INTRODUCTIO

N TO CRITICAL
THINKING
UNIT – 1
 Why is the sky blue? As you start asking
 Is time travel possible? questions and seek
 Why doesn’t she like me? answers, in fact you are
 Why Doesn’t he like me? THINKING

In other words…… Thinking is purposeful, organized

process, that we use to make sense of the things
happening around us
 I Agree to this
statement (Do
you… Comment)
GIVE place here to some further
consideration of thought. You will
never become great until your
own thoughts make you great,
and therefore it is of the first
IMPORTANCE TO start THINKING
Definitions by Some Thinkers

DOGUID in 1987
classifies CRITICAL
ENNIS in 1985 provides
THINKING as "the ability to
the definition as: Critical
step. beyond common
thinking is reasonable,
sense assumptions and be
reflective thinking that is
able to evaluate them in
focused on deciding what to
terms of their genesis,
believe or do
development, and
purpose.“
Some Perspective from Book

Edward Glaser (1941) has defined

critical thinking as the ability to
think critically and it involves
three things: WHY – You need logic and
• ATTITUDE of being disposed to consider credible data to change someones
in a thoughtful way the problems and already bult perspective
subjects that come within the range of
one's experiences,
• KNOWLEDGE of the methods of logical
inquiry and reasoning, and
• SKILL in applying those methods.
Various Forms of Thinking

 Scientific thinking
 Mathematical thinking
 Historical thinking
 Anthropological thinking Think with
 Economic thinking Multiple
 Moral thinking Lenses
 Philosophical thinking
Basic Components of Critical
Thinking
According to Scriven & Paul (1987) following are sub divisions: -

 A set of information and belief generating and processing skills

 The habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to

guide behavior

Choose a piece of news and give your own opinion on the same
 Linda Elder in 2007 gave following qualities that one
should:

Qualities of Raises vital questions and problems

Well
Gathers and assesses relevant information and comes
Cultivated to well-reasoned conclusions / solutions after testing
against relevant criteria and standards

Critical Reflects open mentally within alternative systems of

thought
Thinker
Elaborates effectively his/her own conclusions
Historical Human Evolution

Human beings in jungle and caves during stone age

 How did they save themselves?
 How did they use stones?
 How did they use fire?
 How did they grow crops?
 How did they make homes?
 How did they develop civilizations?
 How did they begin trade?
The answer that comes to mind is “they learned”
 Origin of Critical
Approaches

 Socratic questioning the status que and

probe deeply in thoughts. Challenge
beliefs with deep thinking for clarity and
rationality
 He established that people may have
power and high position but still can be
intensely confused and irrational
 Socratic questioning technique was
continued by Plato, Aristotle, and the
Greek thinkers as this is best known
technique of thinking
 In early middle ages philosophers like Al-
Farabi and Thomas Aquinas continued the
tradition of systematic critical thinking.
 Ibn e Sina continued the critical and
comparative analysis of the prevalent
philosophical and religious text and paved
the way to critical review of information
received through senses.
Origin of Critical
Approaches (Cont..)
 In the Renaissance (15th and 16th Centuries), a
torrent of scholars in Europe became active in
thinking critically about religion, society, human
nature, and law. Among these scholars were Colet,
Erasmus, and Moore in England.
 Francis Bacon, in England, was explicitly concerned
with the way we seek knowledge. He recognized
explicitly that the mind cannot safely be left to its
natural tendencies. He laid the foundation for
modern science with his emphasis on the
information-gathering processes.
 In 17th Century Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton
presented their work extending the horizons of
critical thought even further towards scientific
discovery.
Origin of Critical
Approaches (Cont..)
 18th Century thinkers applied critical thinking to the
problem of economics, Adam Smith’s Wealth of
Nations. To traditional concept of loyalty to the king,
produced the Declaration of Independence by
Thomas Jefferson. Applied to reason itself, it
produced Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.
 In the 19th Century, critical thought was applied to
the domain of human social life by Comte and
Spencer. Problems of capitalism, and economic
critique of Karl Marx are the examples of 19th
century work
 In the 20th Century, our understanding of the power
and nature of critical thinking has emerged in
increasingly more explicit formulations of social
structures.
Critical Theory in
Education
 Critical Theory in Education has emerged from the
wider discipline of sociology. Education as mode of
transforming and controlling
 It cross-examines the social, cultural, political and
economic context of compulsory education. Why
and how generations are silenced to question the
status que
 Critical theory in education thus throws a critical
eye upon the history, the development and practice
of education and educational contextualization
 William Graham Sumner (1906) mentioned
"Schools make persons all on one pattern,
orthodoxy
Critical Theory in
Education (Cont…)
 The field of critical theory in education hence
covers a wide range of Social and Educational
issues – the Context, Curriculum, the pedagogy or
teaching style, the role of the State, the influence
of corporate powers, the as well as the issues of
Cultural and Individual Identity etc
Why We Need to Learn as
an Educator
 Brains are physiological while minds are developed
 To have credible reasoning in countering existing
knowledge
 Correcting the path and thinking pattern in
younger generation
 To create inquisition for developing Higher Order
Thinking skills
 To equip us with conceptualizing, applying,
analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating
information we have
 Know about IMPLICIT and EXPLICIT meanings of
what we see and hear
 Graduates should be
prepared for thinking their
way through the challenging
Why We life

