UNIT TITLE : INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THINKING AND

LOGIC

UNIT CODE: BHU1101

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 BHU 1101 Introduction to Critical Thinking and logic

Acknowledgements
The School of Social sciences, Department of Languages and humanities wishes to thank
those below for their contribution to this E - L earning Module for the Introduction to Critical
and Creative Thinking.

Preface
This Module is anticipated to serve the E learning students as University common units for all
the students in the university programs. This Lesson deal with Critical Thinking and
Logic .It introduces the student to develop a critical and creative thinking habit and thinking
process. This lesson is designed to enable the student participate effectively in rational
thinking and decision making innovations.
There are self-analytic tests, activities and questions including a list of exercises provided at
the end of each lesson. To gain from this module do all the exercises activities and
questions.
I anticipate that all the learners will find this module useful in all their endeavors and will
appreciate and develop their creative and critical thinking skills in their day to day
interactions.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT @ 2012 MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY.......................................................................................................... I
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................................................III
PREFACE ...............................................................................................................................................................III
TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................................... IV
CONTACT HOURS ................................................................................................................................................... VI
TOPICS TO BE COVERED PER WEEK ............................................................................................................................. VI
PURPOSE.............................................................................................................................................................. VI
COURSE OUTLINE ................................................................................................................................................... VI
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING ..............................................................1
1.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING (CCT) ............................................................................ 1
1.2 IMPORTANCE OF CCT..................................................................................................................................... 2
1.3 DEFINITION OF KEY WORDS IN CCT ................................................................................................................... 2
CHAPTER 2: CRITICAL THINKING ......................................................................................................................5
2.1 PHASES OF CRITICAL THINKING ......................................................................................................................... 5
2.2 CHARACTERISTICS O F A CRITICAL THINKER......................................................................................................... 5
2.3 CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS ............................................................................................................................... 5
2.4 EXAMPLES OF CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS .................................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER 3: CREATIVE THINKING .....................................................................................................................8
3.1 PHASES OF CREATIVITY ................................................................................................................................... 8
3.2 CREATIVE THINKING SKILLS .............................................................................................................................. 9
3.3 METHODS OF IDENTIFYING AND IMPROVING CREATIVITY ..................................................................................... 10
3.4 BRAINSTORMING ......................................................................................................................................... 11
3.5 EXAMPLES OF CREATIVE THINKING QUESTIONS................................................................................................... 11
3.6 SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING ........................................................... 12
3.7 APPLICATION OF CCT SKILLS .......................................................................................................................... 12
3.8 SUMMARY OF LESSON 1, 2 AND 3................................................................................................................. 13
3.9 ASSIGNMENTS 1.......................................................................................................................................... 13
CHAPTER 4: CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING THEORIES ...........................................................................
14
4.1 INTRODUCTION TO CCT THEORIES .................................................................................................................. 14
4.2 DIALOGUE THEORY FOR CRITICAL THINKING ....................................................................................................... 14
4.3 THEORIES OF REASONING .............................................................................................................................. 14
4.4 THEORIES OF CRITICAL DISCUSSION.................................................................................................................. 15
4.5 TRIARCHIC THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE ............................................................................................................... 15
4.6 BASIC THEORY AND INSTRUCTIONAL STRUCTURES ............................................................................................... 15
4.7 CRITICAL THINKING DEVELOPMENT: A STAGE THEORY ........................................................................................ 15
4.8 SUMMARY OF LESSON 4.............................................................................................................................. 15
4.9 ASSIGNMENTS 2.......................................................................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER 5: PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS .........................................................................................................
16
5.1 INTRODUCTION TO PROBLEM SOLVING PROBLEMS .............................................................................................. 16
5.2 IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM: ............................................................................................................................... 16
5.3 DEFINING THE CONTEXT OF THE PROBLEM: ....................................................................................................... 16
5.4 ENUMERATING THE CHOICES:......................................................................................................................... 16
5.5 ANALYZING THE OPTIONS: ............................................................................................................................. 16
5.6 SELF CORRECTION ........................................................................................................................................ 16
5.7 SUMMARY OF LESSON 5.............................................................................................................................. 16
5.8 ASSIGNMENTS 3.......................................................................................................................................... 16
CHAPTER 6: DECISION MAKING SKILLS ...........................................................................................................
17
6.1 AN INTRODUCTION TO DECISION MAKING ........................................................................................................ 17
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6.2 DEFINITION OF DECISION .............................................................................................................................. 17

6.3 TYPES OF DECISIONS ..................................................................................................................................... 17
6.4 ACTION TAKEN IN DECISION MAKING ............................................................................................................... 17
6.5 PROCEDURE TO DECISION MAKING ................................................................................................................. 17

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6.6 SUMMARY OF LESSON 6 ............................................................................................................................. 17

