Lecture-01.ppt
- 1. Critical Thinking: What is It? Why is it Important? How Does it Improve Teaching and Learning?
- 2. Active Engagement In Lecture Person A states his/her understanding of what has been said, then elaborates. Person B agrees or disagrees with the interpretation, or adds to the interpretation, then gives an example of it, relating the idea to something in life.
- 3. Active Engagement In Lecture (cont.) • Person B states his/her understanding of what has been said, then elaborates. • Person A agrees or disagrees with the interpretation, or adds to the interpretation, then gives an example of it, relating the idea to something in life.
- 5. Because whenever we are dealing with human life, we are almost always dealing with thinking.
- 6. Thinking is the way that the mind makes sense of the world.
- 7. There is no way to understand anything except through thinking.
- 8. • what there is • what is happening • what our problems are • what our options are • what threatens us • what is important • what is unimportant • who our friends are • who our enemies are • what our “history” is • who we are • who loves us Thinking tells us:
- 9. Thinking determines: • what we learn • how we learn • what we think is important to learn • what effort we should expend • what we think is true • what we think is false • how things should be viewed • whether our learning is of high or low quality • whether our learning is deep or superficial
- 10. Everything we know, believe, want, fear and hope for, our thinking tells us.
- 11. Think of some problem behavior your students engage in. See if you can identify the thinking that leads to the behavior.
- 12. Thinking is the core of the curriculum
- 13. Critical Thinking Is a Self-Directed Process By Which We Take Deliberate Steps To Think at the Highest Level of Quality.
- 14. Red Thinking: Higher order executive functioning. Thinking that analyzes, assesses and improves green Thinking. Green Thinking: Instinctive, automatic, spontaneous thinking. Unconsciously guided
- 16. Green Thinking Unconscious Mixture Of High Quality And Low Quality Thinking Spontaneous Subconscious Uncontrolled Impulsive Self protecting Unanalyzed Reflexive Self validating Includes ideas that are valid, as well as nonsense, confusion, stereotypes, prejudices. The key is that we cannot distinguish the difference between high and low quality thought in green thinking mode. Green thinking goes without assessing itself.
- 17. Red Thinking Red Thinking stops and assesses itself before going forward. Disciplined Seeks the truth Self assessing Critical Thinking Self correcting Probing In red thinking mode, we actively work to eliminate prejudices, biases, dysfunctional thinking from our thinking. We actively work on our thinking. We rigorously apply intellectual standards to our thinking.
- 18. The Critical Thinking Mind = The Educated Mind
- 21. Activity: What is Critical Thinking? To be clear in writing: • 1) state • 2) elaborate (In other words…) • 3) exemplify and/or illustrate Write out the most important thing you know about critical thinking, in this form: 1) Critical thinking is ….. 2) In other words… 3) For example of…
- 22. Think for Yourself: 1-1 Beginning to Think About Your Thinking • To begin to think about your thinking, make a list of any problems you believe currently exist with your thinking. Try to be as explicit as possible. The more problems you identify the better. For each problem you identify, complete the following statements: • 1. One problem with my thinking is… • 2. This is a problem because… • 3. If I adequately addressed this problem, the quality of my life would improve in the following ways…
- 23. Think for Yourself: 1-2 Critique Your Thinking Consider your thinking in these domains of your life: at work, in personal relationships, in teaching, in intimate relationships, as a reader, as a writer, in planning your life, in dealing with your emotions, in figuring out complex situations. Complete these statements: • Right now, I believe my thinking across all domains of my life is of ______________ quality. I based this judgment on _________________. • 1. In the following areas, I think very well… • 2. In the following areas, my thinking is OK, not great, but not terrible either… • 3. In the following areas, my thinking is probably of low quality… • List at least three areas for each of the above.
- 24. Critical Thinking “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing” - Albert Einstein
- 25. Critical Thinking in Your Life • Personal Life – What constitutes a healthy diet? – Which investment is better for my family? Why? • Professional Life – In what ways can we improve our product? – How do the actions of our company affect others? The environment? • Academic Life – What are the main points of this text? – Which major should I choose…why? • Spiritual Life – How do these teachings apply to my life? – Are there contradictions in what is being said?
- 26. Skills You Should Cultivate • Become an active learner – “Chase” answers. – Actively seek out solutions. – Go to the answer, don’t wait for it to come to you. • Become open-minded – Is it possible that there are multiple correct answers? – You might be wrong. Why? – Try and approach problems from a different perspective. • Separate Emotions from Facts – “Thinking” and “feeling” are not the same. • Avoid Logical Fallacies – 2 + 2 = 5. Incorrect.
