Critical+Thinking

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What are Critical Thinking Skills?
Critical thinking skills and habits are life skills. Learning to use them on a consistent basis can help you become more actively involved and more effective in your studies. It may even make what you're learning more stimulating and enjoyable. These skills are also transferable, that is, they can help you deal more thoughtfully and rationally with issues you encounter in your personal or professional life and even as a member of your community. Indeed, many people consider critical thinking to be the basis of a healthy democratic society. In your role of student, you will be concerned most particularly with critical reading and critical writing. Critical reading is, first, reading for understanding and, second, analyzing or evaluating what you have read. It's difficult to gain a thorough understanding of what you've read unless you take the time to analyze it in a structured way. Critical writing involves applying reasoning skills as you work to research, organize, and create an essay or assignment that is logical, accurate, and concise. At the heart of critical reading and critical writing is critical thinking. The goal of critical thinking is to evaluate in a reasoned and unbiased way what you read, hear, or observe in order to judge its validity or worth. Your reasoning should be guided by standards or habits of mind that include seeking clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, and fairness in everything you encounter. In a world constantly bombarded by new discoveries and ever-increasing amounts of knowledge, the ability to think critically about new information -- and to reflect on what you have learned from it -- takes on a new urgency. Knowing what's true and what's not or what to accept or reject has become a basic survival skill. The knowledge explosion is due, in large part, to the World Wide Web. And, although it presents many exciting learning opportunities, it also makes the ability to think critically that much more important. View any information you find on the Web with skepticism. Ask yourself, Is it accurate, unbiased, up-to-date? Who wrote it? Who published it? Is it linked to other legitimate sites? (See Frayer and Kurland under References for links with other websites that deal with standards of information on the Web.) The Web provides a seemingly unending opportunity to apply critical thinking to all aspects of your life. In general, then, critical thinking includes -- Your instructors are going to look for evidence of critical thinking in your assignments and in the online activities in your courses. The goal of this Critical Thinking Tutorial is to help you develop your critical thinking skills as you read textbooks and academic journals or write essays or assignments. There are four sections to the Critical Thinking Tutorial: [|Applying Reasoning Processes] These are the skills you use when you problem solve, make decisions, and evaluate. To find out more, click [|here]. [|Making Reasoned Judgments] These are the skills you use when you read textbooks and academic journals or write essays and assignments. To find out more, click [|here]. [|Using Critical Thinking Skills to Read] textbooks and academic journals. These skills help you evaluate and reflect upon what you are reading. To find out more, click [|here]. [|Using Critical Thinking Skills to Write] essays and assignments. The skills you develop writing essays are skills that you'll use throughout your life. To find out more, click [|here].
 * taking the initiative to question what you read, hear, and observe
 * challenging the underlying assumptions of what you are questioning
 * analyzing what you question in a reasoned and unbiased way
 * remaining open to new ideas and perspectives
 * changing your position on an issue when convinced by the logic of another position
 * reflecting constantly on your learning in order to find patterns, linkages, or related elements that could be applied to other problems or issues.

Current Events Project September through December [| CURRENT EVENTS ARTICLES rubric.doc]