The "discrete activities" that comprise critical thinking are
categorized differently by different learning theorists. For the sake of
simplicity and utility, we are categorizing the elements of critical thinking as
including:
- Observations. From a series of observations, we can come to
establish:
- Facts. From a series of facts, or from an absence of fact, we make:
- Inferences. Testing the validity of our inferences, we can make:
- Assumptions. From our assumptions, we form our:
- Opinions. Taking our opinions, we use the principles of logic to
develop:
- Arguments. And when we want to challenge the arguments of others,
we employ:
- Critical Analysis (through which we challenge the observations,
facts, inferences, and so on, in the arguments that we are analyzing).
At first glance, these categories seem obvious. Shouldn't our students already
understand that "observation" is not at all the same as
"fact"? That inference differs from opinion? As we consider the matter
more closely, however, we understand that our students don't always understand
these distinctions, and that their writing might be considerably improved if
they did. Defining these terms clearly (and pointing out the essential
differences between them) is therefore the first step in providing our students
with a critical vocabulary for their own thinking processes.
To begin, we need to make our students aware of what their own premises and
biases are. We must then move them to challenge these premises and biases.
Finally, we must move them to challenge the premises and biases of others. In
short, we move our students to experience some shift in their cognitive
processes.
One way to facilitate this shift is to create writing assignments that require
our students to move back and forth between observation and inference, facts and
assumptions -- all the while marking where they are in the critical process. The
primary aim is to encourage students to observe themselves and others in the
critical process. We want students to be able:
- To know the difference between reliable and unreliable observations and
statements of facts;
- To be persistent enough to observe objectively and thoroughly, and to
collect sufficient factual or textual evidence;
- To see patterns or relationships in what they have observed or discovered
in their reading;
To infer and to assume carefully;
- To form opinions even while keeping an open mind;
- To create arguments understanding that they are not the last word, but
part of an ongoing debate in a scholarly process.
Taken From:
URL: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~compose/faculty/pedagogies/thinking.html#elements
Site URL: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~compose/faculty/pedagogies/thinking.html