What is Critical Thinking?Critical thinking is that mode of thinking in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them. (Paul and Elder, 2001). Show
From The Foundation of Critical Thinking Critical Thinkers can:
Taken from the Skills You Need website What is Critical Thinking?Skip to main content articleYour thinking affects every area of your life. It determines where you dedicate your limited energy and resources. Developing good critical thinking skills is an important part of healthy living. On this page:
What is critical thinking?A practical way to explore critical thinking is through the framework developed by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Paul and Elder define critical thinking as “that mode of thinking — about any subject, content, or problem — in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.” In other words, a critical thinker applies intellectual standards to the elements of thought. The benefits of good critical thinking skillsYour thinking affects every area of your life. Building high-quality critical thinking skills can benefit you in many ways:
Improve your critical thinking skillsA practical way to explore critical thinking is through the framework developed by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. You can learn more about this framework on the website criticalthinking.org, which has some free material; however, users need to pay a membership fee to access all content. A great resource is their book Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of your Professional and Personal Life. The second edition of this book is available as an eBook through the Concordia libraries. (Hint: Select "view e-book" and then select the option "Not listed? Click here." (the first option) in the "Select your institution" dropdown. Then enter your Concordia e-mail to view the e-book.) In Paul and Elder's framework, building good critical
thinking skills requires applying intellectual standards to the elements (structures) of thought. These are listed below. You can obtain more
detailed information about these in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 of the e-book listed above. Elements of thought
On YouTube, you can watch a
short video that introduces the elements of thought, as well as short videos for each of the elements of thought (purpose, questions,
information, inferences, concepts, assumptions,
implications, point of view). Intellectual standards
Develop these traits to become a better critical thinkerOne way to build critical thinking skills is to apply intellectual standards to the elements (structures) of thought, as described by Paul and Elder. However, they point out that a person must develop intellectual traits that support building critical thinking skills. These traits are summarized below. Learn more about them at criticalthinking.org.
Learn more about critical thinking
Back to top Back to top © Concordia University Concordia University uses technical, analytical, marketing and preference cookies. These are necessary for our site to function properly and to create the best possible online experience. What are the elements of critical thinking standards?Thinking critically entails knowledge and application of the standards: clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, significance, and fairness.
What are the elements from the foundation of the critical thinking process?Critical thinking can be seen as having two components: 1) a set of information and belief generating and processing skills, and 2) the habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to guide behavior.
What are the intellectual standards of critical thinking?These are clarity, precision, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, logicalness, significance, and fairness.
What are the 5 elements of critical thinking?The five critical thinking elements that I found in the reading material are analyzing, information seeking, logical reasoning determining relevance, and research. The first element of critical thinking is analyzing, and it is taking a topic to examine it into further detail (Critical thinking skills.
|