1. Critical Thinking
By Cindy Clemens

2. What is Critical Thinking?
There are several definitions of critical thinking:
 Wikipedia tells us, “Critical thinking is the process of thinking that
questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is
true, false; sometimes true, or partly true.”
 The National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking says,
“Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of
actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing,
synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or
generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or
communication, as a guide to belief and action.”
 While the authors of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking
Appraisal, a psychological test of critical thinking ability, explains
it as, “a composite of attitudes, knowledge and skills.”
The definition that I like best comes from Dr. Joe Lau and Dr.
Jonathan Chan on their OpenCourseWare website that states:

3. Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and
rationally. It includes the ability to engage in
reflective and independent thinking. Someone with
critical thinking skills is able to do the following :
 understand the logical connections between
ideas
 identify, construct and evaluate arguments
 detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in
reasoning
 solve problems systematically
 identify the relevance and importance of ideas
 reflect on the justification of one's own beliefs and
values
How do we teach our students to think critically?

4. Question
The Greek philosopher Socrates (469 BC–399 BC) is
generally credited as the father of Western
philosophy and critical thinking. As a teacher, he
presented probing questions to his students to
determine whether claims to knowledge based on
authority could be rationally justified with clarity
and logical consistency(Wikipedia). Using this Socratic
tradition of questioning in our classroom
discussions provides a rich environment that will
nurture critical thinking.

5. Predict
Encouraging students to predict what will happen when
reading fiction or non-fiction material or working on
math or science problems will cultivate their capability
to think critically. Having them defend their predictions
will foster their ability to find problems or discrepancies
in their thought process.
Utilizing the components of scientific method of inquiry:
Define a question; Gather information (observe); Form
a hypothesis; Test the hypothesis by performing an
experiment and collecting data in a reproducible
manner; Analyze the data; Interpret the data and draw
conclusions that serve as a starting point for new
hypothesis (Wikipedia) will lead to critical thinking.

6. Practice
Critical thinking is a skill we all have the
capacity for, yet many of us do not utilize this
ability. It is easy and comfortable for us to let
others figure it out and tell us what to do. As
educators it is our responsibility to ensure that
our students not only have the power to think
critically, but are comfortable doing so. This
takes practice and should be practiced every
day. From simple discussions about literature
or classroom rules to complex scientific
theories, we should challenge our students to
utilize critical thinking in all their activities.

7. Why is Critical Thinking Important?
 Critical thinking is a skill that will be required
in almost any career path that our students
may follow. We are preparing our students
to be successful in careers that don’t even
exist yet. The future technological, global
workplace will need employees that have the
ability to adapt to a changing environment,
to resolve problems as they arise while
considering long term effects. Critical
thinking will be vital to succeed in this
setting.

8. References
 OpenCourseWare on critical thinking, logic, and creativity. Retrieved from
http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php
 Wikipedia. Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking#Classroom_applications