Critical Thinking Skills

You likely use your various thinking capabilities in a typical day. A higher-level type of thought relates to "critical thinking." Critical thinking is an evaluative process by which we arrive at a judgment or solve a problem. It involves looking at ideas from multiple perspectives, monitoring our own beliefs and biases, and reviewing our own thinking processes.

Ordinary thinking vs. Critical thinking

Guessing vs Estimating

Preferring vs Evaluating

Believing vs Assuming

Grouping vs Classifying

Supposing vs Hypothesizing

Offering Opinions (without reasons) vs Offering opinions (with reasons)

Inferring vs Inferring logically

Making judgments (without criteria) vs Making judgments (with criteria)

[Adapted from Washington State University's Teaching, Learning and Technology Center]

Choose the examples of critical thinking from the list below:

1. Welfare mothers are usually unemployed.
2. Approximately 1% of fetuses die.
3. "Older" parents can provide better environments for their children than younger people because they are more mature and have accumulated some wealth.
4. People of color don't make much money.
5. Younger drivers are hazardous on the road because they drive faster than people of other age groupings.
6. I like when teachers lecture.
7. Big corporations have an advantage over the little guy.
8. Active learning takes more energy than simply receiving information.
9. Corporate tax breaks and fewer unions to support workers provide greater profits to large corporations.
10. Discrimination and access to education are crucial for upward mobility for people of color.

(2,3,5,8,9,10 are critical thinking statements)

Choose at least 2 of the statements and explain why they are examples of critical thinking.