A cursory examination of critical thinking competency standards (enumerated and elabo- rated in this guide) should persuade any reasonable person familiar with schooling today that they are not. On the other hand, a reasonable person might also conclude that no teacher in any single subject could teach all of these standards.We agree. The critical thinking competency standards articulated in this guide serve as a resource for teachers, curriculum designers, administrators and accrediting bodies. The use of these competencies across the curriculum will ensure that critical thinking is fostered in the teaching of any subject to all students at every grade level.We can expect large groups of students to achieve these competencies only when most teachers within a particular institution are fostering critical thinking standards in their subject(s) at their grade level. We cannot expect students to learn critical thinking at any substantive level through one or a few semesters of instruction. Viewed as a process covering twelve to sixteen years and beyond, and contributed to by all instruction, both at the K-12 as well as the college and university level, all of the com- petencies we articulate, and more, can be achieved by students.We recommend therefore that those responsible for instruction identify which competencies will be fostered at what grade level in what subjects for what students. The most important competencies must be reinforced within most instruction. Some competencies might well be taught in a more restricted way. We believe any well-educated student or citizen needs the abilities and dispositions fos- tered through these competencies.We also believe that any reasonable person who closely studies these competencies will agree. To transform classrooms into communities of thinkers, we need to take a long-term view.We need to reflect widely and broadly.We need to be systematic, committed, and visionary. The task is challenging indeed. But it is a challenge we ignore at the risk of the well-being of our students and that of our society. Linda Elder Richard Paul Foundation for Critical Thinking Center for Critical Thinking ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards Contents Introduction The Structure of This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Understanding the Intimate Relationship Between Critical Thinking, Learning, and Education The Concept of Critical Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The What and the How of Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Critical Thinking is the “How” for Obtaining Every Educational “What” . . . . . . . . . . 7 Critical Thinking and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Critical Thinking and the Educated Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Critical Thinking and Information Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Growing Importance of Critical Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Critical and Creative Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Critical Thinking and the Mastery of Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Adapting the Standards in Particular Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 The Structure and Components of the Competencies Relating the Competencies to Critical Thinking Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Outlining the Components in Each Competency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 A Master Rubric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Critical Thinking Competencies Standard One: Purposes, Goals, and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Standard Two: Questions, Problems, and Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Standard Three: Information, Data, Evidence, and Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Standard Four: Inferences and Interpretations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Standard Five: Assumptions & Presuppositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Standard Six: Concepts, Theories, Principles, Definitions, Laws, & Axioms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Standard Seven: Implications and Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Standard Eight: Points of View and Frames of Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Standard Nine: Assessing Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Standard Ten: Fairmindedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Standard Eleven: Intellectual Humility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Standard Twelve: Intellectual Courage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Standard Thirteen: Intellectual Empathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Standard Fourteen: Intellectual Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Standard Fifteen: Intellectual Perseverance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards Standard Sixteen: Confidence in Reason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Standard Seventeen: Intellectual Autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Standard Eighteen: Insight into egocentricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Standard Nineteen: Insight into sociocentricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Standard Twenty: Skills in the Art of Studying and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Standard Twenty-One: Skills in the Art of Asking Essential Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Standard Twenty-Two: Skills in the Art of Close Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Standard Twenty-Three: Skills in the Art of Substantive Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Standard Twenty-Four: Ethical Reasoning Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Standard Twenty-Five: Skills in Detecting Media Bias and Propaganda in National and World News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Appendix: Critical Thinking Theory Underlying the Competencies All thinking can be analyzed by identifying its eight elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 All thinking must be assessed for quality using universal intellectual standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 The ultimate goal of critical thinking is to foster the development of intellectual traits or dispositions (and the skills and abilities they presuppose.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Egocentrism and Sociocentrism, Natural Predispositions of the Mind and Powerful Barriers to the Dvelopment of Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Deepening Your Understanding of the Critical Thinking Competencies . . . . . . 54 ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards Critical Thinking Competency Standards: Guide for Educators Education is not the filling of a pail. It is the lighting of a fire. —William Butler Yeats, English Poet Critical Thinking Competency Standards provides a framework for assessing students’ critical thinking abilities. It enables administrators, teachers and faculty at all levels (from elementary through higher education) to determine the extent to which students are reasoning critically within any subject or discipline. These standards include outcome measures useful for teacher assessment, self-assessment, as well as accreditation docu- mentation. These competencies not only provide a continuum of student expectations, but can be contextualized for any academic subject or domain and for any grade level. In short, these standards include indicators for identifying the extent to which students are using critical thinking as the primary tool for learning. By internalizing the competencies, students will become more self-directed, self-disci- plined, self-monitored thinkers. They will develop their ability to: • raise vital questions and problems (formulating them clearly and precisely); • gather and assess relevant information (using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively and fairly); • come to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions (testing them against relevant criteria and standards); • think open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought (recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences); and • communicate effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems. Students who internalize these competency standards will come to see that critical thinking entails effective communication and problem solving skills, as well as a commit- ment to overcoming one’s native egocentric and sociocentric tendencies. All students (beyond the elementary level) are expected to demonstrate all of the criti- cal thinking competencies included in this battery of demonstrable skills, but not at the same level of proficiency, or in the same subjects or at the same speed. These competen- cies signal important habits of thought that manifest themselves in every dimension and modality of learning: for example, in student reading, writing, speaking, and listening, as well as in professional and personal activities. It is up to the teacher or institution to con- textualize and sequence the competencies, for different disciplines, and at differing levels. The Structure of This Guide Before detailing the competencies, we begin with a brief overview of critical thinking.We focus specifically on the seminal role that critical thinking should, and eventually must ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards play in education, if we are ever to foster the skills of mind necessary for functioning effec- tively in an increasingly complex world. After a brief discussion of critical thinking and its relationship to education, we outline and detail the competencies, relate them to seminal critical thinking concepts, and then provide rubrics for scoring. In the appendix we provide a brief overview of the theory underlying the competencies. It is important to note that, only when teachers understand the foundations of critical thinking can they effectively teach for it. This fact should become clearer as you work through the competencies. Throughout the guide (including the appendix), we recommend readings, readings that lay the groundwork for understanding and fostering the competencies. Before attempting to foster any particular competency, or set of competencies, we recommend that teach- ers spend time internalizing the related critical thinking concepts we reference for each competency. The simple truth is that teachers are able to foster critical thinking only to the extent that they themselves think critically. This may be the single most significant barrier to student achievement of critical thinking competencies. For teachers to aid students in becoming deep thinkers, they must themselves think deeply. For teachers to aid students in developing intellectual humility, they must themselves have developed intellectual humility. For teachers to foster a reasonable, rational multi-logical worldview, they must themselves have developed such a worldview. In short, teaching for critical thinking presupposes a clear conception of critical thinking in the mind of the teacher. Unfortunately, we cannot assume that teachers have a clear concept of critical thinking. Indeed, research indicates that the opposite is true.Available evidence suggests that criti- cal thinking is rarely fostered in a systematic way in academic programs at any level. The institutions most effectively able to use critical thinking competencies are those guided by leaders who themselves understand critical thinking, and who support an effective long- term staff development program in critical thinking. For two related articles on long-term staff development designed to foster a substantive concept of critical thinking, see the following links: http://www.criticalthinking.org/professionalDev/model-for-colleges.shtml http://www.criticalthinking.org/resources/articles/the-state-ct-today.shtml Though these articles focus specifically on staff development in higher education, the same basic approach would apply to K-12 schooling ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards Understanding the Intimate Relationship Between Critical Thinking, Learning, and Education Let us begin by focusing some attention on the intimate relationships between critical thinking, learning and education. Only when teachers understand these relationships will they see the importance of placing critical thinking at the heart of instruction. The Concept of Critical Thinking The concept of critical thinking can be expressed in a variety of definitions, depend- ing on one’s purpose (though, as with every concept, its essence is always the same). The definition most useful in assessing critical thinking abilities is as follows: Critical thinking is the process of analyzing and assessing thinking with a view to improving it. Critical thinking presupposes knowledge of the most basic structures in thinking (the elements of thought) and the most basic intellectual standards for think- ing (universal intellectual standards). The key to the creative side of critical thinking (the actual improving of thought) is in restructuring thinking as a result of analyzing and effectively assessing it. As teachers foster critical thinking skills, it is important that they do so with the ultimate purpose of fostering traits of mind. Intellectual traits or dispositions distinguish a skilled but sophistic thinker from a skilled fair-minded thinker. Fairminded critical think- ers are intellectually humble and intellectually empathic. They have confidence in reason and intellectual integrity. They display intellectual courage and intellectual autonomy. It is possible to develop some critical thinking skills within one or more content areas without developing critical thinking skills in general. The best teaching approach fosters both, so that students learn to reason well across a wide range of subjects and domains. The “What” and the “How” of Education The “what” of education is the content we want students to acquire, everything we want students to learn. The “how” of education is the process, everything we do to help students acquire the content in a deep and meaningful way. Most teachers assume that if they expose students to the “what,” students will automati- cally use the proper “how.” This common, yet false, assumption is, and has been for many years, a plague on education. By focusing on “content coverage,” rather than on learning how to learn, schooling has failed to teach students how to take command of their learning, how to bring ideas into the mind using the mind, how to interrelate ideas within and For an overview of the concept of critical thinking, see the Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, 2004. Dillon Beach: Foundation for Critical Thinking, www. criticalthinking.org. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards among disciplines. Most teachers devise instructional methods based on the following assumptions: 1. Lecture content can be absorbed with minimal intellectual engagement on the part of students. 