Critical Thinking & Arguments

1. Week Two Critical Thinking &Arguments

2. What is Critical Thinking? • Reflective, responsible, and skillful thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do. • Questioning, making sense of, analyzing or examining our thinking or the thinking of others. • Simply put, its HOW we think.

3. Who is a critical thinker? • Someone who asks meaningful questions, gathers and sorts information to make logical conclusions or decisions

4. Critical Thinking Attributes • Asks pertinent questions • Assesses statements and arguments • Able to admit a lack of understanding or information • Has a sense of curiosity • Interested in finding new solutions • Able to clearly define a set of criteria for analyzing ideas • Willing to examine beliefs, assumptions, and opinions and weigh them against facts • Listens carefully to others and is able to give feedback

5. Attributes Continued… • Sees that critical thinking is a lifelong process of self-assessment • Suspends judgment until all facts have been gathered and considered • Looks for evidence to support assumption and beliefs • Able to adjust opinions when new facts are found • Looks for proof • Examines problems closely • Able to reject information that is incorrect or irrelevant • http://www.accd.edu/sac/history/keller/ACCDitg.SSCT.htm

6. Examine “Thinking” • A recipe for thinking: • Defining • Consider all possible choices • Gather information • Select a choice that best fits the needs of the situation • Implement • Review periodically

7. Active Thinking • When you’re an active thinker, you are engaged in the process of making decisions and problem solving. This is done by: • Getting Involved • Taking Initiative • Following Through • Taking Responsibility

8. Influences • Children are not born with the ability to think critically. Instead, they are taught to think the way they do. • External influences: • Family • Church • School • Friends

9. Thinking Independently • As we grow older, we don’t just accept everyone’s point of view. • Instead, we ask questions and assess the situation to see what would be the most beneficial to ourselves.

10. Different Perspectives • In order to learn and develop, we must be willing to listen to other people’s opinions. Although we may not agree, a good critical thinker learns to understand and appreciate others’ opinions.

11. Active Learning • Because of our influences, we create and use our own type of framework to critically think • When we learn something new, we need to integrate this new information into what we already know • As a result, we expand our personal framework of knowledge

12. Types of Questioning • Fact • Interpretation • Analysis • Synthesis • Evaluation • Application

13. Critical Thinking Tools • Providing and using supportive evidence • Discussing ideas • Listening carefully • Responding to other points of view being made • Asking questions • Increasing understanding

14. Arguments • What is an argument? • A form of thinking in which certain reasons are offered to support a conclusion. • Reason: A statement that supports another statement (known as a conclusion), to justify it, or make it more probable. • Conclusion: A statement the explains, asserts or predicts on the basis of statements (known as reasons) that are offered as evidence for it. • Critically Thinking, Chaffee, p. 394

15. Recognizing an Argument • Dialogue between differing parties • Discussion of issues • The use of cue words: For Reasoning: For Conclusions: • Since * Therefore • For * Thus • Because * Hence

16. Evaluating Arguments • Consider the following: • How true are the reasons being offered to support the conclusion • To what extent do these reasons support the conclusion • To what extent does the conclusion follow from the reasons offered? In order to construct an argument, you need to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the already created arguments

17. True Reasons Determine what reasons are truthful that are being used to support the conclusion: • Does the reason make sense? • What evidence is being offered to support the reason? • Are the reasons true based on your own personal experiences?

18. Valid vs Invalid Arguments Valid Arguments • Reasons support the conclusion • Conclusion follows through from the reasons followed Invalid Arguments • Reasons do not support conclusion • Conclusion does not follow from the reasons offered

19. Deductive Reasoning Definition: A process in which a conclusion is drawn from a set of premises . Each premise contains no more information than the premises taken collectively The Random House Dictionary • Premises: • General Rule • Modus Ponens • Modus Tollens

20. Inductive Reasoning Definition: • Process in which a conclusions proposed that contains more information than the observations or experience on which it is based Random House Dictionary

21. Soundness of an argument • When an argument includes both true reasons and a valid structure, the argument is considered sound. • When the argument is considered unsound, it contains false reasons or an invalid structure. • Note: Keep in mind that in order for it to be sound it has to contain truth and validity. Can not just contain one piece or the other.

22. Constructing Arguments Listening Carefully to other Points of View Supporting Views with reasons and evidence Responding to the points being made Asking—and trying to answer—appropriate questions Working to increase understanding (not necessarily trying to “win” the argument)