Critical Thinking
Learning Objectives
The role that logic plays in critical thinking;
How critical thinking skills can be used to problem-solve;
How critical thinking skills can be used to evaluate information;
How to identify strategies for developing yourself as a critical thinker;
How to identify technology tools that enhance learning and the importance of technology in the student experience.
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change; I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
— Angela Davis, political activist, philosopher, scholar and author
Critical thinking is clear, reasonable, reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do. It means asking probing questions like, “How do we know?” or “Is this true in every case or just in this instance?” It involves being skeptical and challenging assumptions, rather than simply memorizing facts or blindly accepting what you hear or read.
Imagine, for example, that you’re reading a history textbook. You wonder who wrote it and why, because you detect certain biases in the writing. You find that the author has a limited scope of research focused only on a particular group within a population. In this case, your critical thinking reveals that there are “other sides to the story.”
Who are critical thinkers, and what characteristics do they have in common? Critical thinkers are usually curious and reflective people. They like to explore and probe new areas and seek knowledge, clarification, and new solutions. They ask pertinent questions, evaluate statements and arguments, and they distinguish between facts and opinion. They are also willing to examine their own beliefs, possessing a manner of humility that allows them to admit lack of knowledge or understanding when needed. They are open to changing their mind. Perhaps most of all, they actively enjoy learning, and seeking new knowledge is a lifelong pursuit.
This may well be you!
No matter where you are on the road to being a critical thinker, you can always more fully develop and finely tune your skills. Doing so will help you develop more balanced arguments, express yourself clearly, read critically, and glean important information efficiently. Critical thinking skills will help you in any profession or any circumstance of life, from science to art to business to teaching. With critical thinking, you become a clearer thinker and problem solver.
Critical thinking is skepticism, examining assumptions, challenging reasoning and uncovering biases. Critical thinking is not memorizing, group thinking, blind acceptance of authority.
Critical thinking is fundamentally a process of questioning information and data. You may question the information you read in a textbook, or you may question what a politician or a professor or a classmate says. You can also question a commonly-held belief or a new idea. With critical thinking, anything and everything is subject to question and examination for the purpose of logically constructing reasoned perspectives.
Video
This short video offers five tips for improving your critical thinking, https://bit.ly/tipsforcriticalthinking
To explore more ideas on critical thinking, check out this video called Why Incompetent People Think They’re Amazing, https://bit.ly/dunningkrueger
Expand your own critical thinking with this Critical Thinking Brain Teasers video, https://bit.ly/criticalbrainteasers
LOGIC
Thinking comes naturally. You don’t have to make it happen—it just does. But you can make it happen in different ways. For example, you can think positively or negatively. You can think with “heart” and you can think with rational judgment. You can also think strategically and analytically, and mathematically and scientifically. These are a few of multiple ways in which the mind can process thought.
What are some forms of thinking you use? When do you use them, and why?
As a college student, you are tasked with engaging and expanding your thinking skills. One of the most important of these skills is critical thinking. Critical thinking is important because it relates to nearly all tasks, situations, topics, careers, environments, challenges, and opportunities. It’s a “domain-general” thinking skill—not a thinking skill that’s reserved for a one subject alone or restricted to a particular subject area.
Great leaders have highly attuned critical thinking skills, and you can, too. In fact, you probably have a lot of these skills already. Of all your thinking skills, critical thinking may have the greatest value.
The word logic comes from the Ancient Greek logike, referring to the science or art of reasoning. Using logic, a person evaluates arguments and reasoning and strives to distinguish between good and bad reasoning, or between truth and falsehood. Using logic, you can evaluate ideas or claims people make, make good decisions, and form sound beliefs about the world.
QUESTIONS TO EXPAND YOUR CRITICAL THINKING
Let’s use a simple example of applying logic to a critical-thinking situation. In this hypothetical scenario, a person has a PhD in political science, and they work as a professor at a local college. Their partner works at the college, too. They have three young children in the local school system, and their family is well known in the community. This person is now running for political office. Are their credentials and experience sufficient for entering public office? Will they be effective in the political office? Some voters might believe that their personal life and current job, on the surface, suggest they will do well in the position, and they will vote for the professor. In truth, the characteristics described don’t guarantee that this person will do a good job. The information is somewhat irrelevant. What else might you want to know? How about whether this person has already held a political office and done a good job? In this case, we want to ask, how much information is adequate in order to make a decision based on logic instead of assumptions?