2. Students can learn important content without much intellectual work. 3. Memorization is the key to learning, so that students need to store up lots of informa- tion (that they can use later when they need it). Critical Thinking is the “How” for Obtaining Every Educational “What” As we have already mentioned, a significant barrier to the development of student thinking is the fact that few teachers understand the concept or importance of intellect engagement in learning. Having been taught by instructors who primarily lectured, many teachers teach as if ideas and thoughts could be poured into the mind without the mind having to do intellectual work to acquire them. To enable students to become effective learners, teachers must learn what intellectual work looks like, how the mind functions when it is intellectually engaged, what it means to take ideas seriously, to take ownership of ideas. To do this, teachers must understand the essential role of thinking in the acquisition of knowledge. Pestalozzi puts it this way: Thinking leads man to knowledge. He may see and hear and read and learn whatever he pleases, and as much as he pleases; he will never know anything of it, except that which he has thought over, that which by thinking he has made the property of his own mind. John Henry Newman, more than 150 years ago, described this process as follows: [The process] consists, not merely in the passive reception into the mind of a number of ideas hitherto unknown to it, but in the mind’s energetic and simultaneous action upon and towards and among those new ideas, which are rushing in upon it. It is the action of a formative power, reducing to order and meaning the matter of our acquirements; it is a making the objects of our knowledge subjectively our own, or, to use a familiar word, it is a digestion of what we receive, into the substance of our previous state of thought; and without this no enlargement is said to follow. There is no enlargement, unless there be a comparison of ideas one with another, as they come before the mind, and a system- atizing of them.We feel our minds to be growing and expanding then, when we not only learn, but refer what we learn to what we know already. It is not the mere addition to our knowledge that is the illumination; but the locomotion, the movement onwards, of that mental centre, to which both what we know, and what we are learning, the accumulating mass of our acquirements, gravitates. For instructional strategies designed to foster critical thinking see The Miniature Guide on How to Improve Student Learning: 30 Practical Ideas, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, 2004. Dillon Beach: Foundation for Critical Thinking, www.criticalthinking.org. See also The Miniature Guide on Active and Cooperative Learning, by Wesley Hiler and Richard Paul, 2002, Dillon Beach: Foundation for Critical Thinking, www.criticalthinking.org. Newman, J. (1852) The Idea of a University ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards Critical thinking is the set of intellectual skills, abilities and dispositions character- ized by Newman in this passage. It leads to content mastery and deep learning. It develops appreciation for reason and evidence. It encourages students to discover and process infor- mation, and to do so with discipline. It teaches students to think their way to conclusions, defend positions on complex issues, consider a wide variety of viewpoints, analyze con- cepts, theories, and explanations, clarify issues and conclusions, solve problems, transfer ideas to new contexts, examine assumptions, assess alleged facts, explore implications and consequences, and increasingly come to terms with the contradictions and inconsisten- cies in their own thought and experience. This is the thinking, and alone the thinking, that masters content. Thought and content are inseparable, not antagonists but partners. There is no such thing as thinking about nothing.When we think about nothing we are not thinking. Thinking requires content, substance, something to think through. On the other hand, content is parasitic upon thinking. It is discovered and created by thought, analyzed and synthesized by thought, organized and transformed by thought, accepted or rejected by thought. To teach content separate from thinking is to ensure that students never learn to think within the discipline (that defines and creates the content). It is to substitute the mere illu- sion of knowledge for genuine knowledge. It is to deny students the opportunity to become self-directed, motivated, lifelong learners. Critical Thinking and Learning The key insight into the connection of learning to critical thinking is this: The only capacity we can use to learn is human thinking. If we think well while learn- ing, we learn well. If we think poorly while learning, we learn poorly. To learn a body of content, say, an academic discipline, is equivalent to learning to think within the discipline. Hence to learn biology, one has to learn to think biologically. To learn sociology, one has to learn to think sociologically. If we want to develop rubrics for learning in general, they should be expressed in terms of the thinking one must do to succeed in the learning. Students need to think critically to learn at every level. Sometimes the critical thinking required is elementary and founda- tional. For example, in studying a subject there are foundational concepts that define the core of the discipline. To begin to take ownership one needs to give voice to those basic concepts—e.g. to state what the concept means in one’s own words; to elaborate what the concept means, again in one’s own words; and then to give examples of the concept from real-life situations. Without critical thinking guiding the process of learning, rote memorization becomes the primary recourse, with students forgetting at about the same rate they are learning and rarely, if ever, internalizing powerful ideas. For example, most students never take genuine ownership of the concept of democracy. They memorize phrases like,“a democracy is government of the people, by the people, for the people.” But they don’t come to understand ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards what such a definition means.And when they don’t know what a definition means, they cannot elaborate or exemplify its meaning. Moreover, most students are unable to distinguish between democracy and other forms of government incompatible with democracy, like, say, plutocracy. They don’t truly understand the concept of democracy because they have never worked the idea into their thinking, comparing it with other forms of government, considering the conditions within a society that would have to exist for a democracy to work, assessing practices in their own country to determined for themselves whether a true democracy exists, and, if not, how conditions would have to change for a democracy to be realized. Through critical thinking, then, we are able to acquire knowledge, understanding, insights, and skills in any given body of content. To learn content we must think analyti- cally and evaluatively within that content. Thus critical thinking provides tools for both internalizing content (taking ownership of content) and assessing the quality of that inter- nalization. It enables us to construct the system (that underlies the content) in our minds, to internalize it, and to use it reasoning through actual problems and issues. Critical Thinking and the Educated Person Developing critical thinkers is central to the mission of all educational institutions. By ensuring that students learn to think critically and fairmindedly, we ensure that students not only master essential subject matter, but become effective citizens, capable of reasoning ethically and acting in the public good. To successfully teach critical thinking, it must be woven into curriculum content, structure, and sequence at all grade levels. Education, properly so called, alters and reworks the mind of the student. Educated persons function differently from uneducated persons. They are able to enter and intellec- tually empathize with alternate ways of looking at things. They change their minds when evidence or reasoning require it. They are able to internalize important concepts within a discipline and interrelate those concepts with other important concepts both within and among disciplines. They are able to reason well enough to think their way through complex problems. If students are to become educated persons, teachers must place thinking at the heart of the curriculum; they must require students to actively work ideas into their think- ing using their thinking. Critical Thinking and Information Literacy Information literacy is of growing concern to educators. It involves a constellation of skills linked both to education and to critical thinking.Without competence in information literacy, students cannot be educated persons—because they will not know what informa- tion to accept and what to reject. It is critical thinking that provides the tools for assessing information. Put in perspective, information literacy is an aspect or dimension of critical think- ing. It is dependent on critical thinking, but does not exhaust it. The reason is simple. Information is but one of eight basic structures of thought which function in relation to one other. To understand any body of content, any human communication, any book, film, ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 10 Critical Thinking Competency Standards or media message, a person must understand not simply the raw “information” it contains, but also its purpose, the questions it raises, the concepts that structure the information, the assumptions underlying it, the conclusions drawn from it, the implications that follow from those conclusions, and the point of view that informs it. Furthermore, it is not enough to possess information, one must be able to assess it for its clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic and significance. Our minds are shaped not only by the information we seek, but by the information that “seeks” us. It is shaped, as well, by the information we reject. For example, to minimize internalizing bias and propaganda, students need accurate information as to how the mass media function in selecting, shaping, and giving a “spin” to information for mass consump- tion. The fundamental purpose of the mass media is not to educate the masses, but to make a profit. The media maximize their profit by telling people essentially what they want to hear, and by playing to the desires, prejudices, and allegiances of their audience. Mass media outlets maintain sensitivity to their audience, their advertisers, the government, as well as to the ratings of their competitors. They feed the mass passion for the novel, the sensational, and the scandalous. These phenomena are not a matter of conspiracy, but of economic interest. Critical consumers of information from mass media sources know that within every given society or culture, the dominant viewpoints are given a privileged and commanding place. Consequently, critical consumers seek information from dissenting media sources and dissenting points of view. They do not assume that the dominant points of view are true, nor the dissenting false, nor the reverse. They are able to distinguish the plausible from the implausible, the credible from the incredible, the probable from the improb- able. They do this by using intellectual standards not dependent on any given cultural or ideological standpoint. Therefore, if we want students to develop information literacy, they cannot do so without developing skills of critical thought. The Growing Importance of Critical Thinking Critical thinking is becoming increasingly important due to four trends: accelerating change, intensifying complexity, escalating interdependence, and increasing danger. In a world charged with fear and insecurity, masses of people are unthinkingly following leaders who tendentiously divide the world into good versus evil, who use force and vio- lence to enforce their views. We are daily faced with a glut of information.And much of that information has been cunningly packaged to serve vested interest groups, not the individual citizen nor the public good. Students need to take charge of their own minds, to recognize their own deepest values, to take action that contributes to their own and the good of others. To do this, they must learn how to learn and to become, in the process, lifelong learners. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 11 Critical and Creative Thinking In understanding critical thinking, it is important to recognize the interrelationship of crit- ical and creative thought. These two modes of thinking, though often misunderstood, are inseparable in everyday reasoning. Creativity masters a process of making or producing, criticality a process of assessing or judging. The mind when thinking well must simultane- ously both produce and assess, both generate, and judge, the products it constructs. Sound thinking requires both imagination and intellectual discipline. Intellectual discipline and rigor are not only quite at home with originality and pro- ductivity, but these so-called poles of thinking (i.e. critical and creative thought) are in fact inseparable aspects of excellence in thought.Whether we are dealing with the most mundane acts of the mind or those of the most imaginative artist or thinker, the creative and the critical are interwoven. It is the nature of the mind to create thoughts, though the quality of that creation varies enormously from person to person, as well as from thought to thought.Achievement of quality requires standards of quality—and hence, a full measure of criticality. The logic of learning an academic discipline—from the point of view of critical and creative thought—is illuminating. Each academic discipline is a domain of thinking in which humans deploy specialized concepts (and thus make inferences that follow from, or are suggested by, those concepts). To learn the key concepts in a discipline, we must con- struct them in our minds by a series of mental acts.We must construct them as an ordered system of relationships.We must construct both foundations and the concepts derivative of those foundations. Each moment of that creation requires discernment and judgment. There is no way to implant, transfer, or inject the system in the mind of another person in pre-fabricated form. It cannot be put on a mental compact disk and downloaded into the mind without an intellectual struggle. Critical judgment is essential to all acts of construc- tion; and all acts of construction are open to critical assessment.We create and assess; we assess what we create; we assess as we create. In other words, at one and the same time, we think critically and creatively. Critical Thinking and the Mastery of Content Academic “content” is best understood as a system of interconnected ideas defining a subject field. This system is used by professionals in a field to ask questions, gather data or information, make inferences about the data, trace implications, and transform the way we see and think about the dimension of the world that the subject represents. For example, the following ideas are part of a system that defines chemistry: matter, physical properties, chemical properties, atoms, compounds, molecules, the periodic table, law of conservation of mass, atomic and molecular weight, mass number, atomic number, isotopes, ions, etc… Each idea is explained in terms of other ideas. For a detailed explanation of the relationship between critical and creative thinking, see The Thinker’s Guide to Critical and Creative Thinking, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, 2004. Dillon Beach: Foundation for Critical Thinking, www.criticalthinking.org. