Critical Thinking - practice - use - share

Critical Thinking - practice - use - share

9 Steps in Critical Thinking by Dr. Richard Paul  

I want to share with you one of the many critical thinking skills resources that I learned about at Coastline Community College in Costa Mesa, California. 

Coastline's Acquired Brain Injury Program is a demanding two-year educational program designed to provide structured cognitive retraining for adults who have sustained a brain injury due to traumatic (such as a motor vehicle accident or fall) or non-traumatic (such as a non-age-related stroke, brain tumor or infection) injuries.

http://www.coastline.edu/departments/specialprograms/page.cfm?LinkID=1001

The ABI program emphasizes cognitive retraining, socialization, emotional development and career development to promote individual responsibility and independence.   After a head injury these life skills need to practiced over and over.  It is a mistake to think in terms of total recovery.  But repetitive practices help keep the strategies useable. 

It is a shame public education rarely teaches students how to integrate logic, thinking and study skills into daily lives.  Most of us do not connect the same-different comparisons of early learning to life choices such as buying a car or learning new information.  Yet the same same neuropathways and logic skills are being used.  

The goal is to understand life and explain ourselves in a clear manner.  To do this I learned to use the strategies of critical thinking experts such as the one presented by Dr. Paul below.  

I see where I can now join their online community and continue practicing my skills that have frankly become rusty and weak.  I have placed the link after Dr. Paul's article but before his credentials.   I will post this article and join this online critical thinking group.  Hope to exchange ideas and learning techniques with many of you.  

*~*~*  Anita D  *~*~*  

NINE STEPS IN THE CRITICAL THINKING PROCESS

Richard Paul Center of Critical Thinking http://www.criticalthinking.org/

What follows are some guidelines helpful to work toward developing reasoning abilities:  

1.  All reasoning has a PURPOSE.

What am I trying to do in general? Take time to state your purpose clearly. Distinguish your purpose from related purposes. Check periodically to be sure you are still on target. Choose significant and realistic purposes.  

2.  All reasoning is an attempt to FIGURE SOMETHING OUT, TO SETTLE SOME QUESTION, TO SOLVE SOME PROBLEM.

Exactly what am I trying to solve or answer. Take time to clearly and precisely state the question at issue. Express the question in several ways to clarify its meaning and scope. Break the question into sub questions. Identify if the question has one right answer, is a matter of opinion, or requires reasoning from more than one point of view.  

3.  All reasoning is based on ASSUMPTIONS. What things will I be taking for granted? Clearly identify your assumptions and determine whether they are justifiable. Consider how your assumptions are shaping your point of view.  

4.  All reasoning is done from some POINT OF VIEW. Understand that my way of looking at things does not equal “reality”. Identify your point of view. Seek other points of view and identify their strengths as well as weaknesses. Strive to be fair-minded in evaluating all points of view.  

5.  All reasoning is based on DATA, INFORMATION and EVIDENCE.

What information is needed and where can I find it? Restrict your claims to those supported by the data you have. Search for information that opposes your position as well as information that support it. Make sure that all information used is clear, accurate, and relevant to the question at issue. Make sure you have gathered sufficient information.  

6.  All reasoning is expressed through, and shaped by, CONCEPTS and IDEAS.

 Identify key concepts and explain them clearly. Consider alternative concepts or alternative definitions to concepts. Make sure you are using concepts with care and precision.  

7.  All reasoning contains INFERENCES or INTERPRETATIONS by which we draw CONCLUSIONS and give meaning to data.

How should I interpret this information? Infer only what the evidence implies. Check inferences for their consistency with each other. Identify assumptions that lead you to your inferences.  

8.  All reasoning leads to REASSESS CONCLUSIONS

Be open to possibility the problem is beyond me. Be open to restructuring the problem and going through the steps again. Revise when appropriate Know what could be, even if limited by constraints of the real world like time, money or given situation.  

9.  All reasoning leads somewhere or has IMPLICATIONS and CONSEQUENCES.

Trace the implications and consequences that follow from your reasoning. Search for negative as well as positive implications. Consider all possible consequences.

Richard Paul

Center of Critical Thinking http://www.criticalthinking.org/   

Foundation for Critical Thinking

P.O. BOX 220 Dillon Beach, CA. 94929
Tollfree: 800.833.3645  

The Members' Area Contains

Streaming Video - Sample Tests - Forums - Learning Tools - News, Commentary, Blogs and More... Membership to the Critical Thinking Community is FREE. http://www.criticalthinking.org/ABOUT/community_membership.cfm      

Who is Dr. Richard Paul http://www.criticalthinking.org/ABOUT/Fellow_Richard_Paul.cfm

As Director of Research and Professional Development at the Center for Critical Thinking and Chair of the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking, Dr. Paul is an internationally recognized authority on critical thinking, with eight books and over 200 articles on the subject. He has written books for every grade level and has done extensive experimentation with teaching tactics and strategies, and devising, among other things, novel ways to engage students in rigorous self-assessment.

Dr. Paul has received four degrees and has given lectures on critical thinking at many universities in both the United States and abroad, including Harvard, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, and the universities of Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, British Columbia, Toronto, and Amsterdam. He taught beginning and advanced courses in critical thinking at the university level for over 20 years.  He has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including Distinguished Philosopher (by the Council for Philosophical Studies, 1987), O.C. Tanner Lecturer in Humanities (by Utah State University, 1986), Lansdown Visiting Scholar (by the University of Victoria, 1987), and the Alfred Korsybski Memorial Lecturer (by the Institute for General Semantics, 1987).  

His views on critical thinking have been canvassed in the New York Times, Education Week, The Chronicle of Higher Education, American Teacher, Reader’s Digest, Educational Leadership, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report. Dr. Paul’s wide-ranging knowledge, practical strategies, and enthusiasm make him highly sought-after as a keynoter and workshop presenter.