Critical thinking skills :

1. Critical thinking skills : Done by : M7amad abo-7sein Supervised by : Mahdia al-kony

2. The objectives :- By the end of this lecture the student should be able to : 1- define the critical thinking skills and explain the strategies of it. 2- discuss the components of CT . 3- apply principles of CT in his work and personal life . 4- understand the tests of critical thinking . 5- participate in discussions about the CT skills . 6- evaluate his ability to develop him self to be critical thinker .

3. Lecture outline : 1- Definition of CT . 2- Components of critical thinking . 3- Tests of critical thinking . 4- CT and nursing education . 5- Problem solving skills . 6- stages of problem solving . 7- Conditions of learning for problem solving

4. A Definition 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 analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it.

5. Critical thinking skills : Pathway aims within health education are of two kinds : 1- the specific aims of the pathway in relation to its subject area and 2- the more general educational aims that apply to all pathway.

6. The latter are more general and include development of skills in communication , problem solving, evaluation , and critical thinking .

7. Components of critical thinking ? 1-define a problem. 2-select relevant information for problem solving. 3-draw inferences from observed facts 4-recognize assumptions; 5- formulate relevant hypothesis. 6-make deductions ; 7-Make interpretations from data ; 8-evaluate arguments .

8. There is some variation in the literature with regard to these components; Brookfield (1987) for example identifies the four components discussed below : • A) identifying and challenging assumption ; critical thinkers ask awkward questions in order to identify and challenge the assumptions wich underlie issues and problems .

9. b) challenging the importance of context ; critical thinkers are aware that beliefs , actions, and established practice reflect the context in which they are set , both culture and professional. For example , opinions about the standard of appearance for nurses and midwives may be based upon the norms of generation or more ago , such as a particular view of what constitutes an acceptable hair style .

10. c) imagining and exploring alternatives ; critical thinkers have the ability to imagine and explore alternatives to established ways of thinking or behaving , because they are aware of the assumptions and the context of issues or problems .

11. d) reflective skepticism ; reflective thinkers take a skeptical view of established dogma and practices , carefully scrutinizing them and questioning their current validity . for example , this approach is encouraged in project 2000 courses , but may be perceived as threatening by qualified nurses whose own professional education did not foster such an approach .

12. Tests of critical thinking :: This tests the subject's ability on five aspects of CT : inference , assumption , deduction , interpretation, and evaluation of arguments . 1) inference : this is a conclusion based upon facts or observations . for example ; by looking at a post-operative patient's facial expression and body posture , a nurse may infer that he or she is in pain .

13. 2) assumptions assumptions : there are something assumed or taken for granted . for example , a nurse may assume that a post-operative patient will wish to be given analgesia as soon as pain is experienced .

14. 3) deduction ;

15. 4) interpretation :

16. 5) Evaluation of arguments:

18. CT and nursing educationHow can the nurse teacher facilitate CT development in students ??!!

19. 1-affirm critical thinkers and self-worth; it is when teaching CT to maintain an atmosphere of psychological safety, but they are not made to feel threatened or insulted . 2-listen attentively to critical thinkers; the teacher must attend carefully to students verbal and non-verbal signals .

20. 3- show that you support critical thinkers efforts ; students initial efforts need support and encouragement if they are to progress , and their is delicate balance between this and the necessary degree of challenge and upset that is important for CT skills development .

21. 4- reflect and mirror critical thinkers ideas and actions ; by using reflection techniques that let the student see how their behaviours and attitudes are berceived by others . 5- motivate people to think critically ; their is a delicate balance between motivating students to think critically , and helping them to estimate the risks involved in criticizing and destabilizing established practices .

22. 6- regularly evaluate progress; to encourage students to engage regularly in reflective evaluation of CT skills. 7- Be a critical teacher 8- Make people aware of how they learn CT. 9- Help a critical thinkers to create network with other students who are developing CT skills.(self-help group). 10- Model CT ; teachers should model these skills during their everyday teaching .

23. Problem solving skills :::::! This section addresses two approaches to problem solving : 1- gestalt approach 2-information processing approach

24. gestalt approach and insightful learning : the kind of learning described by gestalt psychology is called learning by insight , in which the students perception of a situation or a problem undergoes a restructuring , and he or she sees the aspects of the situation in a new relationship to one another . this sudden insight into the problem or a situation applies to human learning also and has been termed the (aha) phenomenon .

25. information processing approach ::: which seeks to explain the sequence of operations that subjects use in solving problems . the problem situation is termed the "problem space" , and is composed of an 'initial state' in which the individual is currently in, a 'goal state' which is the desired end state, and one or more 'operators' which are a set of operations that transform the initial state into the goal state .

26. stages of problem solving ::: 1- encode the problem in the working memory. 2- Search the long term memory for a plan or production system. 3- Execute the production system; and 4- Evaluate the results . This sequence may or may not be successful , depending upon the problem .

27. Conditions of learning for problem solving : 1- recall of relevant rules that have been earned previously 2- possession of verbal information organized in appropriate ways 3- cognitive strategies previously learned 4- verbal instructions by the teacher to stimulate recall of rules .

28. questions