1. g
School-BasedSchool-Based
Professional Development 2Professional Development 2
25th
April 2013
Thursday
07:45 am
Irushadhiyya School

2. Developing Critical Thinking
Skills
What is Critical Thinking
Why Critical thinking?
Strategies to Improve Critical Thinking Skills

3. Why is it Important?
What is It?
How Does it ImproveTeaching and Learning?
Critical Thinking

4. “Standards” Typically
Used in Thinking
“It’s true because I believe it” (innate egocentrism)
“It’s true because we believe it” (innate sociocentrism)
“It’s true because I want to believe it” (innate wish fulfillment)
“It’s true because I have always believed it.”
(innate self-validation)
“It’s true because it is in my selfish interest to believe it.”
(innate selfishness)

5. Types of Thinking
CriticalCritical
ThinkingThinking
• AnalyzingAnalyzing
• EvaluatingEvaluating
• ReasoningReasoning
Problem Solving
Decision Making
Problem Solving
Decision Making
NewNew
IdeasIdeas
CreativeCreative
ThinkingThinking

6. Do you agree with this statement?
Some people study all their life and at their death they
have learnt everything except to THINK.
-Francoise Domergue

7. Why is it Important?
What is It?
How Does it ImproveTeaching and Learning?
Critical Thinking

8. What is Critical Thinking?
Write your understanding of critical thinking?

9. What is Critical Thinking?
https://www.facebook.com/IrushadhiyyaSchoolOffical?ref=hl

10. Critical Thinking
is a self-directed process
by which we take
deliberate steps
to think at the
highest level of quality.

11. Robert Ennis Definition
“Critical thinking is reasonable,
reflective thinking that is focused on
deciding what to believe or do.”

12. Matthew Lipman Definition
“Critical thinking is skillful, responsible thinking
that is conducive to good judgment because it is
sensitive to context, relies on criteria, and is
self-correcting.”

13. Richard Paul’s definition
“Critical thinking is thinking about your
thinking, while you’re thinking, in
order to make your thinking better.”

14. Paul’s (1992) definition
“Critical thinking is disciplined, self-
directed thinking that exemplifies the
perfection of thinking appropriate to a
particular mode or domain of thought.

15. Definition
“Critical thinking is skilful, responsible
thinking that that facilitates good
judgment”.

16. critical thinking: disciplined,
self-guided thinking
aimed at living a well
reasoned life.
Thinking that
analyzes thinking
Thinking that
assesses thinking
Thinking that
develops within itself
intellectual habits
thinking that
combats
its native
egocentricity
Overview slide

17. How Does it ImproveTeaching and Learning?
Does questioning improve students’ critical
thinking skills?
Critical Thinking

18. The Critical Thinking MindThe Critical Thinking Mind
==
The Educated MindThe Educated Mind
The critical thinking mind is the educated
mind

19. Make lesson plans that include thinking skills.
Ask thought-provoking questions such as
“How do you know?” “Why…?”
Call on students to tell what they understand.
Connect each lesson to students’ experiences.
Ask students to summarize the lesson
creatively.
The critical thinking mind is the educated
mind
Strategies to Promote Critical thinking
Skills

20. Questioning to develop critical thinking
requires students to:
•Raise issues
•Discover ideas and things
•Peruse problematic areas
•Seek clarity and relevance of ideas and
•Find evidence and make conclusions.
The critical thinking mind is the educated
mind
Asking question is the heart of critical
thinking

21. Group Activity
In groups, select a topic (any subject) and design a
lesson emphasizing to develop Critical thinking
Skills.

22. Activity
A woman goes for a haircut at a hair-cutting
salloon. The hairdresser asks her what
brand of shampoo she uses. He then puts
some of her hairs under a microscope and
shows her that there is a white film on the
hairs. He recommends that she buy the
store’s brand of shampoo rather than the
one she has been using.
What are some good questions to ask
herself about this situation?

23. Possible questions
• Will the same film be there with all shampoos, even the store’s?
• Is the film the result of the shampoo or of something else entirely?
• Is there anything negative about having that film on my hair that can
only be seen with a microscope?
• To what extent do we ask these types of questions of ourselves in
similar contexts?

24. How do you help students learn the
skills needed to form clear, probing
questions?

25. What did we do today?
Instructional Strategies

26. SEEI
STATE in your own words what someone else has said or
written or the key concept, problem or question at issue.
ELABORATE on your statement. In other words…
EXEMPLIFY: give an example of the concept from your life and
from the content.
ILLUSTRATE: create an analogy, metaphor, simile, graph,
chart, cartoon, etc.

