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CRITICAL THINKING RESOURCES

for

HEIDELBERG

 

 

What Is Critical Thinking?

            Critical thinking is a fairly well-defined set of abilities.  While considerable writing about the teaching of thinking skills appeared between the wars, critical thinking first appeared in the U.S. undergraduate curriculum under that heading shortly after the Second World War and has been a subject of extensive research since then.  The first textbook with the title “Critical Thinking” appeared in 1946 (Max Black, Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method. New York:  Prentice-Hall).  Since that time, scores of critical thinking textbooks have appeared in support of general education courses in critical thinking.  Reviewing those textbooks reveals a surprisingly stable set of common objectives. 

Consequently, defining critical thinking is not nearly the impossible task that some might think. Beginning with Robert H. Ennis’ seminal 1962 paper, “A Concept of Critical Thinking” (Harvard Educational Review 32:1, 161-178), there has been a continuous and productive literature regarding the nature of critical thinking and its assessment in the classroom.  While there are ongoing debates about the precise boundaries of the concept of critical thinking—e.g., should the concept be limited to critical thinking abilities or should critical thinking dispositions be included?—there is a common core of component abilities about which there is little or no controversy.  In thousands of classrooms across the country, faculty from a wide variety of disciplines work to improve their students’ critical thinking abilities.

 

Two Definitions of Critical Thinking

California State University Executive Order 338 Definition:

California State University Chancellor Glenn Dumke's Executive Order 338 in the early 1980s mandated critical thinking for all CSU system undergraduates.  The order contains a useful definition of critical thinking:
Instruction in critical thinking is to be designed to achieve an understanding of the relationship of language to logic, which should lead to the ability to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas, to reason inductively and deductively, and to reach factual or judgmental conclusions based on sound inferences drawn from unambiguous statements of knowledge or belief. The minimal competence to be expected at the successful conclusion of instruction in critical thinking should be the ability to distinguish fact from judgment, belief from knowledge, and skills in elementary inductive and deductive processes, including an understanding of the formal and informal fallacies of language and thought.  (As quoted in Donald Lazere, “Critical Thinking in College English Studies,” ERIC Digest.  Urbana, IL:   ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, 1987.  ERIC Identifier: ED284275.) 

Robert Ennis' Definition Adopted by Heidelberg:

Critical thinking is reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do.

A SUPER-STREAMLINED CONCEPTION OF CRITICAL THINKING
       Robert H. Ennis

 
         Assuming that critical thinking is reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do, a critical thinker:

 

1.  Is open-minded and mindful of alternatives

2.  Tries to be well-informed

3.  Judges well the credibility of sources

4.  Identifies conclusions, reasons, and assumptions

5.  Judges well the quality of an argument, including the acceptability of its reasons, assumptions, and evidence

6.  Can well develop and defend a reasonable position

7.  Asks appropriate clarifying questions

8.   Formulates plausible hypotheses; plans experiments well

9.   Defines terms in a way appropriate for the context

10. Draws conclusions when warranted, but with caution

11. Integrates all items in this list when deciding what to believe or do

For further detail, see references and items on the Web site:  http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/rhennis

 

                            Critical Thinking Resources for Instructors

Bob Ennis' Hand-outs at the Critical Thinking workshops, Heidelberg College, Fall 2003

  • Ennis, Robert H. 1997.  "Incorporating Critical Thinking in the Curriculum: An Introduction to Some Basic Issues," Inquiry 16:3 (Spring).  PDF.

  • ________.  2002.  "A Super-Stream-lined Conception of Critical Thinking."  June.  University of Illinois:  by the author.  Included in Ennis 2003b.

  • ________.  2002.  "An Outline of Goals for a Critical Thinking Curriculum and Its Assessment."  June.  University of Illinois:  by the author.

  • ________.  2003a.  "Basic Glossary of Critical Thinking Terms."  October.  University of Illinois:  by the author.  Included in Ennis 2003b.  Very useful in faculty training and as a class hand-out.  HTML   RTF.

  • ________.  2003b.  "Critical Thinking At Heidelberg: Some Relevant Documents."  October.  University of Illinois:  by the author.  HTML   RTF.

General Critical Thinking Links

Selected hand-outs from my First-Year Experience Faculty Workshops May 18, 2005 and January 26, 2006


Critical Thinking Assessment

 


Rev.  18-Mar-2024

 

 
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