The following questions, presented in image below, are ones you may apply to formulating a logical, reasoned perspective in the above scenario or any other situation:
What’s happening? Gather the basic information and begin to think of questions;
Why is it important? Ask yourself why it’s significant and whether or not you agree;
What don’t I see? Is there anything important missing;
How do I know? Ask yourself where the information came from and how it was constructed;
Who is saying it? What’s the position of the speaker and what is influencing them;
What else? What if? What other ideas exist and are there other possibilities?
DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
Much of your college and professional life will be spent solving problems; some will be complex, such as deciding on a career, and require time and effort to come up with a solution. Others will be small, such as deciding what to eat for lunch, and will allow you to make a quick decision based entirely on your own experience. But, in either case, when coming up with the solution or deciding what to do, follow the same basic steps.
Define the problem. Use your analytical skills. What is the real issue? Why is it a problem? What are the root causes? What kinds of outcomes or actions do you expect to generate to solve the problem? What are some of the key characteristics that will make a good choice: Timing? Resources? Availability of tools and materials? For more complex problems, it helps to actually write out the problem and the answers to these questions. Can you clarify your understanding of the problem by using metaphors to illustrate the issue;
Narrow the problem. Many problems are made up of a series of smaller problems, each requiring its own solution. Can you break the problem into different facets? What aspects of the current issue are “noise” that should not be considered in the problem solution? (Use critical thinking to separate facts from opinion in this step);
Generate possible solutions. List all your options. Use your creative thinking skills in this phase. Did you come up with the second “right” answer, and the third or the fourth? Can any of these answers be combined into a stronger solution? What past or existing solutions can be adapted or combined to solve this problem;
Choose the best solution. Use your critical thinking skills to select the most likely choices. List the pros and cons for each of your selections. How do these lists compare with the requirements you identified when you defined the problem? If you still can’t decide between options, you may want to seek further input from your brainstorming team.
Video
Imagine where you want to be someday. Now, how did you get there? Retrograde analysis is a style of problem solving where you work backwards from the endgame you want. It can help you win at chess -- or solve a problem in real life, according to chess grandmaster Maurice Ashley. https://bit.ly/workbackward
Group Think: Effective Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a process of generating ideas for solutions in a group. This method is very effective because ideas from one person will trigger additional ideas from another. The following guidelines make for an effective brainstorming session:
Decide who should moderate the session. That person may participate, but their main role is to keep the discussion flowing;
Define the problem to be discussed and the time you will allow to consider it;
Write all ideas down on a board or flip chart for all participants to see;
Encourage everyone to speak;
Do not allow criticism of ideas. All ideas are good during a brainstorm. Suspend disbelief until after the session. Remember a wildly impossible idea may trigger a creative and feasible solution to a problem.
Decisions, Decisions You will be called on to make many decisions in your life. Some will be personal, like what to major in, or whether or not to get married. Other times you will be making decisions on behalf of others at work or for a volunteer organization. Occasionally you will be asked for your opinion or experience for decisions others are making. To be effective in all of these circumstances, it is helpful to understand some principles about decision making.
First, define who is responsible for solving the problem or making the decision. In an organization, this may be someone above or below you on the organization chart but is usually the person who will be responsible for implementing the solution. Deciding on an academic major should be your decision, because you will have to follow the course of study. Deciding on the boundaries of a sales territory would most likely be the sales manager who supervises the territories, because they will be responsible for producing the results with the combined territories. Once you define who is responsible for making the decision, everyone else will fall into one of two roles: giving input, or in rare cases, approving the decision.
Understanding the role of input is very important for good decisions. Input is sought or given due to experience or expertise, but it is up to the decision maker to weigh the input and decide whether and how to use it. Input should be fact based, or if offering an opinion, it should be clearly stated as such. Finally, once input is given, the person giving the input must support the other’s decision, whether or not the input is actually used.
Consider a team working on a project for a science course. The team assigns you the responsibility of analyzing and presenting a large set of complex data. Others on the team will set up the experiment to demonstrate the hypothesis, prepare the class presentation, and write the paper summarizing the results. As you face the data, you go to the team to seek input about the level of detail on the data you should consider for your analysis. The person doing the experiment setup thinks you should be very detailed, because then it will be easy to compare experiment results with the data. However, the person preparing the class presentation wants only high-level data to be considered because that will make for a clearer presentation. If there is not a clear understanding of the decision-making process, each of you may think the decision is yours to make because it influences the output of your work; there will be conflict and frustration on the team. If the decision maker is clearly defined upfront, however, and the input is thoughtfully given and considered, a good decision can be made (perhaps a creative compromise?) and the team can get behind the decision and work together to complete the project.
