Critical thinking process - theoretical fundamentals and application to improve critical thinking skills

1. GOLD REEF CITY
CHARLES COTTER
16 AUGUST 2012

2. PRESENTATION OVERVIEW
 Introduction
 Introductory activity – “Ice Breaker”
 Defining Critical Thinking
 Video clip: Critical Thinking
 Understanding the characteristics of Critical Thinking
 Value of Critical Thinking
 Defining Critical Thinking Skills
 Critical Thinking Process
 Guidelines on how to improve your Critical Thinking Skills

3. INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY
1. How do you put a giraffe into your refrigerator?
2. How do you put an elephant into your refrigerator?
3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All
the animals attend - except one. Which animal does
not attend?
4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by
crocodiles and you do not have a boat. How do you
manage it?

4. CORRECT ANSWERS
Question 1: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe,
and close the door.
This question tests whether you tend to do simple
things in an overly complicated way.
Question 2: Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in
the elephant, and close the refrigerator? Wrong
answer. Correct answer: Open the refrigerator, take
out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door.
This tests your ability to think through the
repercussions of your previous actions.

5. CORRECT ANSWERS
Question 3: The elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator.
You just put him in there.
This tests your memory.
Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions
correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true
abilities.
Question 4: You jump into the river and swim across. Have you
not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the animal
conference.
This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

6. CONSOLATION PRIZE
According to Anderson
Consulting Worldwide, around
90% of the professionals tested got
all questions wrong.

7. CRITICAL THINKING – LEARNT LESSONS
Tendency not to do simple things in an overly
complicated way (FOCUS and SIMPLICITY)
Think through the repercussions of your previous actions
(ANALYSIS and REFLECTION)
Ability to remember (MEMORIZATION and RECALL)
Learn quickly from your mistakes (AVID and ACTIVE
LEARNER)

8. DEFINING CRITICAL THINKING
Critical thinking is a type of thinking that questions
assumptions
It is a way of deciding whether a claim is always true,
sometimes true, partly true, or false
Critical thinking is an important component of
most professions e.g. Office Management
“Reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what
to believe or do“

9. DEFINING CRITICAL THINKING
“The intellectually disciplined process of actively and
skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing,
synthesizing, and/or evaluating information
gathered from, or generated by, observation,
experience, reflection, reasoning, or
communication, as a guide to belief and action"

10. ARE YOU AN EFFECTIVE CRITICAL
THINKER?
 GIVE YOURSELF A RATING ON A SCALE OF 1-5 FOR EACH OF THE
ABOVE CHARACTERISTICS
 Irrespective of the sphere of thought, "a well-cultivated critical thinker“ exhibits the
following characteristics:
 Raises important questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely
 Gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively
 Comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria
and standards
 Thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing,
as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences
 Communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems,
without being unduly influenced by others' thinking on the topic

11. VALUE OF CRITICAL THINKING
Critical thinking:
Clarifies goals
Examines assumptions
Discerns hidden values
Evaluates evidence
Accomplishes actions
Assesses conclusions

12. VIDEO CLIP: CRITICAL THINKING
Key learning points
Critical thinking 2.htm

13. VALUE OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
For a Office Manager:
Problem-solving
Decision-making
Evaluating proposals
Organizing events and processes
Prioritizing
Communication
Resolving conflict and disputes
Information processing

14. CRITICAL THINKING PROCESS
Critical thinking calls for the ability to:
Recognize problems, to find workable means for meeting
those problems
Understand the importance of prioritization and order of
precedence in problem solving
Gather and marshal pertinent (relevant) information
Recognize unstated assumptions and values
Comprehend and use language with accuracy, clarity,
and discernment
Interpret data, to appraise evidence and evaluate
arguments

15. CRITICAL THINKING PROCESS
Critical thinking calls for the ability to:
Recognize the existence (or non-existence) of logical
relationships between propositions
Draw warranted conclusions and generalizations
Put to test the conclusions and generalizations at which
one arrives
Reconstruct one's patterns of beliefs on the basis of
wider experience
Render accurate judgments about specific things and
qualities in everyday life

16. GUIDELINES ON HOW TO IMPROVE
YOUR CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
 Remove all bias when thinking critically.
 You must learn to play devil's advocate with yourself in order to get the truest possible solution.
 Use your critical-thinking abilities for smaller problems, and then gradually move to bigger
problems.
 Play critical-thinking games, such as Sudoku or chess.
 Try having amicable debates with friends or family. Take the position to which you would normally
be opposed in order to really exercise your critical-thinking abilities.
 “Curiosity killed the cat”
 Buddhist mind-set
 Utilize group-based problem solving techniques
 “Outside of the box” thinking
 Thinking creatively – whole brain thinking – integrate left and right brain hemispheres

17. CONCLUSION
Summary of key points
Questions

18. CONTACT DETAILS
084 562 9446
charlescot@polka.co.za
Linked In http://za.linkedin.com/pub/charles-
cotter/38/175/875