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 12 Critical Thinking Competency Standards To understand one part of some content requires figuring out its relation to other parts of that content. For example, you understand what a scientific experiment is only when you understand what a scientific theory is.You understand what a scientific theory is only when you understand what a scientific hypothesis is.You understand what a scientific hypoth- esis is only when you understand what a scientific prediction is.You understand what a scientific prediction is only when you understand what it is to scientifically test a view.You understand what it is to scientifically test a view only when you understand what a scien- tific experiment is, etc. To learn any body of content, therefore, is to figure out (i.e., reason or think through) the connections between the parts of that content. There is no learning of the content without this thinking process. Moreover, to learn content, students must learn to ask questions—both general and specific—that open up the discipline, that help them take command of it, that help them see the complexities in it, that unify it. They must learn a systematic way of questioning.All disciplines are ultimately defined by the questions asked by experts within the discipline and how answers to those questions are pursued. Thus all ideas within any subject are intimately connected with the kinds of questions asked in it. Students think mathemati- cally only when they can formulate mathematical questions and then figure out correct answers to those questions. Students think historically only when they can formulate historical questions and then pursue accurate or reasonable answers to those questions. Students think biologically only when they can formulate biological questions and pursue correct or reasonable answers to those questions.We study chemistry to figure out how chemicals function (to answer questions about chemicals).We study sociology to figure out people (to answer questions about how and why people behave as they do in groups). Thus, to understand and think within any subject, students must become active and disciplined questioners within the subject. To think within a discipline, students need to see that there is an ordered and predict- able set of relationships for all subjects and disciplines. Every subject generates purposes, raises questions, uses information and concepts, makes inferences and assumptions, gen- erates implications, and embodies a point of view. In other words, each subject is defined by: • shared goals and objectives (which orient the focus of the discipline), • shared questions and problems (whose solutions they pursue), • shared information and data (which they use as an empirical basis), • shared modes of interpreting or judging information, • shared specialized concepts and ideas (which they use to organize data), • shared key assumptions (that give them a set of common starting points), and • a shared point of view (which enables them to pursue common goals within a common framework). High performing students analyze (clearly and precisely) questions, problems, and issues in the subject discipline. They gather information (distinguishing the relevant from ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 13 the irrelevant), recognize key assumptions, clarify key concepts, use language accurately, identify (when appropriate) relevant competing points of view, notice important implica- tions and consequences, and reason carefully from clearly stated premises to logical con- clusions. In doing this, students must adopt the point of view of the discipline, recognizing and assessing, as need be, its assumptions, implications and practical consequences. In short, students who think critically routinely analyze reasoning (identifying its ele- ments), and then assess reasoning (using universal intellectual standards.) Critical thinking is presupposed in understanding and thinking within every discipline. It is presupposed in the ability to read, write, speak, and listen effectively.And it is a broad set of competencies and traits that sustain and define lifelong learning. Critical thinking enables us to give meaning to events and patterns of events, as well as to assess the reason- ing of others. In short, the only way to learn any discipline is to learn to think critically within that discipline. Critical thinking is necessary to all effective learning environments, and to all levels of education. It enables students to master systems, become more self-insightful, analyze and assess ideas more effectively, and achieve more control over their learning, their values, and their lives. Adapting the Standards for Particular Subjects Most of the standards we detail in this guide can be adapted for particular subjects simply by inserting the name of the subject (in the form of an adjective) into the standards. Thus, in place of: Critical Thinking Principle Thinking can only be as sound as the information upon which it is based.You get: Historical Critical Thinking Principle Historical thinking can only be as sound as the historical information upon which it is based. Or: Biological Critical Thinking Principle Biological thinking can only be as sound as the biological information upon which it is based. Simply work the subject name (historical, biological, chemical, ecological, etc…) into the formulation you want to adapt. Then change the performance indicators and outcomes accordingly. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 14 Critical Thinking Competency Standards The Structure and Components of the Competencies In this section, we correlate each critical thinking competency to specific concepts in critical thinking.We then outline the structural components within each competency, and finally detail a rubric for scoring student outcomes. For an outline of the critical think- ing theory underlying the competencies, see the appendix.We also want to point out that many, if not most, of the competencies in critical thinking overlap so that when teachers foster one competency, they cannot avoid fostering others as well. This is true because the concepts in critically thinking are interrelated and function in a dynamic relationship to one another. Relating the Competencies to Critical Thinking Concepts Critical thinking competencies come it two forms: 1. general competencies applicable to all thinking within all domains, subjects, disciplines and professions. 2. competencies specific to particular domains, subjects, disciplines and professions. Sections one through four of the competencies, as detailed below, focus on general critical thinking competencies. Section five deals with critical thinking skills essential to studying and learning. Section six provides examples of competencies unique to a particu- lar domain of thought. Section One: The competencies focusing on the elements of reasoning (see diagrams 1-2 in the appendix), and the universal intellectual standards as they relate to the elements (see diagram 4 in the appendix). Standard One: Purposes, Goals, and Objectives Standard Two: Questions, Problems, and Issues Standard Three: Information, Data, Evidence, and Experience Standard Four: Inferences and Interpretations Standard Five: Assumptions & Presuppositions Standard Six: Concepts, Theories, Principles, Definitions, Laws, & Axioms Standard Seven: Implications and Consequences Standard Eight: Points of View and Frames of Reference Section Two: The competency focusing on the universal intellectual standards (see diagram 3 in the appendix). Standard Nine: Assessing Thinking Section Three: The competencies focusing on the intellectual traits, virtues or dispositions (see diagram 3 in the appendix): Standard Ten: Fairmindedness Standard Eleven: Intellectual Humility Standard Twelve: Intellectual Courage Standard Thirteen: Intellectual Empathy Standard Fourteen: Intellectual Integrity ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 15 Standard Fifteen: Intellectual Perseverance Standard Sixteen: Confidence in Reason Standard Seventeen: Intellectual Autonomy Section Four: The competencies dealing with the barriers to the development of reasoning (see a brief discussion of egocentric and sociocentric thinking in the appendix): Standard Eighteen: Insight into Egocentric thought Standard Nineteen: Insight into Sociocentric thought Section Five: Competencies focusing on the critical thinking skills essential to learning. Standard Twenty: Skills in the Art of Studying and Learning Standard Twenty-One: Skills in the Art of Asking Essential Questions Standard Twenty-Two: Skills in the Art of Close Reading Standard Twenty-Three: Skills in the Art of Substantive Writing Section Six: Competencies focusing on specific domains of thought (note that additional competencies can be developed by teachers, faculty, and departments, competencies that focus on domain or subject-specific topics. The following competencies represent examples from two domains of thought: ethical reasoning, and identifying media bias). Standard Twenty-Four: Ethical Reasoning Abilities Standard Twenty-Five: Skills in Detecting Media Bias and Propaganda in National and World News. Outlining the Components in Each Competency For each competency set, there are standards, guiding principles, performance indicators, and outcomes, to be defined as follows: 1. The standard outlines the overarching critical thinking disposition that is being tar- geted in that particular competency set. 2. The principles provide the underlying assumptions that gives rise to the standard. 3. The performance indicators outline the critical thinking abilities that together form the critical thinking disposition. 4. The outcomes are the measurable student actions or behaviors that can be directly assessed by teachers. Using these outcomes, teachers can determine the extent to which students have mastered a specific part of any competency. Only when students perform acceptably in all of the outcomes within a competency is the standard fully achieved. In implementing these standards, readers should understand that learning outcomes will require differing levels of critical thinking skills. For example, the level of criti- cal thinking required to internalize basic concepts in a discipline (at the level of initial understanding) differs from the level of critical thinking required to apply basic concepts in a discipline in a quasi-professional manner. The critical thinking criteria of clarity and accuracy are all that is required at the level of initial understanding.When applied to the discipline or profession itself, depth, breadth, and significance may well be required as well. These competencies should serve as benchmarks for developing discipline-based, subject-specific methods for measuring student learning within any context. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 16 Critical Thinking Competency Standards It is important to note that, when assessing critical thinking abilities and dispositions, teachers can only assess actual products of thinking. They can assess, for example, what students say, what they write, the feedback they give to others, and so forth. They can never know how and when students would apply critical thinking in any particular real life situ- ation. This is especially true when egocentric or sociocentric forces are working within the mind, in essence blocking one’s ability to reason well. Nevertheless, systematic emphasis of these competencies can serve to foster the development of critical reasoning abilities. As a reminder, before teachers begin to assess the critical thinking abilities of their students, they need first begin to acquire these abilities themselves. Otherwise they will be in no position to assess the thinking of their students.What is worse, they will likely incor- rectly assess student work. It is vitally important, therefore, that teachers commit to learn- ing critical thinking, and that a long-term staff development program in critical thinking be launched, before these competencies are expected of students. A Master Rubric A rubric is a scoring guide used to assess student performance on outcomes within a particular standard. Rubrics contain a scale (for example, 1-5) along with a description of the features or characteristics of work at each point on the scale. For each critical thinking competency, the rubrics can be used in two ways: 1. To score student achievement (or lack of achievement) for each outcome. 2. To provide an overall score for each performance indicator (based on scoring for each outcome). Within each competency, then, student performance is first scored for each outcome. For an overall assessment of student performance within each competency, the average score for each outcome is calculated. This allows for flexibility in excluding certain out- comes in certain conditions. For example, in a first level course or at the elementary level, the simpler outcomes may be the only outcomes taught within that competency. Therefore, in scoring, only those outcomes fostered in the course will be included in the scoring process. However, it is important to recognize that any particular competency cannot be reached in full unless and until all outcomes within the competency are fostered in the teaching and learning process. The rubrics are as follows: 1. Outcome Rubrics: The student displays achievement within each outcome as evi- denced with the following frequency and depth: • Virtually never (0) points • Rarely (1–2 points) • Sometimes, but with limited understanding (3–5 points) • Often, (but inconsistently and sometimes superficially) • Typically and characteristically, and with depth of understanding (9–10 points) ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 17 2. Master Rubrics: Overall, the student has evidenced understanding and internaliza- tion of the critical thinking competency (as detailed in the performance indicator) with the following frequency: • Virtually never (0 points) • Rarely (1–2 points) • Sometimes, but with limited understanding (3–5 points) • Often, (but inconsistently and sometimes superficially) • Typically and characteristically, and with depth of understanding (9–10 points) The overall score is an average score of all outcomes (either of the complete list of out- comes, or only those outcomes fostered in the teaching process). In determining the master score, then, one of two procedures can be used: 1. Calculating the average score of only those outcomes included in the instructional process. 2. Calculating the average score of all outcomes listed for each competency, regard- less of whether an outcome has been fostered in the learning process. In this case, a score of “0” is given for the excluded outcomes, and then the average of all outcomes in the competency is calculated. This score would be the most accurate of the two possibilities. Standard One: Purposes, Goals, and Objectives Students who think critically recognize that all thinking has a purpose, objective, goal or function. Critical Thinking Principle If you are clear about your purpose, about what you are trying to accomplish or achieve, you are far more likely to achieve it than when you are not. Moreover, the pursuit of any specific purpose is justified only when the purpose is fair to all relevant persons, animals, and/or groups. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically seek to understand not only what they are learning but why. They formulate purposes, goals, and objectives that are clear, reasonable, and fair. They also identify purposes that are unclear, inconsistent, unrealistic, and unfair. Outcomes include 1. Students explain in their own words (clearly and precisely) the purpose and signifi- cance of what is happening in class—of classroom activities, tests, and assignments. For a deeper understanding of the elements of reasoning and the intellectual standards, which are the focus of the first nine standards, see: Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, 2001, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, chapters 4-5. Also see A Miniature Guide to the Foundations of Analytic Thinking by Linda Elder and Richard Paul, 2003, Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking, www.criticalthinking.org ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 18 Critical Thinking Competency Standards 2. Students explain in their own words (clearly and precisely) the purpose of the subject or discipline being studied. 3. Students explain in their own words (clearly and precisely) the purpose of reasoning through a problem or issue (within a discipline or subject, or across disciplines). 4. Students explain in their own words (clearly and precisely) the purpose of reasoning through problems in their own life. 5. Students notice when they or other students are straying from the purpose at hand, and redirect the thinking back toward the purpose. 6. When asked to select a goal or purpose (for example, to choose a problem to solve), students demonstrate the ability to adopt realistic ends. 7. Students choose reasonable secondary (instrumental) goals that make sense in working toward the accomplishment of a more ultimate goal. 8. Students regularly adjust their thinking to fit their ultimate purposes. 9. Students choose purposes and goals that are fair-minded, considering the relevant needs and rights of others (and assess the purposes of others for fairness). Standard Two: Questions, Problems, and Issues Students who think critically recognize that all thinking is an attempt to figure some- thing out, to settle some question, or solve some problem. Critical Thinking Principle To settle a question, you must know what it is asking and how to go about answering it. In other words, for every question one might ask, there are conditions that must be met before the question can be settled. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically seek a clear understanding of the main question they are trying to answer, problem they are trying to solve, or issue they are trying to resolve. They formulate questions clearly and precisely. They recognize when they are dealing with a complex question and they think deeply within its complexities before attempting to answer such a question. They recognize when a question requires them to consider mul- tiple relevant viewpoints and they consider those viewpoints in good faith before attempt- ing to answer the question. Students who think critically also routinely analyze and assess the use of questions in others’ thinking (using the same guidelines). Outcomes include 1. Students express in their own words (clearly and precisely) the question at issue (in a lesson, chapter, assignment, etc.). 