Critical thinking & Its history

CRITICAL THINKING

OBJECTIVE :

• HISTORY OF CRITICAL THINKING• DEFINITION OF CRITICAL THINKING • WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING• HOW DO WE THINK CRITICALLY• WHY CRITICAL THINKING

HISTORY :• The intellectual roots of critical thinking are traceable to the teaching practice and vision of

Socrates 2,500 years ago •  Socrates established the fact that one cannot depend upon those in "authority" to have sound

knowledge and insight. • He established the importance of asking deep questions that probe profoundly into thinking

before we accept ideas as worthy of belief.• He invented the Socratic Method to

question everything .

SOCRATES DEATH :

• Socrates uttered those words at his trial for impiety and corrupting the youth.• Socrates' death was the result of his asking philosophical questions

• Socrates was ultimately sentenced to death by drinking a hemlock-based liquid

SOCRATES DEATH : JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID

DEFINITION :

• A statement by Michael Scriven & Richard Paul, presented at the 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, Summer 1987. :

“Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully, 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.”

WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING ? • A purposeful, organized, mental process that we use to understand the world and

make informed decisions. • Critical Thinking involves asking questions to come up with potential solutions to

different problems.• Critical thinking, from the beginning, included not only examination of the words

and actions of others but also the examination of one’s own thoughts and actions, a constant cognitive monitoring intended to make ones thinking self-correcting

WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING ?

CRITICAL THINKING is the active and systematic process of a range of intellectual skills and activities :

• Analyzing• Conceptualize • Define • Examine• Infer• Listen• Question• Reason• Synthesizing

HELP US

EVALUATE INFORMATION

EVALUATE OUR THOUGHTS

• ITLL HELP US :

• Assess Information More Comprehensively

• Identify And Reject False Ideas

WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING ?• As we stated before, Critical thinking can be thought of as similar to the Scientific

method, but its main points are the problem definition and understanding, the search for solutions, evaluation, and iteration.

CRITICAL THINKING ISN’T THINKING A LOTOne may spend a great deal of energy defending a flawed

position or pursuing a question that needs formulating If we don’t examine possible flaws behind our approach

THAT’S NOT CRITICAL THINKING

A CRITICAL THINKER MUST:

BE GUIDED WITH :

Knowledge & Evidence

upbringing Culture

&

MINIMIZE BIAS FROM : CUTIVATE AN ATTITUDE OF :

• Curiosity• Eagerness In-order to • Widen their knowledge• Broaden their: knowledge

Dependence Self-reliance Learning skills

GIVE A MAN A FISH & HE WILL EAT FOR A DAY

THE SAME APPLIES FOR CRITICAL THINKING

MEMORISE THE SOLUTION AND YOU MAY MASTER THIS PARTICULAR PROBLEM

LEARN CRITICAL THINKING , YOU GET THE TOOLS TO CREATE YOUR OWN EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS TO MULTIPLE PROBLEMS

HOW ?THE SOCRATIC QUESTIONING TECHNIQUE

Socrates believed that disciplined practice of thoughtful questioning enabled People to examine ideas logically and to determine the validity of those ideas.

ClarificationQuestions

• What do you mean by…?• Could you put that another way?• What do you think is the main issue? • Could you give us an example?• Could you expand upon that point further?

SourceQuestions

• Is this your idea or did you hear if from some place else?• Have you always felt this way?• Has your opinion been influenced by something or• someone?• Where did you get that idea ?• What caused you to feel that way?

HOW ? WORK-STUDY• Define a question / problem• Gather information and resources (observe)• Form an explanatory 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• Evaluate results• Retest (frequently done by other scientists)

 Engineers typically begin with problems instead of questions,

8.03

WORK STUDY BASIC PROCEDURE:• Select: the work situation to be studied.• Record: collect all relevant data and facts about the present method.• Examine: to question those facts critically and in sequence.• Develop: to propose the most practical, economic and effective method due to

contingent circumstances.• Install: to test the developed method then install to be the new working method.• Maintain: to reselect the future.

WHY ?Forces Intellectual Self Improvement:• Focusing on evidence over emotion or ego allows you to think critically and consider hard facts

as you assess your performance

Allows You to Become a Better Team Player :• There can be multiple answers to the same problem, and this realization is important to the

critical thinking process. It allows you to be a better listener and collaborator when you’re working as part of a group, as well as to become more flexible in your problem solving.

Leads to A More Creative Mindset:• experienced critical thinkers will naturally make more connections across

subjects. Interdisciplinary logical thinking leads to professional and academic success.

Helps You Stay Calm and Rational Under Stress:• Even in very stressful situations, critical thinkers can rely on their logical decision making skills

to make sound decisions.

ASSESSMENT TIME

MODEL ANSWER SUM UP YOUR ANSWERS

If <15 • You are not a critical thinker

• Critical isn’t important for you .

• You need to understand the benefits of critical thinking and start applying it to your life as it will hugely benefit you.

If 15 < Your answers < 30• You are an okay critical thinker but you need to practice more in order to involve critical thinking in you

daily activities.

If 30 < You’re answersCongratulations • You are a great critical thinker who was able to use critical thinking As purposeful, organized process to

understand the world and make informed decisions.

THANK YOU