Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking
What if...
You read an article that includes statistics that show ice cream sales increase at beaches on the East Coast during the months of June, July, and August. It also had statistics showing shark attacks increase during the same months.
The author stated that people eating ice cream at the beach caused the increase in shark attacks.
Is it true?
Every day you encounter endless amounts of information inside and outside of the classroom
• How do you determine what is true, accurate, and important?
• Are your instructors, the newscaster, or your friends always right?
• Does the textbook or article tell the whole story?
• Are your thoughts always right?
Are your feelings always right?
• Is it really important to figure these things out?
what is critical thinking?
Critical thinking is a learning and thinking tool that helps process information.
It is a kind of thinking in which you question, analyze, interpret, evaluate, and make an informed judgment about what you read, hear, say, or write.
Critical thinking is making decisions about information that are logical and well-thought out.
It is a way of thinking in which you don't simply believe everything that you hear, but explore things in a questioning way.
Critical thinking calls for curiosity and being open to new ideas. It is wanting to see what evidence is involved to support a conclusion.
This type of thinking requires the ability to admit that your opinions and ideas are wrong when faced with new, convincing evidence that demonstrates otherwise.
People who use critical thinking are the ones who say things like, "Are there other facts involved in this?" and "Are there other ways to explain that?"
They act as a researcher asking questions like:
Who, What, When, Where, and How
Critical thinking is a skill that you can learn and use for your college classes and for all parts of your life.
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
•Reasoning
•Evaluating
•Problem Solving
•Decision Making
•Analyzing
These are skills that improve when they are used regularly.
Why Use Critical Thinking?
HOW TO CRITICALLY THINK
Critical Thinkers are Active Thinkers
Critical Thinking Happens in 3 Steps
Gathering Information (from competent sources, not just sources that agree with what you think right now)
Analyzing the information (brainstorming and exploring possibilities)
Drawing conclusions (making decisions, choosing a solution or viewpoint)
CRITICAL THINKING IN ACTION!
Think back to the Ice Cream and Shark Attack story, and the author's statement that eating ice cream at the beach causes shark attacks.
1. Do the statistics strongly support the explanation?
2. Are there other explanations for the interconnection of the statistics (increases of ice cream sales and shark attacks) besides the writer's explanation?
3. What kind of additional information or evidence would support or disagree with the writer's explanation?
Correlation (a relationship or connection between two or more things) does not mean causation (that one thing actually caused the other things).