The Power of

Critical Thinking
 Learning Outcomes
1. Explain why critical thinking is important in a world filled with risk and uncertainty by supplying
reasons and examples that relate to you own life, to the well-being of your community, and to the
preservation of a free and open society

2. Explain why a strong critical thinker's healthy sense of skepticism is not the same as negativity and
cynicism.
 What is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and
skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating
information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection,
reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.

Critical thinking is that mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or

problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by
skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing
intellectual standards upon them.

https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766
 A well cultivate thinker
• raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and
precisely;
• gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret
it effectively comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing
them against relevant criteria and standards;
• thinks openmindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing
and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical
consequences; and
• communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to
complex problems
Critical Thinking and a Free Society
• If information is power, then controlling the flow of information is
wielding power
• High value on freedom
• Higher education in America is internationally admired and yet feared
• Strong critical thinking demands a healthy skepticism of goverment
power
 The One and the Many

Individual decisions can seem isolated and when they

accumulate, they can have a far-reaching impact
What Do We Mean by Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking
Expert consesus
does not mean
conceptualization
negative thinking
Expert Consensus Conceptualization

• Delphi method
• Strong critical thinking is
essential to consistently
successful decision making
• Failur to critical thinking
often contributes to some of
the saddest and unfortunate
accidents
• Critical thinking is a
pervasive human
phenomenon
 Delphi defined as
ü An organized method for collecting
views and information pertaining to
a specific area
ü A method that allows dialogue
between geographically separated
experts while serving an effective
means for learning
ü Gathering a group of experts to
forecast events and assess
ccomplex issues
ü Collective human intelligence
ü A process of exploring, assessing
and evaluating

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESxuo1CePZI
Critical Thinking Does Not Mean Negative Thinking

• It isn’t about bashing what people

believe just to show how clever we
are
• Intended to be used to seek truth
with intellectual energy and with
integrity
• Being skeptical without being
cynical
• Critical thinking is about
judgement, which can include
finding faults, it has more
emphasis on questioning and
analysis
Critical Thinking is Both Skills and Mindset
 Importance of Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking promotes creativity.
Critical Thinking enhances language
and presentation skills. To come up with a creative solution to a
Thinking clearly and systematically can
problem involves not just having new ideas.
improve the way we express our ideas. In It must also be the case that the new ideas
learning how to analyse the logical structure being generated are useful and relevant to
of texts, critical thinking also improves the task at hand. Critical thinking plays a
comprehension abilities. crucial role in evaluating new ideas,
selecting the best ones and modifying them
if necessary
 Critical Thinking is crucial for self-
reflection.
In order to live a meaningful life and to
structure our lives accordingly, we need
to justify and reflect on our values and
decisions. Critical thinking provides the
tools for this process of self-evaluation.

Critical Thinking is a domain-general

thinking skill.
The ability to think clearly and rationally is
important whatever we choose to do. Being
able to think well and solve problems
systematically is an asset for any career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dItUGF8GdTw