Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Communication Skills
Critical Thinking is
Reasonable, reflective, responsible,
and skillful thinking focused on
deciding what to believe or do.
Correct thinking in the pursuit of
relevant or reliable knowledge.
A learned ability used to
Think for one’s self
Make responsible and reliable
decisions
Ask questions
Pose new answers to challenge status
quo
Investigate problems
Critical thinkers and society
Followers of authority vs. critical
thinkers
Intolerant attitude
‘Critical’: common connotation
Analytical thinking
Synthesis, evaluation, and
reconstruction in addition to analysis
A Critical Thinker
uses evidence skillfully and
impartially
organizes thoughts and articulates
them concisely and coherently
suspends judgment in the absence of
sufficient evidence to support a
decision
Contd…
understands the difference between
reasoning and rationalizing
attempts to anticipate the probable
consequences of alternative actions
understands the idea of degrees of
belief
Contd…
applies problem-solving techniques in
domains other than those in which
learned
can strip a verbal argument of
irrelevancies and phrase it in its
essential terms
Contd…
is sensitive to the difference between the
validity of a belief and the intensity with
which it is held
is aware of the fact that one's
understanding is always limited, often
much more so than would be apparent to
one with a non-inquiring attitude
Contd…
recognizes the fallibility of one's own
opinions
the probability of bias in those
opinions
the danger of weighting evidence
according to personal preferences
Requirements for Critical Thinking
Interpretation
Analysis
Evaluation
Inference
Explanation
Self-regulation
Assignment 1
Besides the Declaration of Independence
and the Bible, King cites "the American
dream" as a source for his own dream.
What is the American dream? Discuss this
concept with friends and family members
and then write a composite definition for
this commonly used term.
Near the end of his speech, King names
many different states. Why do you think he
did this?
Listening Skills
“We were given two ears but only one
mouth.