2. Students re-express a question in a variety of ways (with clarity and precision). 3. Students divide complex questions into sub-questions (accurately delineating the com- plexities in the issue). ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 19 4. Students formulate foundational and significant questions within any particular disci- pline or subject. 5. Before reasoning through a question, students accurately categorize the question, determining whether it is a question of fact or preference, or one that calls for reasoned judgment. 6. Students distinguish conceptual questions from factual questions. 7. Students distinguish significant questions from trivial ones, relevant from irrelevant ones. 8. Students demonstrate sensitivity to the assumptions built into the questions they ask; They analyze and assess those assumptions for justifiability. 9. Students distinguish questions they can answer from those they cannot answer. Standard Three: Information, Data, Evidence, and Experience Students who think critically recognize that all thinking is based on some data, informa- tion, evidence, experience or research. Critical Thinking Principle Thinking can only be as sound as the information upon which it is based. Performance indicators and dispositions: Students who think critically seek the information relevant to the questions they are trying to answer, problems they are trying to solve, or issues they are trying to resolve. They routinely check information for accuracy. They make sure they are considering all of the important information before attempting to answer a question, and that the information they have is sufficient to answer the question. Students who think critically also routinely analyze and assess the information used by others (using the same guidelines). Outcomes include 1. Students express in their own words (clearly and precisely) the most important infor- mation (in a discussion, chapter, assignment, etc.). 2. Students distinguish the following related but different concepts: facts, information, experience, research, data, and evidence. 3. Students state their evidence for a view clearly and fairly. 4. Students distinguish relevant from irrelevant information when reasoning through a problem. They consider only relevant information, disregarding what is irrelevant. 5. Student actively search for information against, not just for, their own position. 6. Students draw conclusions only to the extent that those conclusions are supported by the facts and sound reasoning. They demonstrate the ability to objectively analyze and assess information in coming to conclusions based on the information. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 20 Critical Thinking Competency Standards 7. Students demonstrate understanding of the difference between information and infer- ences drawn from that information. They routinely delineate information and infer- ences in their own and others’ reasoning. 8. Students demonstrate understanding of the types of information used within particu- lar subjects and disciplines, as well as understanding of how professionals within fields use information in reasoning through problems. Standard Four: Inferences and Interpretations Students recognize that all thinking contains inferences from which we draw conclusions and give meaning to data and situations. Critical Thinking Principle Thinking can only be as sound as the inferences it makes (or the conclusions it comes to). Performance indicators and dispositions Students seek a clear understanding of the inferences they are making and the degree to which those inferences are clear, logical, justifiable, and reasonable. They assess the extent to which others reason to logical inferences and conclusions. They understand that all inferences result, not only from information, but also from assumptions that lie beneath the surface of thinking. They therefore regularly check the assumptions that lead to the inferences they are making, assessing them for justifiability. Outcomes include 1. Students state, elaborate and exemplify the meaning of an inference. 2. Students distinguish between inferences and conclusions. 3. Students distinguish between clear and unclear inferences. 4. Students make only those inferences that follow logically from the evidence or reasons presented. 5. Students distinguish between deep and superficial inferences; they make deep, rather than superficial inferences when reasoning through complex issues. 6. Students reason to logical conclusions, after considering relevant and significant information. 7. Students distinguish between consistent and inconsistent inferences; they make infer- ences consistent with one other. 8. Students distinguish between assumptions and inferences; they uncover and accurately assess the assumptions underlying inferences. 9. Students notice inferences or judgments made within particular disciplines. Standard Five: Assumptions & Presuppositions Students who think critically recognize that all thinking is based on assumptions—beliefs we take for granted. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 21 Critical Thinking Principle Thinking can only be as sound as the assumptions (beliefs) upon which it is based. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically seek a clear understanding of the assumptions they are making (and the assumptions that underlie the thinking of others). They are able to distinguish between assumptions that are justifiable in context and those that are not. They realize that assumptions generally function at the unconscious or subconscious level of thought and therefore have usually not been critically examined by the thinker. They understand that assumptions often contain prejudices, stereotypes, biases and distortions. They routinely assess their assumptions, as well as those of others, to determine whether those assumptions are based in sound reasoning and evidence. Outcomes include 1. Students accurately identify their own assumptions, as well as those of others. 2. Students make assumptions that are reasonable and justifiable, given the situation and evidence. 3. Students make assumptions that are consistent with one another. 4. Students are aware of the natural tendency in humans to use stereotypes, prejudices, biases and distortions in their reasoning; they regularly identify their own stereotypes, prejudices, biases and distortions; they demonstrate skill in accurately identifying the stereotypes, prejudices, biases and distortions in the thinking of others. 5. Students accurately state the assumptions underlying the inferences they, or others make, and then to accurately assess those assumptions for justifiability. 6. Students demonstrate understanding of the fact that assumptions function primarily at the unconscious or subconscious level of thought 7. Students demonstrate recognition that the mind naturally (egocentrically) seeks to hide unjustifiable assumptions in the mind in order to maintain its belief system or pursue selfish ends. 8. Students seek out, in their thinking, unjustifiable assumptions generated and main- tained through native egocentric tendencies (hidden at the unconscious level of thought). 9. Students accurately identify assumptions within subjects, disciplines and texts. 10. Students identify the assumptions embedded in the concepts they use and the theories they study. Standard Six: Concepts, Theories, Principles, Definitions, Laws, & Axioms Students who think critically recognize that all thinking is expressed through, and shaped by, concepts and ideas. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 22 Critical Thinking Competency Standards Critical Thinking Principle Thinking can only be as clear, relevant, realistic and deep as the concepts that shape it. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically seek a clear understanding of the concepts and ideas that shape their reasoning and the reasoning of others. They understand the powerful role of concepts in human thought, that it is through concepts that people define and shape their experiences. They understand that humans often use distorted concepts, concepts that negate fundamental agreed-upon definitions and understandings. They recognize that people often distort concepts in order to maintain a particular viewpoint, position, or to control or manipulate the thinking of others. They regularly and routinely assess the con- cepts they use, making sure they are using concepts justifiably. Similarly, they regularly and routinely assess the concepts used by others. Outcomes include 1. Students are able to state, elaborate and exemplify what a concept is. 2. Students demonstrate understanding of the following distinctions: theories, principles, definitions, laws, & axioms (they can accurately state, elaborate, and exemplify each one). 3. Students identify the key concepts and ideas they and others use. 4. Students are able to accurately explain the implications of the key words and phrases they use. 5. Students distinguish nonstandard uses of words from standard ones. 6. Students are aware of irrelevant concepts and ideas and use concepts and ideas in ways relevant to their functions. 7. Students think deeply about the concepts they use. 8. Students analyze concepts and to draw distinctions between related but different concepts 9. Students use language with care and precision, while holding others to the same standards. 10. Students demonstrate awareness of the mind’s naturally tendency to distort concepts in order to maintain a particular viewpoint or set of beliefs; they show a propensity to identify when concepts are being misused. Standard Seven: Implications and Consequences Students who think critically recognize that all thinking leads somewhere, that it has impli- cations and, when acted upon, has consequences. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 23 Critical Thinking Principle To reason well through an issue, you must think through the implications that follow from your reasoning.You must think through the consequences likely to follow from decisions you make. Implications of your thinking and behavior exist whether you see them or not. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically seek a clear understanding of the implications of their think- ing and of the consequences of their behavior. They think through the likely implications of their behavior before they act. They are especially aware of significant implications. Because they think through the implications of their behavior before acting, their behavior tends to lead to positive or desirable consequences. Students who think critically also think through the implications of others’ thinking and behavior where relevant. They are not only able to follow out the implications of thinking and behavior, but also to follow out the implications of implications. In other words, they think in the following way:“If we decide to do this, the following implications are likely…, and if this or that consequence occurs, the implications (of that consequence) are as follows…” Outcomes include 1. Students distinguish, clearly and precisely, the difference between (and overlap between) an implication and a consequence. 2. Students identify the most significant implications and consequences of their reasoning and behavior. 3. Students distinguish clearly defined implications and consequences from vaguely expressed ones. 4. Students consider negative as well as positive implications (of their own thinking or behavior, of others thinking or behavior). 5. Students distinguish probable from improbable (and therefore unlikely) implications and consequences. 6. Students identify the implications of language usage in context (and recognize the relationship between language used and the concepts formed in a situation). 7. Students think through implications when reasoning through issues and problems within subjects and disciplines. Standard Eight: Points of View and Frames of Reference Students who think critically recognize that all thinking occurs within some point of view. Critical Thinking Principle To reason justifiably through an issue, you must identify points of view relevant to the issue and enter them empathically. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 24 Critical Thinking Competency Standards Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically seek a clear understanding of the points of view relevant to an issue they are considering.When dealing with an issue where more than one viewpoint is relevant to the issue, they enter differing viewpoints in good faith (with a mind that can be changed when faced with better reasoning than the reasoning one begins with). Students who think critically appreciate the fact that some issues are not only complex, but broad in scope, and that these issues are often difficult, if not impossible, to settle definitely. Critical thinkers have a world view that is broad in perspective, that seeks the most flexible and open-minded way of looking at a situation, and that avoids sociocentric narrow-mind- edness, nationalism, and cultural bias. Critical thinkers are keenly aware of the fact that they did not choose the point of view they have developed. They recognize that there are many potential sources for any particular point of view: time, culture, religion, gender, discipline, profession, peer group, economic interest, emotional state, social role, or age group—to name a few. For example, we can look at the world from • a point in time (16th, 17th, 18th, 19th Century) • a culture (Western, Eastern, South American, Japanese, Turkish, French) • a religion (Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Jewish) • a gender (male, female, homosexual, heterosexual) • a profession (lawyer, teacher, …) • a discipline (biological, chemical, geological, astronomical, historical, sociologi- cal, philosophical, anthropological, literary, artistic, musical, dance, poetic, medical, nursing, sport) • a peer group • an economic interest • an emotional state • an age group Students who think critically are aware of the fact that anyone’s viewpoint, at any given time, reflects some combination of these dimensions. Outcomes include 1. Students accurately define the meaning of “point of view.” They can accurately state, elaborate and exemplify its meaning. 2. Students demonstrate awareness of the fact that reasonable people can vary signifi- cantly in their points of view, especially on controversial issues. 3. Students enter empathically into points of view with which they disagree, and accu- rately represent those viewpoints. They seek common ground whenever possible. 4. Students are aware that there is some truth in points of view other than their own, and that the worth of a viewpoint has nothing to do with its popularity. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 25 5. Students seek to expand their insights by studying points of view that differ from their own—and that differ from the view most dominant in their culture—with the sense that there is value and truth in the viewpoints of other cultures and peoples. 6. Students think critically about their own point of view and avoid the notion that their viewpoint is in all respects true, correct, or insightful. Standard Nine: Assessing Thinking Students who think critically recognize that all thinking has potential intellectual strengths and weaknesses. Critical Thinking Principle To reason well it is important to monitor your thinking to ensure that it is meeting basic intellectual criteria, namely: clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, significance, and fairness. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically routinely seek to determine the strengths and weaknesses of their thinking and the thinking of others. They have a deep understanding of the intellec- tual standards, and of how these standards differ from their opposites (clarity vs. vague- ness, accuracy vs. inaccuracy, precision vs. imprecision, relevance vs. irrelevance, depth vs. superficiality, breadth vs. narrowness, valid vs. invalid logic, significance vs. triviality, and fairness vs. unfairness). They understand the importance of assessing thinking using these standards, and they know when a particular standard should be used to assess thinking in context. They recognize that using these standards requires practice on a daily basis, that humans do not naturally think with clarity and precision, depth and breadth, logic and significance, accuracy and precision. They have a keen understanding that the mind is not naturally fair, so they make a concerted effort to consider, in good faith, all relevant viewpoints as they reason through questions and issues. Outcomes include 1. Students demonstrate initial understanding of the intellectual standards by accurately stating, elaborating, and exemplifying each standard. 2. Students clarify their thinking by adequately stating, elaborating, exemplifying, and illustrating it in multiple contexts. 3. Students check their thinking for accuracy by verifying the information upon which their thinking is based and then assessing that information for accuracy. 4. Students are precise in their thinking by giving necessary details. 5. Students check their thinking for relevance by making sure that all the considerations they use in their thinking bear upon the question at issue. They also check to ensure that they have not overlooked, or for some other reason failed to consider, relevant information. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 26 Critical Thinking Competency Standards 6. Students check their thinking for depth by making sure they are dealing adequately with the complexities in the question at issue. 7. Students check their thinking for breadth by making sure they are considering a variety of points of view. 8. Students check their thinking for significance by making sure they are dealing with all of the important matters involved in the question at issue. 9. Students check their thinking for logic by making sure they are not contradicting themselves (or available evidence) and that they are making justifiable inferences when reasoning through an issue. 10. Students check their thinking for fairness by making sure that they are expressing all relevant points of view that bear on the issue in the most insightful form. Students minimize favoring their own point of view when faced with multiple conflicting reason- able viewpoints. 11. Students not only regularly assess their own thinking using the intellectual standards (as detailed above), but do the same when assessing the thinking of others. 12. Students utilize relevant intellectual standards when assessing reasoning within sub- jects, disciplines, and professions. Standard Ten: Fairmindedness Students who think critically strive to be fair-minded. Critical Thinking Principle Fair-mindedness requires that we treat all viewpoints alike, without reference to our own feelings or vested interests, or the feelings or vested interests of our friends, community, nation, or species. It implies adherence to intellectual standards without reference to our own advantage or the advantage of our group. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically seek to treat all viewpoints with equality, without reference to one’s own feelings or selfish interests, or the feelings or selfish interests of one’s friends, community or nation. Critical thinkers adhere to intellectual standards (such as accuracy and sound logic) uninfluenced by one’s own advantage or the advantage of one’s group. Outcomes include 1. Students demonstrate understanding of fairmindedness by stating, elaborating and exemplifying the concept of fairmindedness. 2. Students avoid using their skills to gain advantage over others, score points on them, or make them look bad. For a deeper understanding of the intellectual traits, which are the focus of standards 10-18, see: Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, 2001, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, chapter 1. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 27 3. Students do not favor the viewpoints of those who support them, but equally consider the viewpoints of those who agree and those who oppose them (using the quality of reasoning in determining what to accept or reject). 4. Students question their own purposes, evidence, conclusions, assumptions, concepts, and point of view with the same vigor that they question those of others. 5. Students strive to treat every viewpoint relevant to a situation in an unbiased, unpreju- diced way. 6. Students actively work to diminish the powerful egocentric force in the mind that, by nature, seeks to favor one’s own viewpoint, and the viewpoints of one’s group, while distorting and misrepresenting viewpoints with which it disagrees. 7. Students demonstrate understanding of the importance of fairmindedness in thinking within specific disciplines and professions. Standard Eleven: Intellectual Humility Students who think critically routinely strive to distinguish what they know from what they don’t know. Critical Thinking Principle The mind is not predisposed toward intellectual humility. Rather its natural state, at any given moment, is to believe itself to be in possession of the truth, to think that it knows more than it does. The human mind is naturally self-validating, self-protecting. It does not naturally seek to uncover its misunderstandings, distortions, and ignorance. To develop intellectual humility, one must learn to actively distinguish what one knows from what one does not know. Performance indicators and dispositions Intellectual humility is the development of knowledge of one’s ignorance. It involves a consciousness of the limits of one’s knowledge, including a sensitivity to circumstances in which one’s native egocentrism is likely to function self-deceptively. This entails being aware of one’s biases, one’s prejudices, the limitations of one’s viewpoint, and the extent of one’s lack of knowledge. Intellectual humility depends on recognizing that one should not claim more than one actually knows. It does not imply spinelessness or submissiveness. It implies the lack of intellectual pretentiousness, boastfulness, or conceit, combined with insight into the logical foundations, or lack of such foundations, of one’s beliefs. Outcomes include 1. Students demonstrate understanding of intellectual humility by stating, elaborating and exemplifying the concept in numerous ways. 2. Students discover their own false beliefs, misconceptions, prejudices, illusions, and myths. 3. Students suspend judgment about matters of which they are ignorant. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 28 Critical Thinking Competency Standards 4. Students accurately distinguish what they understand about a subject from what they do not. 5. Students accurately articulate the extent of their ignorance. 6. Students avoid claiming to know what they have no defensible reason for claiming. 7. Students admit mistakes and change their views (when faced with good reasons to do so). 8. Students demonstrate understanding of the fact that they have been socially condi- tioned into the belief system and worldview of their culture and nation (and natu- rally see their culture and nation as “correct” in its views). Students actively seek and carefully study the viewpoints of other cultures in order to gain new knowledge and insights. 9. Students demonstrate understanding of the importance of intellectual humility in thinking within any discipline and profession. Standard Twelve: Intellectual Courage: Students who think critically are willing to challenge popular beliefs. Critical Thinking Principle The mind does not naturally develop intellectual courage—the willingness to examine beliefs one holds dear.And it is not naturally comfortable standing up for beliefs that, though reasonable, are unpopular. Instead its intrinsic inclination is to protect its beliefs and conform to group standards. The mind avoids, and even fears, discovering its false beliefs.And it is, by nature, afraid of ridicule or exclusion from a social group. Performance indicators and dispositions Intellectual courage is the consciousness of the need to face and fairly address ideas, beliefs, or viewpoints toward which one has strong negative emotions and to which one has not given serious hearing. Intellectual courage also entails the willingness to face the disap- proval of the group in expressing an unpopular idea or challenging a popular one. Humans are in many ways natural conformists. They live in social groups and unreflectively accept the dominant beliefs of the groups that exercise control over them. Intellectual courage is connected to the recognition that ideas considered dangerous or absurd within a society are sometimes rationally justified (in whole or in part). Conclusions and beliefs inculcated in people are sometimes false or misleading. Since it is natural to seek group approval, courage is required when approval may be withdrawn for non-conformity. Outcomes include 1. Students demonstrate understanding of intellectual courage by stating, elaborating and exemplifying what it means. 2. Students examine critically any and all of their beliefs, especially those they hold dear. 3. Students fairly evaluate popular and unpopular ideas and beliefs, and determine their reasonability without reference to their popularity. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 29 4. Students demonstrate understanding of the fact that social groups penalize non-conformity. 5. Students express reasonable dissenting views, thereby showing that they do not fear rejection by others. 6. Students question popular beliefs (when those beliefs do not seem rationally justified). 7. Students defend unpopular beliefs (when those beliefs seem rationally justified). 8. Students demonstrate understanding of the importance of intellectual courage in thinking within specific disciplines and professions. Standard Thirteen: Intellectual Empathy Students who think critically develop the capacity to sympathetically enter into points of view that differ from their own and articulate those views in an intelligent and insightful way. Critical Thinking Principle Intellectual empathy is an awareness of the need to imaginatively put oneself in the place of others so as to genuinely understand them. The mind does not naturally develop intel- lectual empathy. Rather it is predisposed toward its opposite—thinking within its own narrow viewpoint. Intellectual empathy requires practice in thinking within the viewpoints of others, especially those with whom we disagree. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically regularly demonstrate intellectual empathy. They routinely reconstruct (accurately) the viewpoints and reasoning of others. They routinely reason from premises, assumptions, and ideas other than their own. They are predisposed to remember occasions when they were wrong in the past despite an intense conviction of being right (and they are therefore guided by the fact that they may be wrong in the present situation). These students continue to grow and develop, modifying their thinking by seriously considering widely different viewpoints over time. Outcomes include 1. Students demonstrate understanding of intellectual empathy by stating, elaborating and exemplifying what it means in numerous ways. 2. Students frequently say,“I may be wrong here. I have often been wrong in the past,” or words to this effect. 3. Students imaginatively put themselves in the place of others (striving to accurately articulate others’ viewpoints). 4. Students regularly role-play the defense of beliefs other than their own (in an intelligent and insightful manner). 5. Students demonstrate understanding of the importance of intellectual empathy in thinking within specific disciplines and professions. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 30 Critical Thinking Competency Standards Standard Fourteen: Intellectual Integrity Students hold themselves to the same standards they expect others to meet. Critical Thinking Principle Intellectual integrity is manifested in the commitment to hold oneself to the same stan- dards of evidence and proof one expects others to meet (especially one’s antagonists). Humans do not naturally have intellectual integrity. Instead, they tend to hold others to higher standards than the standards they impose on themselves. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically gain insight into themselves by identifying their own most basic inconsistencies of thought, word, and deed. They can identify, and honestly admit, discrepancies and inconsistencies in their own thoughts and actions. They recognize that the mind is naturally prone to hold others to higher standards than the standards it imposes on itself. These students are therefore on the lookout for intellectual hypocrisy in their own thoughts and actions. They have a strong desire to live with integrity, and continually seek to do so. Outcomes include 1. Students demonstrate understanding of intellectual integrity by stating, elaborating and exemplifying what it means in numerous ways. 2. Students articulate appropriate standards of evidence and proof—both for their own thinking and the thinking of others. 3. Students identify inconsistencies and contradictions in their thinking (and do not hide from them). 4. Students identify inconsistencies between what they say they believe, and what their behavior implies (that they believe). 5. Students identify and accurately assess national and social inconsistencies and contradictions. 6. Students demonstrate understanding of the role of intellectual integrity in thinking within specific disciplines and professions. Standard Fifteen: Intellectual Perseverance Students who think critically learn to work through complexities and frustration without giving up. Critical Thinking Principle Intellectual perseverance is the disposition to work one’s way through intellectual com- plexities despite frustrations inherent in an intellectual task. Critical thinkers recognize that intellectual perseverance is not natural to the mind, and that, to develop, they must be willing to work through confusions, difficulties, and frustrations when dealing with problems and issues. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 31 Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically develop intellectual strength and self-confidence by working through to the solution (or completion) of a complex and challenging problem (or task). They recognize that some intellectual problems are complex and cannot be easily solved. They therefore refuse to give up when faced with intellectual complexities or frus- trations. They have a realistic sense of the need to struggle with confusion and unsettled questions over an extended time to achieve understanding or insight. Outcomes include: 1. Students demonstrate understanding of intellectual perseverance by stating, elaborat- ing and exemplifying what it means in numerous ways. 2. Students do not give up when faced with an intellectually challenging or complex task. 3. Students divide complex problems and tasks into sub-problems and tasks, and reason through those sub-problems and tasks before attempting to answer the complex problem (divide and conquer). 4. Students allocate a reasonable length of time to finding a solution to a complex problem. 5. Students display patience in solving complex problems and tasks. Standard Sixteen: Confidence in Reason Students who think critically recognize that good reasoning is the key to living a rational life, and to creating a more fair and just world. Critical Thinking Principle Confidence in reason is based on the belief that, in the long run, one’s own higher interests and those of humankind at large are best served by giving the freest play to reason, by encouraging people to come to their own conclusions, by developing, as far as possible, the rational faculties of everyone living in a society. Critical thinkers recognize that the mind does not naturally use intellectual standards to determine what to believe and what to reject. Rather its propensity is to accept or reject ideas based on egocentric or sociocentric standards—standards that arbitrarily privilege the views of a person or group (“It’s true because I believe it,” or “it’s true because we believe it.”) To develop confidence in reason, people must understand the irrational propensities of the human mind, and actively work to minimize them. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically develop confidence in reason by using their reason to success- fully figure out solutions to problems and tasks—academic problems as well as non-aca- demic ones. They demonstrate understanding of the fact that, with proper encouragement and cultivation, people can learn to think for themselves; form insightful viewpoints; draw reasonable conclusions; think clearly, accurately, relevantly, and logically; persuade each other by appeal to good reason and sound evidence, and become reasonable persons, ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 32 Critical Thinking Competency Standards despite the deep-seated obstacles in human nature and social life. They regularly strive to follow reason and evidence. They can be “moved” by reason in appropriate ways. The very idea of reasonability is a centerpiece in their lives (both being reasonable themselves, and holding others to the standard of reasonability). In sum, they use good reasoning as the fundamental criterion for accepting or rejecting any belief or position. Outcomes include 1. Students demonstrate understanding of confidence in reason by stating, elaborating and exemplifying what it means in numerous ways. 2. Students demonstrate appreciation for evidence when reasoning through an issue. 3. Students distinguish good reasoning from poor or weak reasoning. 4. Students demonstrate appreciation for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, and fairness in thought. 5. Students identify and value reasonability in thought and action. 6. Students use good reasoning as the fundamental criterion by which to judge whether to accept or reject any belief or explanation. 7. Students are not guided by irrational emotions when reasoning through problems and issues. In other words, they do not allow their (irrational) emotions to override their reason. 8. Students are “moved” by reason. They consider all the information relevant to an issue in good faith, to change their minds when the evidence requires it of them. They therefore do not irrationally hold to beliefs that are not based in sound reasoning and evidence 9. Students understand the importance of confidence in reasoning when addressing ques- tions within subjects and disciplines. Standard Seventeen: Intellectual Autonomy Students who think critically learn to take responsibility for their own thinking, beliefs, and values. Critical Thinking Principle Intellectual autonomy is the trait one acquires as one learns to take responsibility for the authorship of one’s thinking and one’s life. It is the opposite of becoming dependent on others for the direction and control of the decisions of one’s life. Critical thinkers recognize that intellectual autonomy is a rare quality in human life, that most people, rather than thinking autonomously, conform to group beliefs and behavior. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically determine, for themselves, what to believe and what to reject. Recognizing that most of the beliefs they hold have not been analyzed and assessed for quality, they continually seek to identify their beliefs and then to assess them using appli- cable standards. They think through situations, issues and problems for themselves and do ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 33 not fear rejection from any group (including their family, their religion, their country). To determine what to believe, they examine information for themselves and reject unjustified authorities, while recognizing the contributions of reasonable authorities. They do not just think for themselves, but do so using intellectual standards. Outcomes include 1. Students demonstrate understanding of intellectual autonomy by stating, elaborating and exemplifying what it means in numerous ways. 2. Students avoid passively or mindlessly accepting the beliefs of others. 3. Students thoughtfully form principles of thought and action. 4. Students accurately and logically evaluate the traditions and practices that others often accept unquestioningly. 5. Students incorporate knowledge and insight into their thinking, independent of the social status of the source (of that knowledge or insight). 6. Students respond positively to the reasonable suggestions of others. 7. Students monitor their thinking and amend their own mistakes. 8. Students form values for themselves, and choose values based on their intrinsic worth. 9. Students reach independent, well-reasoned conclusions. 10. Students are willing to dissent from the majority view when the evidence requires it of them. Standard Eighteen: Insight into Egocentricity Students who think critically work to overcome their native egocentricity. Critical Thinking Principle The human mind is, by nature, egocentric. The mind does not naturally possess or develop rational tendencies. Its default mode of thought is centered in its egocentric, self-centered tendencies. There are two primary functions of egocentricity. One is to see the world in self-serving terms, to constantly seek gratification, to pursue selfish desires, even at the expense of the rights and needs of others. The second is the desire to maintain its beliefs. This is the basis for rigidity of thought. Egocentricity functions at the unconscious or subconscious level of thought. Therefore, though humans are naturally and primarily egocentric, they seldom have insight into their egocentricity. The egocentric mind experiences its ideas as reasonable and rational (no matter how self-serving or narrow-minded those ideas are). Humans develop as rational persons only to the extent that they take explicit command of, and thus minimize, their egocentricity. To better understand the concept of egocentric, or irrational thought, see the Miniature Guide to the Human Mind by Linda Elder and Richard Paul, 2002, Dillon Beach: Foundation for Critical Thinking, www. criticalthinking.org ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 34 Critical Thinking Competency Standards Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically actively seek out (and deal with) egocentric tendencies in their thought. They recognize the power and potential harm of egocentric thought in them- selves and others. Because they understand it, they are sensitive to when they, or others, may be functioning at the egocentric level. They recognize that egocentric tendencies are typically subconscious or unconscious. They work to uncover irrational or otherwise unjustifiable beliefs obscured in the mind. They “study” their egocentricity in action, trying to better understand its deceptiveness, so that they can get control of it. They are vigilant in seeking to disclose egocentricity in operation. Outcomes include 1. Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of egocentricity, with its many complexities. They are able to state, elaborate, and exemplify the concept. 2. Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of rationality and can describe in detail how it differs from egocentricity. 3. Students manifest the recognition that egocentric thinking needs to be “corrected” by more reasonable thinking (that respects the rights and needs of others). 4. Students routinely identify their natural human tendency to focus on their own needs and desires at the expense of those of others. 5. Students identify egocentric emotions that affect their thinking (emotions such as defensiveness, insecurity, anger, or arrogance). They are able to sympathize when others’ egocentric emotions are affecting their thinking. 6. Students accurately identify egocentric thought in others. 7. Students communicate in a rational, rather than egocentric way. 8. Students respond constructively to people caught up in an egocentric mindset. Standard Nineteen: Insight into Sociocentricity Students who think critically learn to overcome their sociocentric tendencies. Critical Thinking Principle Sociocentric thought, is a direct extension of egocentric thought in that it fundamentally results from two primary tendencies of egocentric thought: 1. Seeking to get what it (or its group) wants without regard to the rights and needs of others; and 2. Rationalizing the beliefs and behavior of the group (irrespective of whether those beliefs and behaviors are irrational). Critical thinkers recognize that it is natural for humans to think sociocentrically, to be “herd” animals, largely influenced by and functioning within groups.And because most people are largely egocentric, or centered in themselves, they end up forming groups that are largely centered in themselves. Because of egocentrism and sociocentrism, most people assume the correctness of their own beliefs and those of their groups. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 35 Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically do not mindlessly follow the crowd. They recognize the difficulties inherent in overcoming one’s sociocentric nature. They recognize the power, and potential danger of sociocentric thought. They routinely examine the beliefs and practices espoused by the groups to which they belong and in which they find themselves. Because they recognize the power of sociocentric thought, they do not allow themselves to be swept up in group-think. They actively examine the beliefs they have uncritically accepted throughout their lives. They recognize that humans are inclined to be uncritically nation- alistic and ethnocentric. They actively resist this tendency, seeing themselves, not simply as citizens of a particular country, but as citizens of the world as well. They are therefore concerned with furthering equal human rights for all people across the world. Similarly, they do not privilege any group, but seek the common good, even when this means that the groups to which they belong must make sacrifices. Outcomes include 1. Students accurately explain, elaborate and exemplify in multiple ways the concept of sociocentricity and the powerful role it plays in human life. 2. Students critically examine the groups to which they belong (as well as any group they study). They are able to accurately explain, elaborate, and exemplify the social rules, taboos, and conventions within each group (this would include, but not be limited to, family, peer groups, clubs, religious groups, country, and species.) 3. Students can give multiple examples from history of negative consequences that have resulted from sociocentric thought (and follow out the implications of sociocentric thought in existing human groups). 4. Students are willing to openly and publicly dissent from the mainstream view whenever reason and evidence require it. 5. Students choose not to associate with irrational or dysfunctional social groups, prefer- ring, if necessary to stand alone. Standard Twenty: Skills in the Art of Studying and Learning Students who think critically are self-directed, self-monitored, learners. Critical Thinking Principle One cannot be a good learner and a poor thinker. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically use intellectual skills to think their way through the subjects and disciplines they study. They do not passively rely upon others to “teach” them. Rather, they are committed to developing their own reasoning abilities so that they can learn For a deeper understanding of the skills described in this competency, see A Miniature Guide For Students on How to Study & Learn a Discipline by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, 2001, Dillon Beach: Foundation for Critical Thinking, www.criticalthinking.org ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 36 Critical Thinking Competency Standards within any domain of thought, within any subject or discipline, within any profession. They are not passive receptors of information, but active participants in the learning process. Rather than seeing information and ideas as fragments to be brought into the mind only long enough to pass a test, they recognize that every discipline is a system of ideas that must be integrated with one another and with ideas in other disciplines. They recognize that when they learn core ideas deeply they have those ideas for life, and can use them thereafter when needed. Outcomes include 1. Students accurately identify core concepts within subjects. They can state the meaning of those concepts, as well as elaborate, exemplify, and interrelate them. 2. Students accurately analyze any subject they are studying (i.e., to determine its purpose, its key questions, the information one uses to reason within it, its important conclu- sions, the assumptions upon which it is based, the implications of studying the subject, the viewpoint(s) it engenders and its important implications). 3. Students approach content through thinking in every subject or discipline (i.e., they approach history through historical thinking, math through mathematical thinking…). 4. Students routinely raise important questions about what they are studying. 5. Students demonstrate the distinction between rote memorization and genuine under- standing. They know when they are doing the one and when they are doing the other, and strive to avoid rote memorization. 6. Students demonstrate understanding of what is expected of them in class. 7. Students regularly assess themselves as they are learning, to determine the extent of their understanding. 8. Students use reading and writing as principal tools in learning. 9. Students relate the subjects they study to their experience and to significant problems in the world. Standard Twenty-One: Skills in the Art of Asking Essential Questions10 Students who think critically place questions at the heart of their learning. Critical Thinking Principle The quality of thinking is given in the quality of the questioning of the thinker. It is not possible to be a good thinker and a poor questioner. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically display skills in asking essential questions. They use their understanding of critical thinking to direct their questioning—to ask questions that 10 For a deeper understanding of the skills described in this competency, see The Miniature Guide to the Art of Asking Essential Questions by Linda Elder and Richard Paul, 2002, Dillon Beach: Foundation for Critical Thinking, www.criticalthinking.org ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 37 enable them to analyze and assess thinking, to ask questions that enable them to under- stand what they read, to ask questions that enable them to write with clarity and depth, to ask questions that get them into the complexities of issues and problems. Outcomes include 1. Students identify through questioning the basic structures in thinking. 2. Students distinguish questions that admit of a definite answer from questions that call for reasoned judgment. 3. Students question both dogmatic absolutism and subjective relativism. 4. Students question concepts—their own use of concepts, as well as others’ use of concepts. 5. Students question data, information, and experience. 6. Students are clear about the questions they ask. 7. Students identify questions that underlie other questions. 8. Students ask complex interdisciplinary questions. 9. Students ask questions that help them make better decisions and solve problems. 10. Students routinely question value, merit, and worth. 11. Students routinely ask questions that enable them to evaluate reasoning. 12. Students routinely question as they read. 13. Students routinely question as they write. 14. Students demonstrate the ability to identify ethical components and implications within questions. 15. Students routinely question information disseminated through the mass media—in order to detect bias and propaganda. 16. Students routinely question the foundations of academic disciplines. 17. Students demonstrate the ability to ask questions within academic discipline which enable them to understand the discipline and think within it. 18. Students routinely question social and cultural practices and values. 19. Students routinely question their own thinking. 20. Students routinely question their own beliefs. 21. Students question systematically. 22. Students question Socratically. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 38 Critical Thinking Competency Standards Standard Twenty-Two: Skills in the Art of Close Reading11 Students who think critically read texts worth reading and take ownership of the most important ideas in texts. Critical Thinking Principle To become educated persons, students must read texts closely and, through that process, take ownership of the most important ideas in them. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically routinely read in texts that are significant and thus expand their worldview. Recognizing that every text has a purpose, they clarify the purpose of texts as they read them. Recognizing that close reading requires active engagement in reading, they create an inner dialog with the text as they read—questioning, summarizing and con- necting important ideas with other important ideas. Outcomes include 1. Students reflect as they read. 2. Students monitor how they are reading as they are reading—distinguishing between what they understand in the text and what they do not understand. 3. Students accurately summarize and elaborate (in their own words) texts as they read. 4. Students give examples, from their experience, of ideas in texts. 5. Students connect the core ideas in a text to other core ideas they understand. 6. Students take the core ideas they obtain through reading and apply them to their lives. 7. Students accurately paraphrase what they read (e.g. sentence by sentence). 8. Students accurately and logically explicate the thesis of a paragraph: First, students state the main point of the paragraph in one or two sentences. Second, students elaborate what they have paraphrased. In other words,… Third, students give examples of the meaning by tying it to concrete situations in the real world. For example,… Fourth, students generate apt illustrations: metaphors, analogies, pictures, or diagrams of the basic thesis to connect the thesis to other meanings they already understand. 9. Students analyze the logic of what they read (its purpose, its main question, the infor- mation it contains, its main idea,…) 10. Students evaluate what they read (for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, and significance). 11. Students accurately role-play an author’s viewpoint, as presented in a text. 11 For a deeper understanding of the skills described in this competency, see The Thinker’s Guide to How to Read a Paragraph and Beyond: The Art of Close Reading by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, 2003, Dillon Beach: Foundation for Critical Thinking, www.criticalthinking.org ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 39 Standard Twenty-Three: Skills in the Art of Substantive Writing12 Students who think critically write papers that say something worth saying about some- thing worth saying something about. Critical Thinking Principle Educated persons are able to write in such a way as to say something substantive, and understand the importance of writing to learning. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically use writing as an important tool both for communicat- ing important ideas and for learning. They use writing to deepen their understanding of important concepts and to clarify interrelationships between concepts. They consistently write in such a way as to become more clear, precise, accurate, relevant, deep, broad, logical and significant as thinkers. In writing, they are able to clearly and accurately analyze and evaluate ideas in texts and in their own thinking. They consistently learn to write as they write to learn. In other words, they use writing as an important tool for learning ideas deeply and permanently. Outcomes include 1. Students reflect as they write. 2. Students monitor how they are writing as they are writing—distinguishing between what they understand in the text and what they do not understand. 3. Students accurately summarize (in their words) texts they read, or ideas they hear. 4. Students routinely give examples from their experience as they write, to exemplify important ideas. 5. Students explicitly connect core ideas to other core ideas as they write. 6. Students write about ideas that apply to their lives. 7. Students demonstrate the ability to explicate in writing the thesis they are developing or defending: They state the main point of what they are saying. They elaborate their main point. They give examples of what they mean. They create analogies and metaphors that help readers understand what they mean. 8. Students demonstrate the ability to clearly and accurately analyze, in writing, the logic of a text, chapter, academic subject, significant concept, etc.: (its purpose, its main ques- tion, the information it contains, its main idea,…) 12 For a deeper understanding of the skills described in this competency, see The Thinker’s Guide to How to Write a Paragraph: The Art of Substantive Writing by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, 2003, Dillon Beach: Foundation for Critical Thinking, www.criticalthinking.org ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 40 Critical Thinking Competency Standards 9. Students consistently use universal intellectual standards in their writing, routinely checking their writing for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, significance, and fairness. Standard Twenty-Four: Ethical Reasoning Abilities13 Students who think critically learn to identify ethical issues and reason well through ethical questions. Critical Thinking Principle Critical thinkers recognize that one cannot be an ethical person unless one learns to reason well through ethical questions, issues, and situations. The proper role of ethical reasoning is to highlight acts of two kinds: those that enhance the well-being of others—that warrant our praise—and those that harm or diminish the well-being of others—and thus warrant our criticism. Developing one’s ethical reasoning abilities is crucial because there is in human nature a strong tendency toward egotism, prejudice, self-justification, and self-deception. These tendencies are exacerbated by pow- erful cultural influences that shape our lives. These tendencies can be actively combated only through the systematic cultivation of fair-mindedness, honesty, integrity, self-knowl- edge, and deep concern for the welfare of others. The ultimate basis for ethical reasoning is clear: human behavior has consequences for the welfare of others.We are capable of acting toward others in such a way as to increase or decrease the quality of their lives.We are capable of helping or harming.And we are theoretically capable of understanding when we are doing the one and when the other. Ethics reminds us that there are some actions that are unethical in-and-of-themselves, including: SLAVERY: owning people, whether individually or in groups. GENOCIDE: Systematically killing with the attempt to eliminate a whole nation or ethnic group TORTURE: inflicting pain (even severe pain) to force information, get revenge or serve some other irrational end. SEXISM: Treating people unequally (and harmfully) in virtue of their gender. RACISM: Treating people unequally (and harmfully) in virtue of their race or ethnicity. MURDER: The pre-meditated killing of people for revenge, pleasure, or to gain advan- tage for oneself. ASSAULT: Attacking an innocent person with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. RAPE: Forcing an unwilling person to have intercourse. FRAUD: Intentionally deceiving someone so that they give up property or some right. DECEIT: Representing something as true which one knows to be false in order to gain a selfish end. 13 For a deeper understanding the ethical reasoning see The Miniature Guide to the Foundations of Ethical Reasoning by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, 2003, Dillon Beach: Foundation for Critical Thinking, www. criticalthinking.org. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 41 INTIMIDATION: Forcing a person to act against his interest or deter from acting in his interest by threats or violence. Putting persons in jail without telling them the charges against them or providing them with a reasonable opportunity to defend themselves. Putting persons in jail, or otherwise punishing them, solely for their political or reli- gious views. Humans do not naturally develop as ethical reasoners (during the typical process of social conditioning). Ethical reasoning, if it is to develop at all, must be cultivated. Performance indicators and dispositions: Students who think critically are able to identify ethical questions, issues, and situations and then reason well through them. They manifest a commitment to a common core of ethical principles—for example, that it is wrong to cheat, deceive, exploit, abuse, harm, or steal from others, that everyone has an ethical responsibility to respect the rights of others, including their freedom and well-being, to help those most in need of help, to seek the common good and not merely their own self-interest and egocentric pleasures, to strive in some way to make the world more just and humane. They recognize the powerful forces of egocentric and sociocentric thought in human life, and actively work to diminish these forces in the their own thoughts and behavior. They recognize that to reason ethically, they must not be naïve about the world and its happenings, that one cannot live an ethical life merely by having a “good heart.” In other words, they realize that many ethical issues are complex, necessitating interrelated skills of mind that must be developed and cultivated by the mind. They understand the importance of distinguishing ethics from religion, social conventions and the law, and of keeping these distinctions clearly in mind when reasoning through ethical issues. Outcomes include 1. Students demonstrate understanding of ethical reasoning, by accurately elaborating and exemplifying its meaning. 2. Students demonstrate awareness of the fact that ethics is often confused with very different modes of thinking. They take pains, therefore not to confuse ethical reasoning with reasoning in different, though related, categories. They distinguish ethical thinking from religious thinking (based on theology), conventional thinking (based on social conventions and taboos), political thinking (based on ideology and vested interest), and legal thinking (based on political processes and social pressures). 3. Students can accurately identify fundamental human rights. 4. Students demonstrate understanding that ethical principles are based in the rights of humans and other sentient creatures. 5. Students can accurately articulate universal human and animal rights. 6. Students can accurately determine when human or animal rights are being violated. 7. Students demonstrate the propensity to honor universal human and animal rights. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 42 Critical Thinking Competency Standards 8. Students recognize that there is a logic to ethical reasoning, just as there is a logic to mathematical, scientific, and medical reasoning, and can accurately articulate that logic. 9. Students demonstrate, in reasoning through ethical issues, that ethical reasoning must meet the same intellectual standards that apply to other domains of knowledge (i.e., that sound ethical reasoning must be clear, accurate, precise, relevant, logical, deep, non-trivial, and fair). 10. Students distinguish between simple ethical questions (which have a definite answer) and complex ones (that require reasoned judgment). 11. Students identify all of the significant facts relevant to an ethical question, and consider those facts fairly. 12. Students put themselves imaginatively in the place of others and recognize how they would be think and feel if someone were to act toward them as they are acting toward others. 13. Students demonstrate awareness of the fact that ethical reasoning entails doing what is right even in the face of powerful selfish desires. 14. Students demonstrate understanding of the fact that much of our ethical insight comes from recognizing inconsistencies in human behavior—for example, saying one thing and doing another; applying one standard to ourselves and another standard to others. 15. Students identify and apply the ethical concepts relevant to ethical questions. 16. Students demonstrate understanding of the fact that doing ethical good involves: promoting kindness, compassion, understanding, open-mindedness, forbearance, toler- ance, forgiveness, mercy, benevolence, thoughtfulness, consideration, civility, respect, generosity, charity, empathy, justice, impartiality, evenhandedness, integrity, fair-mind- edness, honesty, integrity, self-knowledge, and deep concern for the welfare of others. 17. Students understand the range of concepts that highlight ethical failings: thoughtless- ness, egotism, egocentricity, cruelty, injustice, greed, domination, selfishness, disrespect, prejudice, narrow-mindedness, inconsiderateness, hypocrisy, unkindness, insensitivity, meanness, brutality, malice, hatred, spite, vindictiveness, mercilessness, avarice, bigotry, discrimination, chauvinism, small-mindedness, duplicity, insincerity, callousness, heartlessness, viciousness, ruthlessness, intolerance, unfairness, favoritism, pettiness, trivial-mindedness, dishonesty, cunning, deception, fraudulence, deceit, fanaticism, disingenuousness, violence, sadism, cheating, and lying. 18. Students recognize the natural tendencies in the human mind that they must overcome if they are to become ethical persons. These include the tendency to “forget” evidence that does not support our thinking and to “remember” evidence that does; to think in a rigid way within an overly narrow point of view; to see ourselves as in possession of “The Truth;” to ignore inconsistencies—between what we profess to believe and the actual beliefs our behavior implies, or between the standards we apply to ourselves and those we apply to others. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 43 19. Students can accurately state, elaborate and exemplify acts that are unethical in-an-of- themselves. They do not confuse these with acts deemed unethical by society, the law, or religious groups, but that are not in fact unethical (in and of themselves). They use intellectual standards and ethical principles (plus knowledge of the relevant facts) to determine whether an act is ethical or unethical. Standard Twenty-Five: Skills in Detecting Media Bias and Propaganda in National and World News14 Students who think critically develop skills that enable them to detect news media bias and propaganda. Critical Thinking Principle Because of their potentially powerful influence on human thought and behavior, accounts given in national and world news media need to be routinely questioned for bias and propaganda. Performance indicators and dispositions Students who think critically are able to detect news media bias and propaganda. They understand that the mainstream news media is fundamentally concerned not with objec- tive and unbiased reporting, but with presenting the “news” in such a way as to validate the point of view of its consumers. They understand that those who write news stories and those who decide which stories to include and exclude in the “news” are tacitly guided by the social ideology, conventions, and taboos of its readers or audience. Critical consum- ers of the news therefore read the news critically, with a deep understanding of media logic. They refuse to be swept along by public hysteria created by biased mainstream news reporting. They do not accept what they hear or read in the mainstream news until they have critically analyzed and assessed, for themselves, the issue in question. They routinely juxtapose viewpoints presented in the mainstream news with viewpoints represented in intelligent alternative (and often dissenting) news sources. Outcomes include 1. Students recognize that the purpose of the mainstream news media is to maximize profit, not to educate the public or to objectively report the news. 2. Students understand the nature and function of bias and propaganda. 3. Students understand that democracy can be an effective form of government only to the extent that the public is well-informed about national and international events and can think independently and critically about those events. 4. Students understand that every society and culture has a unique worldview that colors (and often distorts) what they see and how they see it. 14 For deeper understanding of media bias, see The Thinker’s Guide on How to Detect Media Bias & Propaganda in National and World News, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, 2003, Dillon Beach: CA, www.criticalthinking.org. