What is critical thinking?

Critical thinking is a kind of thinking in which you question, analyse, interpret, evaluate and make a judgement about what you read, hear, say, or write. The term critical comes from the Greek word kritikos meaning “able to judge or discern”. Good critical thinking is about making reliable judgements based on reliable information.

Applying critical thinking does not mean being negative or focusing on faults. It means being able to clarify your thinking so that you can break down a problem or a piece of information, interpret it and use that interpretation to arrive at an informed decision or judgement (for example designing a bridge, responding to an opinion piece or understanding a political motivation).

People who apply critical thinking consistently are said to have a critical thinking mindset, but no one is born this way. These are attributes which are learnt and improved through practice and application.

In the academic context, critical thinking is most commonly associated with arguments. You might be asked to think critically about other people's arguments or create your own. To become a better critical thinker, you therefore need to learn how to:

• clarify your thinking purpose and context

• question your sources of information

• identify arguments

• analyse sources and arguments

• evaluate the arguments of others and

• create or synthesise your own arguments.

As the image illustrates, critical thinking skills and attributes are interconnected and need to work together for your critical thinking to be effective.

https://www.monash.edu/student-academic-success/enhance-your-thinking/critical-thinking 

When thinking critically about something, clarify by asking some foundational questions, such as:

• What is the problem or topic?

• What question or goal am I addressing?

• What different viewpoints, arguments, concepts or parts will I need to consider when thinking through this problem or topic?

• Do I have a sufficient understanding of the information or parts relevant to this problem or topic?

Asking these initial questions is often associated with the identification stage of critical thinking. In this stage you can do some initial 'lower order' thinking in order to build a foundational understanding of the problem or topic, and the elements it is composed of. As you progress through the thinking process, you will question and interrogate your sources, and move to more 'higher order' stages of critical thinking such as analysis, evaluation and synthesis.

Define your critical thinking purpose

Answering the following questions will give your thinking clear purpose and focus:

• What is the question, issue or problem, and how would you define it?

• Do you have a question or aim to guide your thinking?

Understand the context

It is difficult to critically analyse a problem or topic if you don't understand the relevant ideas and context. For example:

• How could you review the performance of a basketball team if you didn't understand the rules of the game, and had never seen the team play before?

For the topics and problems you will critically examine at university, you will need to understand the relevant concepts before you apply them to your own analysis and evaluation. If you're having trouble understanding the basic facts or arguments, you could consider doing some further background reading, or visualising the ideas through brainstorming or mind mapping to better recognise the structure and connections.

Identify different perspectives and parts

Most problems or topics consist of different parts, and may be subject to contentious or contradictory arguments. Before you can start critically analysing these different viewpoints, you need to first recognise them and make sure you understand them. Start by listing all of the relevant arguments that already exist for your topic or question, or all of the different parts of your problem. Once you have identified a relevant argument, you can also list different reasons given to support or rebut the argument.

Locate the evidence

After you have understood the different perspectives or parts that are relevant to your thinking problem, identify any relevant evidence you will need to consider:

• For example, is evidence available to support the arguments or ideas you have identified so far?

• The evidence could be information from existing sources (e.g. academic articles containing arguments from different perspectives on the topic).

• The evidence could also be information gathered from your own observation, experience and/or practice.

• If relevant, you may also need to identify a research or creative method you will use to gather or produce evidence.

Remember your thinking purpose, so you can selectively focus on evidence that is relevant and useful for your particular topic, question or problem.

Questioning your sources is a key component of critical thinking, because not all sources of information are equally credible, accurate or relevant. Questioning and examining your sources will allow you to:

• eliminate irrelevant or erroneous sources

• select sources that are relevant and reliable

• sharpen the focus of your critical inquiry

• get a better understanding of current knowledge and debates relevant to your topic

• prepare the ground for analysing and evaluating sources

Questioning your sources is especially important when you are using web search algorithms, which do not distinguish between what is reliable, unreliable or fake.

At university, you will be encouraged to use academic sources, which have been reviewed by experts before they have been published. This ensures a rigour to the claims made in published academic sources. To learn more about academic sources and about where to find them, consult the library search guide and other useful guides.

The following questions will help you decide which sources are reliable and relevant to your task.

Being able to identify arguments is an important part of critical thinking. It allows you to understand how people structure their thinking, and prepares the ground for analysis and evaluation, so that you can formulate an argument of your own.

What is an argument?

An argument is any statement or claim supported by reasons. Arguments range from quite simple (e.g. 'You should bring an umbrella, because it looks like it might rain') to very complex (e.g. an argument for changing the law or introducing a new scientific theory).

Arguments can be found everywhere. Whenever somebody is trying to show that something is true, present a point of view or persuade someone else to agree with them, you can identify an argument. News outlets, social media and academic sources are full of arguments that compete for attention and influence.

To succeed at university, you will need to identify academic arguments made by scholars. An academic argument follows the conventions of the relevant discipline, and can also be called a position, main point, contention, or central claim.