6.7 ASSIGNMENTS 4.......................................................................................................................................... 18
CHAPTER 7: ESSAY WRITING SKILLS ............................................................................................................... 19
7.1 INTRODUCTION TO ESSAY WRITING .................................................................................................................. 19
7.2 STEPS IN CRITICAL READING .......................................................................................................................... 19
7.3 SCIENTIFIC WRITING ..................................................................................................................................... 20
1.4 ACADEMIC REPORT WRITING OUTLINE.............................................................................................................. 20
7.4 SUMMARY OF LESSON 7.............................................................................................................................. 21
7.5 ASSIGNMENTS 5.......................................................................................................................................... 21
CHAPTER 8: LEARNERS COMMENTS .............................................................................................................. 22
RECOMMENDED REFERENCE/BOOKS/E-RESOURCES/WEBSITES .................................................................... 22

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Contact hours
The module is supposed to take 42 hours, 3 hours per week which totals to 14 weeks.
th th
The 15 and 16 week are set for exams. It’s recommended that the learner spends 3 hours
per week and two weeks to complete a chapter.

Topics to be covered per week

Each chapter is supposed to take 2 weeks

Purpose
Broad Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this module, students should be able to:
 p a r t i c i p a t e effectively in rational thinking and decision making
innovations
 I n t e r p r e t and explain the elements of a presented argument, problem or
system.
 Analyze the structural connections between the component parts of an argument,
problem or system.
 E v a l u a t e the credibility, reliability or relevance of the elements of an argument,
problem or system.
 S y n t h e s i z e a response based upon their interpretation, analysis and
evaluation
 Create innovative responses that go beyond standard conventions
 Re-examine their response to show its strengths and weaknesses.

Course outline

Lesson 1: Introduction to Critical and Creative Thinking

Lesson 2: Critical Thinking Skills
Lesson 3: Creative Thinking Skills
Lesson 4: Critical and Creative Thinking Theories
Lesson 5: Problem Solving Skills
Lesson 6: Decision Making Skills
Lesson 7: Essay Writing Skills
The Lesson is broken down into units. Each chapter compromises:
 An introduction to the chapter content.
 Chapter outcomes.
 New terminology.
 Core content of the unit with a variety of learning activities.
 A chapter summary.
 Assignments and/or assessments, as applicable.
 Further learning resources

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 BHU11 BHU 1101 Introduction to Critical Thinking and logic
01 Introduction to Critical and Creative Thinking

LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING

1.1 Introduction to the critical and creative thinking (CCT)
1.1.1 History and etymology

The C r i t i c a l Thinking and Logic ( CTL ) philosophical frame traces its roots in analytic
philosophy and pragmatist constructivism, as well as the Buddhist Teaching -- Kalamasutta
and Abhidhamma, and the Greek Socratic tradition that dates back over 2,500 years in which
probing questions were used to determine whether claims to knowledge based on authority
could be rationally justified with clarity and logical consistency. The term critical means
derives from the ancient Greek kriterion, which means standards; a second sense derives from
kriticos, which means discerning judgment.

Critical thinking
Critical thinking involves logical thought process and reasoning including skills such as
comparison, classification, sequencing, cause/effect, patterning, webbing, analogies,
deductive and inductive reasoning, forecasting, planning, hypothesizing, and critiquing.
Critical thinking is active, persistent and careful consideration of a belief or supposed form of
knowledge in light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it
tends. Critical thinking can also be defined and measured in a number of ways but typically
involves the individual’s ability to do some or all of the following: identify central issues and

Creative thinking
An Ability. Creativity is the ability to imagine or invent something new. As we will see
below, creativity is not the ability to create out of nothing (only God can do that), but the
ability to generate new ideas by combining, changing, or reapplying existing ideas. Some
creative ideas are astonishing and brilliant, while others are just simple, good, practical ideas
that no one seems to have thought of yet.

Believe it or not, everyone has substantial creative ability. Just look at how creative children
are. In adults, creativity has too often been suppressed through education, but it is still there
and can be reawakened. Often all that's needed to be creative is to make a commitment to
creativity and to take the time for it.

An Attitude. Creativity is also an attitude: the ability to accept change and newness, a
willingness to play with ideas and possibilities, a flexibility of outlook, the habit looking for
ways to improve the situation. We are socialized into accepting only a small number of
permitted or normal things. The creative person realizes that there are other possibilities.

A Process. Creative people work hard and continually to improve ideas and solutions, by
making gradual alterations and refinements to their works

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1.1.2 lessons outcomes.

After studying this chapter you should be able to:

1. State the importance of CTL in relation to your profession.
Outcomes 2. Critically evaluate lectures and evaluate their own persuasive attempts.
3. Critically evaluate comments from family, friends, neighbors, and
employers and evaluate their verbal statements.
4. Critically evaluate your time management and study skills and
studying and taking of tests.
5. Students will be able to critically evaluate their own written work.