Need to Careful analysis, clear

thinking, and reasoned
Learn as an deliberation are fundamental
to democratic life.
Educator
(Cont.) Curriculum is a mind-
grooming instrument
Development of Critical Thinking
within Bloom’s Taxonomy

https://edu.casio.com/forteachers/math_education/
How do we Develop Critical
Thinking?
 Receive - analyze the facts, opinions, assumptions, hypotheses
 Use multiple sources of information to verify authenticity
 Develop questions and seek answers from right source
 Cross check before accepting information
 Enhance social circle to gather more information on assumptions
 Read multiple authors of opposite opinion
 Apply logical reasoning in deciding and making sense
 Question the already established theories to verify
  In todays era, more and more employers are
looking for employees not with only specialized
academic skills but with good thinking and
communication skills. So we need to train our
students for: -

Benefits of 1. Learn quickly and solve problems

2. Unlearn and relearn attitude is desirable
Critical 3. Teach them to show creativity (a new way of

Thinking 4.
doing same job)
Gather and analyze the issue in a meaningful
manner
5. Teach them as to how they can avoid foolish
decisions
6. Support them in developing thinking skills
Barriers to Critical Thinking

If the critical thinking is so important, then why

uncritical thinking is so common in our society?

Why is that so many people including the highly

educated and intellectual people find it difficult to
think critically?

?????
Barriers to Critical Thinking

5 Most Powerful Barriers to

Critical Thinking
1 Egocentrism Self centered thinking
Sociocentris
2 Group centered thinking
m
A belief that something is
Unwarranted
3 true without proper
Assumptions
evidence or justification
Believing something is
Wishful
4 true because one wishes
Thinking
it to be true
Thinking that truth is just
5 Relativism
a matter of opinion
Characteristics of a Critical
Thinker
 They are honest with themselves
 They regard problems and controversial issues as
exciting challenges
 They strive for understanding, keep curiosity alive
and remain patient with complexity
 They base judgements on evidence rather than
personal preferences
 They are interested in other people’s ideas so
willing to read and listen
 They practice fairmindedness and seek a balanced
view
 They practice restraint, controlling their feelings
rather than being controlled by them
An Old Quiz (Hope you
Know Answers)
A Quiz was developed by Anderson Consulting
Worldwide. Answer each question in given order:
1. How do you put a Giraffe into a refrigerator?
2. How do you put an Elephant into a refrigerator?
3. The LOIN KING is hosting an animal conference.
All animals attended except one. Which animal
did not attend?
4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by
Crocodile and you don’t have a boat. How will
you manage that?

Send answers on email: afaqdurrez@hotmail.com

Some Quotes Relevant to
Education & CT
“The function of education is to teach one to think
intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus
character – that is the goal of true education.” (Martin
Luther King, Jr.)

“Education is not the learning of facts but the training

of the mind to think.” (Albert Einstein)

“Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the

people think that they think and the other eight five
percent would rather die than think.” (Thomas A.
Edison)
Answers for Quiz

1. How do you put a Giraffe into a refrigerator?

Ans. Open the refrigerator, put giraffe in it and close
the door. (This question tests whether you tend to do
the simple things in an overly complicated way)
2. How do you put an Elephant into a refrigerator?
Ans. Did you say open the refrigerator, put the
elephant and close the door… No, you have to take
the giraffe out and put elephant in and close the door.
(This tests your ability of your actions in
repercussions of previous actions)
Answers for Quiz

3. The LOIN KING is hosting an animal conference. All

animals attended except one. Which animal did not
attend?
Ans. The elephant which is in refrigerator. You just put
him there. (this tests your memory). If wrong, you
have last chance to prove..
4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by
Crocodile and you don’t have a boat. How will you
manage that?
Ans. You jump into the river and swim across as all
animals are in conference. (This tests whether you
learn quickly from your mistakes)
Thank You
Very Much