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 44 Critical Thinking Competency Standards 5. Students understand that mainstream news media outlets in any culture of the world reflect and favor the worldview of that particular culture. 6. Students understand that journalists and news editors are themselves members of a culture and (generally) share a view of the world with their target audience. 7. Students recognize that what is unusual (novel, odd, or sensational) is considered “news” while what is usual is not (even though what is usual may be objectively more important). 8. Students recognize that most news stories are not a result of investigative journalism (but are taken from news conferences and press releases designed to influence the news). 9. Students recognize that facts and interpretations are blended in most news stories. 10. Students recognize that it is important to distinguish facts from interpretations in analyzing the news. 11. Students recognize that there are (typically) multiple points of view from which any set of events can be viewed and interpreted. 12. Students recognize that it is important to recognize the audience for which news accounts are constructed (e.g., French, German, Japanese,American). 13. Students recognize that it is not reasonable to assume that mainstream views are unbi- ased and dissenting views biased. They realize that both are subject to bias when not “balanced” by alternative competing views. 14. Students recognize that it is important to expose oneself both to mainstream and alter- native or dissenting views. 15. Students recognize that most people determine whether to accept or reject the conclu- sions presented in a news story in terms of whether, and to what extent, they personally agree with those conclusions. 16. Students recognize that when they share a worldview favored by the media, they are more easily manipulated by their views. 17. Students obtain useful information even from propaganda and one-sided news stories (by reading those stories critically). 18. Students ask key questions when coming to conclusions about any given news story: What is the intended audience of this story? What point of view is being privileged? What points of view are being dismissed or played down? How can I gain access to view points not covered? What stories are highlighted and why? What stories are buried and why? 19. As critical consumers of the news, students: • study alternative perspectives and world views, learning how to interpret events from the perspective of multiple views ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 45 • seek understanding and insight through multiple sources of thought and informa- tion, not simply those of the mass media • identify the viewpoints embedded in news stories • mentally re-write (reconstruct) news stories through awareness of how stories might be told from multiple perspectives • analyze news constructs in the same way they analyze other representations of reality (as some blend of fact and interpretation) • assess news stories for their clarity, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, and significance • notice contradictions and inconsistencies in the news (often in the same story) • notice the agenda and interests served by a story • notice the facts covered and the facts ignored • notice what is represented as fact (that is in dispute) • notice assumptions implicit in stories • notice what is implied (but not openly stated) • notice what implications are ignored and what are exaggerated • notice what points of view are systematically put into a favorable light and which in an unfavorable light • mentally correct stories reflecting bias toward the unusual, the dramatic, and the sensational by putting them into perspective or discounting them • notice which social conventions and taboos are being used to define issues and problems • notice when terms or concepts are misleadingly or inconsistently used ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 46 Critical Thinking Competency Standards Appendix This appendix is designed to briefly focus on the conceptual underpinnings of the critical thinking competencies. For a deeper look at the theory of critical thinking, note the refer- ences provided in the footnotes. Critical Thinking Theory Underlying the Competencies Each of the critical thinking competencies correlates with some part of the theory of critical thinking. The theory of critical thinking, which is briefly dealt with in this guide is a rich set of interrelated ideas that, understood deeply, give rise to the critical thinking competencies. In this section, we outline the critical thinking concepts presupposed in the competencies, some of which we have already touched upon.15 There are four foundational sets of concepts in critical thinking that those who teach must command if they are to foster critical thinking competencies. They can be characterized as follows: 1. All thinking can be analyzed by identifying its eight elements. • purpose • question • information • inferences • assumptions • concepts • implications • point of view 2. All thinking must be assessed for quality using universal intellectual standards. Some of the major intellectual standards include: • clarity • precision • accuracy • relevance • depth • breadth • significance • logic • fairness 3. The ultimate goal of critical thinking is to foster the development of intellectual traits or dispositions. They include: • fairmindedness • intellectual empathy • intellectual humility • intellectual perseverance • intellectual courage • intellectual integrity • intellectual autonomy • confidence in reason 4. Egocentrism and sociocentrism, natural predispositions of the mind, are powerful bar- riers to the development of critical thinking. We will now comment briefly on each of these four theoretical sets. 15 For an in-depth look at the basic theory of critical thinking, see Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life by Richard Paul and Linda Elder, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001, www. criticalthinking.org ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org Critical Thinking Competency Standards 47 All Thinking Can be Analyzed by Identifying its Eight Elements16 Eight basic structures are present in all thinking: Whenever we think, we think for a purpose within a point of view based on assumptions leading to implications and conse- quences.We use concepts, ideas and theories to interpret data, facts, and experiences in order to answer questions, solve problems, and resolve issues. Thinking, then: Diagram 1 n generates purposes Point of View Purpose n raises questions frame of reference, goal, objective perspective, orientation n uses information Implications and Question at issue n utilizes concepts Consequences Elements problem, issue n makes inferences Assumptions of Information presupposition, data, facts, taking for granted Thought observations, n makes assumptions Concepts experiences n generates implications theories, Interpretation n embodies a point of view definitions, axioms, and Inference conclusions, laws, principles, solutions models 16 To more fully understand the elements of reasoning, see The Thinkers Guide to Analytic Thinking by Linda Elder and Richard Paul, 2003, Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation For Critical Thinking, www.criticalthinking.org. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org 48 Critical Thinking Competency Standards Diagram 2 To Analyze Thinking We Must Learn to Identify and Question its Elemental Structures 81 to answer a Whenever question or we think 7 solve a we think for a 2 problem. purpose based on Universal within a concepts and Structures point of view theories of Thought 3 6 based on to make assumptions inferences and judgements We use leading to data, facts, implications and and experiences consequences. 54 81 What is the What is my key question I fundamental 7 am trying to purpose? 2 answer? What is my What is point of view the most basic with respect to concept in the the issue? question? Universal Structures 6 What are my of Thought What 3 most fundamental assumptions am inferences or conclusions? I using in my What What reasoning? information are the do I need to implications answer my of my reasoning question? (if I am correct)? 54 When we understand the structures of thought, we ask important questions implied by these structures. ©2007 Foundation for Critical Thinking Press www.criticalthinking.org

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PDF Critical Thinking Competency Standards
The critical thinking competency standards articulated in this guide serve as a resource for teachers, curriculum designers, administrators and accrediting bodies. ... Critical thinking presupposes knowledge of the most basic structures in thinking (the elements of thought) and the most basic intellectual standards for think-ing (universal ...
PDF Critical Thinking Competency Standards
Critical Thinking Competency Standards provides a framework for assessing stu-dents' critical thinking abilities. It enables administrators, teachers and faculty at ... of thought) and the most basic intellectual standards for thinking (universal intellectual standards). The key to the creative side of critical thinking (the actual improving ...
PDF Critical Thinking Competency Standards
Critical Thinking Competency Standards provides a framework for assessing stu-dents' critical thinking abilities. It enables administrators, teachers and faculty at ... the same basic approach would apply to K-12 schooling. The overall score is an average score of all outcomes (either of the complete ...
PDF CRITICAL THINKING: THE VERY BASICS
Ideas work together according to four basic patterns of cooperation. Basic Patterns: i. Premise / Ultimate Conclusion. Idea. %. Premise - an idea that the argument assumes to be true without support. Inference - the connection that holds between the idea(s) at the top of the arrow and the idea at the bottom of the % arrow when the truth of the ...
PDF Chapter 1 What Is Critical Thinking?
Here are three definitions of critical thinking by leading researchers. First, Robert Ennis's classic definition:1. Critical thinking is reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on decid-ing what to believe or do. 1. Even before you start reading this text, begin by examining your own con-cept of critical thinking.
PDF Critical Thinking: Competency Standards Essential for the Cultivation
institution are fostering critical thinking standards in their subject(s). It is unreasonable to expect students to learn critical thinking at any substan-tive level through one or a few semesters of instruction. However, basic critical thinking competencies can be achieved by most students. The most
PDF A Practical Guide to Critical Thinking
1 The Nature and Value of Critical Thinking . 1.1 The Nature of Critical Thinking, 2 Exercise 1.1, 6 1.2 Critical Thinking and Knowledge, 6 Exercise 1.2, 7 1.2.1 Truth, 7 1.2.1.1 Realism, Relativism, and Nihilism, 8 1.2.1.2 Relativism and the Argument from Disagreement, 10 1.2.2 Belief 13 , 1.2.3 Justification, 15
PDF Critical Thinking Principles
Critical thinking is a skill required by researchers to evaluate what they hear and read, and to assess what they put out for other people to hear and read. Principle 1: Meaning, Clarity of Language, Accuracy of Language, and Definitions . The researcher must be conscious of language when both critically reading research material and writing ...
PDF Developing critical thinking skills
In order to display critical thinking, students need to develop skills in. ♦ interpreting: understanding the significance of data and to clarify its meaning. ♦ analysing: breaking information down and recombining it in different ways. ♦ reasoning: creating an argument through logical steps.
PDF Critical Thinking
Glaser defined critical thinking as: (1) an attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that come within the range of one's experience; (2) knowledge of the methods of logical enquiry and reasoning; and (3) some skill in applying those methods. Critical thinking calls for a persistent effort to examine ...
PDF The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking: Concepts & Tools
The essence of critical thinking concepts and tools distilled into a 20-page pocket-size guide. It is a critical thinking supplement to any textbook or course. It is best used in conjunction with the Analytic Thinking Guide. Keywords: critical thinking concepts; critical thinking tools; analytic thinking; thinker's guide Created Date
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here at UWSP. To develop a set of critical thinking skills that you can apply to your life right now and after graduation, you'll want to do three things: 1. Take a variety of courses that address critical thinking skills. Because different disciplines tend to focus on particular skills sets within the general critical thinking process, taking
PDF The Eight Tenets of Critical Thinking
Wade and Tavris (2005) define Critical Thinking (CT) as "the ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments on the basis of well-supported reasons and evidence rather than emotion or anecdote" (p. 12). Critical thinking has eight tenets, eight premises, and those premis es have been clearly detailed: 1.
PDF Critical Thinking
lectual StandardsWe postulate that there are at least nine intellectual standards important to skilled reasoning. in everyday life. These are clarity, precision, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, logicalness, significa. ce, and fairness. It is unin-telligible to claim that any instance of reasoning is both sound and yet in violation o.
PDF LEARNING SUPPORT SERVICES CRIT.01 Critical Thinking
1. Understand the writer's purpose and the main idea or argument. 2. Determine the types of support or evidence that the author presents. Facts, statistics, observations, personal experience, expert opinion, scientific research. 3. Determine whether the support is relevant and is of value.
PDF The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools
A Definition: Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thought processes with a view to improving them. Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self- corrective thinking. It requires rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use.
PDF Aspiring Thinker's Guide to Critical Thinking
Provides grading rubrics and outlines five levels of close reading and substantive writing. #563m. "Aspiring Thinker's Guide to Critical Thinking" Mini-Guide Price List: (+ shipping and handling) Item #554m. 1-24 copies $6.00 each 25-199 copies $5.00 each 200-499 copies $4.00 each 500+ copies $3.50 each.
PDF Britannica
BUILD CRITICAL-THINKING SKILLS A review of scholarly articles provides evidence of researchers' attempts to define the skills used for thinking beyond a basic level. Critical thinking has been described as "… a disciplined manner of making reasoned judgments or using criteria to judge the quality or assess the validity
(PDF) THE CONCEPT OF CRITICAL THINKING
Critical thinking is thinking clearly and rationally. It involves thinking precisely and systematically, and following the rules of logic and scientific reasoning, among other things. As for creativity, it is a matter of coming up with new and useful ideas, generating alternative possibilities.
PDF C Riti C Al Hi N King T
quality of our thought. Shoddy thinking is costly, both in money. and in quality of life. Excellence in thought, however, must be sy. ltivated.A Definition:Critical thinking is the art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with. tical consequences; and• communicates efectively with others in figuring out soluti.
Critical Thinking Competency Standards Pages 1-50
For each critical thinking competency, the rubrics can be used in two ways: 1. To score student achievement (or lack of achievement) for each outcome. 2. To provide an overall score for each performance indicator (based on scoring for each outcome). Within each competency, then, student performance is first scored for each outcome.
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PDF The Thinker's Guide to Analytic Thinking
Critical Thinking Reading and Writing Test—Assesses the ability of students to use reading and writing as tools for acquiring knowledge. Provides grading rubrics and outlines five levels of close reading and substantive writing (1-24 copies $6 00 each; 25-199 copies $4 00 each; 200-499 copies $2 50 each) #563m.