Critical thinking
A Field Guide to Critical Thinking, Thinking
Critical thinking on the web, Students and critical thinking
Why is critical thinking hard to teach?
A brief guide to critical thinking
Raymond S. Nickerson (1987), an authority on critical thinking, characterizes a good critical thinker in terms of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and habitual ways of behaving. Here are some of the characteristics of such a thinker:1- uses evidence skillfully and impartially
2- organizes thoughts and articulates them concisely and coherently
3- distinguishes between logically valid and invalid inferences
4- suspends judgment in the absence of sufficient evidence to support a decision
5- understands the difference between reasoning and rationalizing
6- attempts to anticipate the probable consequences of alternative actions
7- understands the idea of degrees of belief
8- sees similarities and analogies that are not superficially apparent
9- can learn independently and has an abiding interest in doing so
10- applies problem-solving techniques in domains other than those in which learned
11- can structure informally represented problems in such a way that formal techniques, such as mathematics, can be used to solve them
12- can strip a verbal argument of irrelevancies and phrase it in its essential terms
13- habitually questions one's own views and attempts to understand both the assumptions that are critical to those views and the implications of the views
14- is sensitive to the difference between the validity of a belief and the intensity with which it is held
15- is aware of the fact that one's understanding is always limited, often much more so than would be apparent to one with a noninquiring attitude
16- recognizes the fallibility of one's own opinions, the probability of bias in those opinions, and the danger of weighting evidence according to personal preferences