- 27. Active Learning • Attend class regularly – Take advantage of extra credit opportunities. – Participate in discussions. – Talk with your professors. • Read textbooks – Take notes and outline information. – Review notes and try to put them in your own words. • Attend Tutoring – It’s free! – www.nmu.edu/tutoring • Take the new information you have gathered, try it out and experiment with it. – Why is it relevant? – What does it mean? – What is the purpose of knowing the information?
- 28. Things to Keep in Mind • Keep an open mind – Your perspective is yours. Others have different perspectives. – It is possible that you are “wrong” and that others are “right”. – Get comfortable with being “wrong”. Learn from it. – Consider many different viewpoints. – Accept a new explanation if it explains the evidence better and has fewer contradictions. • Think before you act – Separate your feelings from the facts. – Am I acting because of an emotional impulse, or because it is logical? – Do I believe something because of the logic behind it?
- 29. Avoid Logical Fallacies • A logical fallacy is a misunderstanding derived from faulty reasoning. • Avoid contradictions between answers. • Is your best answer a logical answer? Does it makes sense? • Example of a Logical Fallacy: – Hasty Generalization 1. Cutting people with a knife is a crime. 2. Surgeons cut people with knives. 3. Therefore surgeons are criminals.
- 30. You must be willing to say, “I don’t know.” And then be willing to do something to change that.
- 31. Critical Thinking is NOT driven by answers; It IS driven by the questions that you ask.
- 32. Constantly Ask Questions • Why? – Why is the population increasing? Is there an abundance of deer to hunt? • What? – What effect is this increase having on the deer population? • Where? – Where is the population increasing? Is it all over the Upper Peninsula, or just in isolated locations? • Who? – Who is affected by the increase in the population of cougars? Are the hunters affected? The wolves? • When? – When did this increase begin occurring? How long will the increase continue? • How? – How can we stabilize the cougar population? For example: Suppose you have just read an article that says that the cougar population of the Upper Peninsula is increasing.
- 33. Problem Solving System, Part I • Reorganize – List the topic, issues, and main points. – Paraphrase. – Summarize. • Understand – Put concepts into your own words. – Relate the information to what you already know. – Restate the information. • Hypothesize – Make an interpretation of the information based on your understanding of it. – This interpretation will then be analyzed logically.
- 34. Problem Solving System, Part II • Analyze the information – Split the information into parts. • Figure out how the ideas are related or connected. – Ask questions: Why? What? Where? Who? When? How? – Compare and contrast the information. • Recombine information – Using your new understanding of the material, put the parts that you analyzed back together. – Think of a puzzle…can you put the pieces back together? How do the pieces fit? • Check Hypothesis – See if your new understanding agrees with your hypothesis.
- 35. Cubing • Cubing allows you to look at a subject or problem from six different points of view. • It is an excellent exercise to illustrate how critical thinking techniques can be put into practice. • Look to the next slides. • Do each of the six steps in order, and do them quickly.
- 36. Cubing Method Step 1: Describe (3-5 min) • Write in detail about the subject. What the subject looks like, feels like, etc. Step 2: Compare/Contrast (3-5 min) • What is similar to your subject? How are they similar? • How does your subject differ? Step 3: Associate (3-5 min) • Relate the subject to some of your memories. • What comes to mind when you think of the subject? • This side of the cube should be very personal.
- 37. Cubing Method, cont’d. Step 4: Analyze (3-5 min) • Break the subject down into parts, and explain the significance of each. • Interpret the meaning of the topic. Step 5: Apply (3-5 min) • How can you use the subject? • Is there any way to apply this subject? Step 6: Argue (5 min) • Take both sides of the subject. • Argue for the subject. • Argue against the subject. • Remember to keep an open mind. • Why is this subject important?
- 38. Critical Thinking Key Words • Discuss • Explain • Compare and Contrast • Critique • Evaluate • Describe • Define • Enumerate • Illustrate • Interpret • Identify • Outline • Prove • Justify • Relate • Summarize • Trace Ideally you should always be thinking critically, however, the following words will identify when critical thinking is required. These types of words require COMPREHENSION AND UNDERSTANDING, not simple MEMORIZATION.
- 39. Use the techniques found in this presentation to develop your own strategies for critical thinking. Tailor the concepts to fit your needs. There is no “one size fits all” approach, and every technique may not work for each of your courses. Create the “this size fits you” approach to developing your critical thinking. How you apply the concepts to your coursework is your decision. Some Final Tips…