Finally, there is the approval role in decisions. This is very common in business decisions but often occurs in college work as well (the professor needs to approve the theme of the team project, for example). Approval decisions are usually based on availability of resources, legality, history, or policy.
Your Turn: Activity
BIG IDEAS WITH FRIENDS
On a sheet of paper or document, answer the following questions:
With three or four friends, conduct three short brainstorming sessions (ten minutes each) to generate ideas for alternate uses for peanut butter, paper clips, and pen caps. Compare the results of the group with your own ideas. Be sure to follow the brainstorming guidelines. Did you generate more ideas in the group? Did the quality of the ideas improve? Were the group ideas more innovative? Which was more fun? Write your conclusions here;
Using the steps outlined earlier for problem solving, write a plan for the following problem: You are in your second year of studies in computer animation at Santa Monica College. You and your wife both work, and you would like to start a family in the next year or two. You want to become a videogame designer and can benefit from more advanced work in programming. Should you go on to complete a four-year degree?
Define the problem: What is the core issue? What are the related issues? Are there any requirements to a successful solution? Can you come up with a metaphor to describe the issue?
Narrow the problem: Can you break down the problem into smaller manageable pieces? What would they be?
Generate solutions: What are at least two “right” answers to each of the problem pieces?
Choose the right approach: What do you already know about each solution? What do you still need to know? How can you get the information you need? Make a list of pros and cons for each solution.
THINKING WITH TECHNOLOGY
Why is there such a powerful thrust behind technology in education? How significantly is technology contributing to our ability to be critical and creative thinkers? After all, technology, by itself, cannot create critical or creative thinkers. But when it’s used with the guidance of a teacher who understands how to use it, and by students who also have sufficient technology skills and resources, the teaching and learning process can be considerably enhanced. Consider the following:
Apps and social media sites as well as learning platforms allow students to record, defend, and challenge their thinking;
Video allow students to observe and analyze the world—to reimagine it in a way that appeals to them;
Interactive whiteboards are helpful for class discussions; they facilitate whole-class display and hands-on participation;
Student-response systems, like clickers, group quiz, or game apps allow students to respond to questions and then debate the answers;
Blogs and social media threads can serve as personal journals, where students can record, share, and reflect on field experiences and research activities. Students can also use blogs as a pre-established environment for critically responding to assigned readings;
Wikis can help students coordinate, compile, synthesize, and present individual or group projects or research, as well as build and share group resources and knowledge. Wikis can also help students provide peer review, feedback, and critiques;
Discussion boards can help students establish a sense of community with their class and engage in ongoing threaded conversations on assigned readings and topics highlighting diverse points of view.
As we’ve just learned, one of the key skills every student needs is the ability to think critically. Once you’ve learned to critically examine the content you come into contact with, you can then think creatively to come up with new—and potentially better—solutions to the problems we find in the classroom and, ultimately, in the world.
The following text is an essay by Dr. Andrew Robert Baker, “Thinking Critically and Creatively.” In the first few paragraphs, Dr. Baker underscores how essential critical thinking is to improving as students, teachers, and researchers. Dr. Baker continues by illuminating some of the many ways that college students will be exposed to creative thinking and how it can enrich their learning experiences.
THINKING CRITICALLY AND CREATIVELY
Critical thinking skills are perhaps the most fundamental skills involved in making judgments and solving problems. You use them every day, and you can continue improving them.
The ability to think critically about a matter—to analyze a question, situation, or problem down to its most basic parts—is what helps us evaluate the accuracy and truthfulness of statements, claims, and information we read and hear. It is the sharp knife that, when honed, separates fact from fiction, honesty from lies, and the accurate from the misleading. We all use this skill to one degree or another almost every day. For example, we use critical thinking every day as we consider the latest consumer products and why one particular product is the best among its peers. Is it a quality product because a celebrity endorses it? Because a lot of other people may have used it? Because it is made by one company versus another? Or perhaps because it is made in one country or another? These are questions representative of critical thinking.
The academic setting demands more of us in terms of critical thinking than everyday life. It demands that we evaluate information and analyze myriad issues. It is the environment where our critical thinking skills can be the difference between success and failure. In this environment we must consider information in an analytical, critical manner. We must ask questions— What is the source of this information? Is this source an expert one and what makes it so? Are there multiple perspectives to consider on an issue? Do multiple sources agree or disagree on an issue? Does quality research substantiate information or opinion? Do I have any personal biases that may affect my consideration of this information?
