Critical Thinking

 

 What is Critical Thinking? - Definitions 

"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, 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" (Scriven, 1996).

"Most formal definitions characterize critical thinking as the intentional application of rational, higher order thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, problem recognition and problem solving, inference, and evaluation" (Angelo, 1995, p. 6).

"Critical thinking is thinking that assesses itself" (Center for Critical Thinking, 1996b).

"Critical thinking is the ability to think about one's thinking in such a way as 1. To recognize its strengths and weaknesses and, as a result, 2. To recast the thinking in improved form" (Center for Critical Thinking, 1996c).

Beyer (1995) : "Critical thinking... means making reasoned judgments" 

Characteristics of Critical Thinking

Wade (1995) - Eight activities in  critical thinking. 

Asking questions,

defining a problem, 

examining evidence, 

analyzing assumptions and biases, 

avoiding emotional reasoning, 

avoiding oversimplification, 

considering other interpretations, and 

tolerating ambiguity. 

Another characteristic of critical thinking identified by some  is metacognition. Metacognition is thinking about one's own thinking. More specifically, "metacognition is being aware of one's thinking as one performs specific tasks and then using this awareness to control what one is doing" (Jones & Ratcliff, 1993, p. 10 ).

https://www.utc.edu/academic-affairs/walker-center-for-teaching-and-learning/online-resources/ct-ps