Critical Thinking Resources

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."—Aristotle

"Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider."—Francis Bacon

A module in Critical Thinking is something that I specifically include in every one of my courses and revisit consistently throughout the semester. In my opinion, most of my students have no idea what it is. Further, it is unfortunately named, because almost all students *think* it is being ‘critical’… “expressing adverse or disapproving comments or judgments” … not something that this generation or culture is encouraged to do. They are taught, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all”. Thus, many students assume the concept of critical thinking foreign and/or disrespectful.

In short, critical thinking is thinking about our thinking, and not taking everything on surface value. It is being smart about what we read and here. On this page you will find several handouts and activities that I use in my classrooms.

Some Basic Steps in Critical Thinking

  • Who's making the claim? Are they biased? Check the source. The date?

  • Is something given more prominence over something else? Are they missing the big picture?

  • Be skeptical about polls or charts or surveys? Who created them? Who was polled? Lookout for inaccurate temporal comparisons?

  • What's the evidence?

  • Are you/they making assumptions?

  • Are you/they making false correlations (Correlations does not always equal causation e.g. Pickles will Kill You! (see below))

  • Be careful when people quote statistics

  • Beware of false authority or groupthink

After providing one of the handouts (above) for students to read,
my module assignment on Critical Thinking often looks something like this:

Choose your own rabbit holes to explore...

INSTRUCTIONS: Choose three or more of the following bulleted items to review.

As you work though your chosen items make notes.... we will discuss these notes in class meeting. Here are some guiding questions for your notes:

  1. Identify three or more important concepts that you learned while working through these materials. (analyzing)

  2. Why do you believe that this concept, research finding, or idea is important? (reflecting)

  3. Apply what you have learned from this activity to some aspect of your life or chosen career path.” (relating)

  4. What question(s) have these readings raised for you? What are you still wondering about?” (questioning).