It is only through purposeful, frequent, intentional questioning such as this that we can sharpen our critical thinking skills and improve as students, learners and researchers.
While critical thinking analyzes information and roots out the true nature and facets of problems, it is creative thinking that drives progress forward when it comes to solving these problems. Exceptional creative thinkers are people that invent new solutions to existing problems that do not rely on past or current solutions. They are the ones who invent solution C when everyone else is still arguing between A and B. Creative thinking skills involve using strategies to clear the mind so that our thoughts and ideas can transcend the current limitations of a problem and allow us to see beyond barriers that prevent new solutions from being found.
Brainstorming is the simplest example of intentional creative thinking that most people have tried at least once. With the quick generation of many ideas at once, we can block-out our brain’s natural tendency to limit our solution-generating abilities so we can access and combine many possible solutions/thoughts and invent new ones. It is sort of like sprinting through a race’s finish line only to find there is a new track on the other side and we can keep going, if we choose. As with critical thinking, higher education both demands creative thinking from us and is the perfect place to practice and develop the skill. Everything from word problems in a math class, to opinion or persuasive speeches and papers, call upon our creative thinking skills to generate new solutions and perspectives in response to our professor’s demands. Creative thinking skills ask questions such as—What if? Why not? What else is out there? Can I combine perspectives/solutions? What is something no one else has brought-up? What is being forgotten/ignored? What about ? It is the opening of doors and options that follows problem-identification.
Consider an assignment that requires you to compare two different authors on the topic of education and select and defend one as better. Now add to this scenario that your professor clearly prefers one author over the other. While critical thinking can get you as far as identifying the similarities and differences between these authors and evaluating their merits, it is creative thinking that you must use if you wish to challenge your professor’s opinion and invent new perspectives on the authors that have not previously been considered.
So, what can we do to develop our critical and creative thinking skills? Although many students may dislike it, group work is an excellent way to develop our thinking skills. Many times I have heard from students their disdain for working in groups based on scheduling, varied levels of commitment to the group or project, and personality conflicts too, of course. True—it’s not always easy, but that is why it is so effective. When we work collaboratively on a project or problem we bring many brains to bear on a subject. These different brains will naturally develop varied ways of solving or explaining problems and examining information. To the observant individual we see that this places us in a constant state of back and forth critical/creative thinking modes.
For example, in group work we are simultaneously analyzing information and generating solutions on our own, while challenging other analyses/ideas and responding to challenges to our own analyses/ideas. This is part of why students tend to avoid group work—it challenges us as thinkers and forces us to analyze others while defending ourselves, which is not something we are used to or comfortable with as most of our educational experiences involve solo work. Your professors know this—that’s why we assign it—to help you grow as students, learners, and thinkers!
—Dr. Andrew Robert Baker, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom
Your Turn: Activity
HOW CRITICALLY CAN YOU THINK NOW?
On a sheet of paper or document, answer the question(s) below to determine how well you understand the topics you’ve covered in this reading:
What is critical thinking?
Why is it important to pose some questions about the source of the material you read? What kinds of questions should you ask?
What is logic?
Why is brainstorming more effective at generating new ideas than individual work?
List the four steps of problem solving.
How do you use critical thinking in solving problems?
Key Takeaways
Effective problem solving involves critical and creative thinking;
The four steps to effective problem solving are the following:
Define the problem;
Narrow the problem;
Generate solutions;
Choose the solution.
Brainstorming is a good method for generating creative solutions.
Understanding the difference between the roles of deciding and providing input makes for better decisions.
N.B.: The Student Success Library item was customized for Santa Monica College (SMC) in Santa Monica, CA. You may come across SMC-specific resources, links, or activities that do not apply to you. Search for your own school’s resources or google for similar tools that can help you where you live, study and work.
This work, Critical Thinking, is part of the Student Success Library, which is a derivative of Student Success, originally modified by Vanessa Bonilla, Dr. Tyffany Dowd, Jackeline Felix, Dyana Valentine, Olivia Vallejo and Daniella Washington from the original Student Success by Graciela Martinez, Anh Nguyen, and Liz Shaker under CC BY-SA 4.0. Student Success Library is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 by Dyana Valentine. Last edit date: July 2022.