1.2 Importance of CCT

CTL is an important element of all professional fields and academic disciplines in their
respective sets of acceptable questions, evidence sources and criteria. The concepts and
principles of CTL can be applied to any context. CTL forms, therefore, a system of related,
and overlapping, modes of thought such as anthropological thinking, sociological thinking,
historical thinking, political thinking, psychological thinking, philosophical thinking,
mathematical thinking, chemical thinking, biological thinking, ecological thinking, legal
thinking, ethical thinking, musical thinking, thinking like a painter, sculptor, engineer,
business person, etc. In other words, though CTL principles are universal, their application to
disciplines requires a process of reflective individual contextualization in order to ;
1. Assist you to raises vital questions and to problems, formulating them clearly and
precisely;
2. Enables you to gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret
it effectively;
3. Facilitate you to Come up with a well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them
against relevant criteria and standards;
4. Enables you to think open mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing
and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences;
and
5. Helps you to communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex
problems without being unduly influenced by others' thinking on the topic

1.3 Definition of key words in CTL

New Terminologies
1. Education Criticality and creativity, intellectual standards,
2. Self- examination, individuality, collectively, morality.
3. Explanation, evaluation accuracy, clarity, precision, relevance , interpretation
4. Intellectual dispositions, analysis, assumptions, evidence, inferences,
5. Deduction, induction, Validity, soundness, fallaciousness

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1. Education, criticality and creativity, intellectual standards,

1. Education. Is the formation of instruction of certain mental habits and a certain
outlook on life and the world. The habits include impartial inquiry, weighing
evidence, attempting to see things truly and living from one’s own centre.
Education is a continuous process of learning.

2. Critically. Examining and testing propositions of any kind which are offered for
acceptance in order to find out whether they respond to reality or not.

3. Creativity – It involves inventing something which has never existed before,

a new process for doing something, reapply an existing process or product into a new
or different market or change the way someone else look at something.

4. Intellectual Standards – These are standards which must be applied to thinking

whenever one is interested in checking the quality of reasoning about a problem,
issue or situation. They include clarity, relevance, accuracy and precision.

2. Self-examination, individuality, collectively, morality.

5. Self Examination. Study of your own behavior and beliefs to find out if they are right
or wrong.
6. Individuality. It is a state of being free to act upon your opinions, to carry them out
without hindrance either physical or moral from Fellow men so long as it is at your own
risk or peril.
7. Collectively. Is the act of sharing by all remembers of a group or people.
8. Morality. Is the degree of which something is right or wrong i.e good or bad behavior.

3. Explanation, evaluation accuracy, clarity, precision, relevance, interpretation

9. Explanation: to state the results of one’s reasoning; to justify that reasoning in terms of
the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, and contextual considerations
upon which one’s results were based; and to present one’s reasoning in the form of
cogent arguments.”

10. Evaluation : to assess the credibility of statements or other representations which are
accounts or descriptions of a person’s perception, experience, situation, judgment,
belief, or opinion; and to assess the logical strength of the actual or intended inferential
relationships among statements, descriptions, questions or other forms of representation.”
11. Accuracy: it is ensuring something is really true, you can check that and find out if
that is true
12. Precision: It is being able to give more details and being more specific about an issue.
13. Relevance: This is being connected to the question and its implications on the issue.
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14. Interpretation : to comprehend and express the meaning or significance of a

wide variety of experiences, situations, data, events, judgments, conventions, beliefs,
rules, procedures or criteria.

4. Intellectual d i s p o s i t i o n s , e l e m e n t s o f r e a s o n i n g , a n a l y s i s a s s u m p t i o n s ,
e v i d e n c e , inferences,

15. Intellectual dispositions. These are natural qualities of a person’s character or behavior.

16. Elements of reasoning

17. Analysis : to identify the intended and actual inferential relationships among
statements, questions, concepts, descriptions or other forms of representation
intended to express belief, judgment, experiences, reasons, information or opinions”

18. Assumptions:

19. Evidence :

20. Inferences : “to identify and secure elements needed to draw reasonable
conclusions; to form conjectures and hypotheses; to consider relevant information and
to educe the consequences flowing from data, statements, principles, evidence,
judgments, beliefs, opinions, concepts, descriptions, questions, or other forms of
representation.”

5. Deduction, induction, Validity, soundness, fallaciousness

21. Deduction. Is to clarify the nature of the relation between premises and conclusion
in valid arguments thus discriminate valid from invalid arguments.
22. An argument is a process of making what we think, clear to ourselves and to others.
23. Induction. It is an argument that may be evaluated as better or worse according to
the degree of likelihood or probability to confer their conclusion.
24. Validity. It is an argument containing only true propositions and should be sound.
25. Soundness. It is a term used to show correctness or the state of being true.
26. Fallaciousness. This is having errors in reasoning which from the surface value,
looks accurate and convincing but when exposed to retrospection, the reason has
been flawed (not logic)

References
(Link)
http://www.umich.edu/~elements/5e/probsolv/strategy/ctskills.htm
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-importance-benefits-critical-thinking-skills-islam/

VIDEO LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OLPL5p0fMg

 BHU11 BHU 1101 Introduction to Critical Thinking and logic
01 Introduction to Critical and Creative Thinking

Question: Critical thinking is essential to effective learning and productive living. Would you share your
definition of critical thinking?

Question: One important aim of schooling should be to create a climate that evokes children’s sense of
wonder and inspires their imagination to soar. What can teachers do to "kindle" this spark and keep it
alive in education?

Question: It is important for our students to be productive members of the work-force. How can schools
better prepare students to meet these challenges?