27. Benefits of CriticalThinking Skills
Why teach teach critical thinking skills?
Critical Thinking

28. Benefits of Critical Thinking
Examples:
 Academic Performance
 understand the arguments and beliefs of others
 Critically evaluating those arguments and beliefs
 Develop and defend one's own well-supported arguments and beliefs.
 Workplace
 Helps us to reflect and get a deeper understanding of our own and others’
decisions
 Encourage open-mindedness to change
 Aid us in being more analytical in solving problems
 Daily life
 Helps us to avoid making foolish personal decisions.
 Promotes an informed and concerned citizenry capable of making good
decisions on important social, political and economic issues.
 Aids in the development of autonomous thinkers capable of examining their
assumptions, dogmas, and prejudices.

29. Barriers to CriticalThinking
Critical Thinking

30. Barriers to Critical Thinking
If Critical Thinking is so important, why is
it that uncritical thinking is so
common?
Why is that so many people including
many highly educated and intelligent
people find critical thinking so
difficult?

31. Barriers to Critical Thinking
 Lack of relevant background information
 Poor reading skills
 Poor listening skills
 Bias
 Prejudice
 Superstition
 Egocentrism
 Socio-centrism
 Peer pressure
 Mindless Conformism
 Mindless non-conformism
 Provincialism
 Narrow-mindedness
 Closed-mindedness

32. Barriers to Critical Thinking
Distrust of reason
Stereotyping
Unwarranted assumptions and stereotypes
Relativistic thinking
Scapegoating
Rationalization
Wishful thinking
Short-term thinking
Selective perception / attention
Selective memory
Overpowering emotions
Self-deception
Face-saving
Fear of change

33. Barriers to Critical Thinking
Five Powerful Barriers to Critical Thinking:
Self-centered thinking
self-interested thinking
self-serving bias
Group-centered thinking
Group bias
Conformism
Beliefs that are presumed to be true
without adequate evidence or
justification
Assumption
Stereotyping
Believing that something is true
because one wishes it were true.
The truth is “just a matter of
opinion”
Relativism
 Subjectivism
 Cultural relativism
EgocentrismEgocentrism
UnwarrantedUnwarranted
AssumptionsAssumptions
SociocentrismSociocentrism
RelativisticRelativistic
ThinkingThinking
WishfulWishful
ThinkingThinking
I am probably
the greatest
thinker since
Socrates!

34. Answers for the arguments
Argument 1. Invalid. Premise might be true, but there are other
possible reason explaining why things started g missing in
June.
Argument 2. Invalid. Premise might be true, but humans and
mice aren’t the same animals, therefore logically the two
premises aren’t comparable.
Argument 3. Valid. Premise are true and the conclusion allows
from them.
Argument 4. Invalid. The structure is logical, but premise 1 is
false – not all teachers are female.

35. Characteristics of Critical Thinker
Are you OPEN MINDED about other people’s view?
Are you HONEST to yourself (or others) when you are
wrong?
Do you have the COURAGE and PASSION to take
initiative and confront problems and meet
challenges?
Are you AWARE of your own biases and
preconceptions?
Do you WELCOME CRITICISM from other people?
Do you have INDEPENDENT opinions and are not
afraid to disagree?

36. Summary1. What is Thinking? Thinking is a purposeful, organized cognitive process that we use to make
sense of our world.
2. Types of Thinking Creative & Critical Thinking
3. What is Critical Thinking? Critical Thinking is the general term given to a wide range of cognitive and
intellectual skills needed to: Effectively identify, analyze, and evaluate
arguments; Discover and overcome personal prejudices and biases;
Formulate and present convincing reasons in support of conclusions; and
Make reasonable, intelligent decisions about what to believe and what to
do. Critical thinking skills emphasized in this course, include: Reasoning,
Analyzing, Evaluating, Decision Making and Problem solving.
5. Benefits of Critical Thinking Academic performance, workplace and daily life.
6. Barriers to Critical Thinking Examples include Egocentrism, Sociocentrism, Unwarranted Assumptions,
Wishful Thinking, and Relativistic Thinking
7. Characteristics of a Critical Thinker Open-mindedness, independent thinking, self-aware, passionate, insightful,
honest and intellectual humility, intellectual courage, and welcome criticism,
etc.

37. Thank you very
much for your active
participation.
உங்கள் பங்கு மிகவும் நன்றி
अपनी सक्रिय क्रिय भागीदारी के िलिए बहुत बहुत धन्यवाद
మీ చురుకుగా పాల్గొగ్గొనటం కోసం చాల్గా ధనయ్గొవాదాల్గు

38. Lunch ?