| |
| |
Preface | |
| |
| |
Introduction | |
| |
| |
A Start-up Definition of Critical Thinking | |
| |
| |
How Skilled Are You as a Thinker? | |
| |
| |
Good Thinking Requires Hard Work | |
| |
| |
Defining Critical Thinking | |
| |
| |
The Concept of Critical Thinking | |
| |
| |
Become a Critic of Your Thinking | |
| |
| |
Establish New Habits of Thought | |
| |
| |
Develop Confidence in Your Ability to Reason and Figure Things Out | |
| |
| |
| |
How the Mind Can Discover Itself | |
| |
| |
Recognize the Mind's Three Basic Functions | |
| |
| |
Establish a Special Relationship to Your Mind | |
| |
| |
Connect Academic Subjects to Your Life | |
| |
| |
Learn Both Intellectually and Emotionally | |
| |
| |
| |
Discover the Parts of Thinking | |
| |
| |
Thinking Is Everywhere in Human Life | |
| |
| |
The Parts of Thinking | |
| |
| |
A First Look at the Elements of Thought | |
| |
| |
An Everyday Example: Jack and Jill | |
| |
| |
Analysis of the Example | |
| |
| |
How the Parts of Thinking Fit Together | |
| |
| |
The Relationship Between the Elements | |
| |
| |
The Elements of Thought | |
| |
| |
The Best Thinkers Think to Some Purpose | |
| |
| |
The Best Thinkers Take Command of Concepts | |
| |
| |
The Best Thinkers Assess Information | |
| |
| |
The Best Thinkers Distinguish Between Inferences and Assumptions | |
| |
| |
The Best Thinkers Think Through Implications | |
| |
| |
The Best Thinkers Think Across Points of View | |
| |
| |
Conclusion | |
| |
| |
| |
Discover Universal Standards for Thinking | |
| |
| |
Take a Deeper Look at Universal Intellectual Standards | |
| |
| |
Clarity | |
| |
| |
Accuracy | |
| |
| |
Precision | |
| |
| |
Relevance | |
| |
| |
Depth | |
| |
| |
Breadth | |
| |
| |
Logic | |
| |
| |
Significance | |
| |
| |
Fairness | |
| |
| |
Bring Together the Elements of Reasoning and the Intellectual Standards | |
| |
| |
Purpose, Goal, or End in View | |
| |
| |
Question at Issue or Problem to Be Solved | |
| |
| |
Point of View or Frame of Reference | |
| |
| |
Information, Data, Experiences | |
| |
| |
Concepts, Theories, Ideas | |
| |
| |
Assumptions | |
| |
| |
Implications and Consequences | |
| |
| |
Inferences | |
| |
| |
Brief Guidelines for Using Intellectual Standards | |
| |
| |
| |
Redefine Grades As Levels of Thinking and Learning | |
| |
| |
Develop Strategies for Self-Assessment | |
| |
| |
Use Student Profiles to Assess Your Performance | |
| |
| |
Exemplary Students (Grade of A) | |
| |
| |
High-Performing Students (Grade of B) | |
| |
| |
Mixed-Quality Students (Grade of C) | |
| |
| |
Low-Performing Students (Grade of D or F) | |
| |
| |
Apply the Student Profiles to Assess Your Performance Within Specific Disciplines | |
| |
| |
Exemplary Thinking as a Student of Psychology (Grade of A) | |
| |
| |
High-Performing Thinking as a Student of Psychology (Grade of B) | |
| |
| |
Mixed-Quality Thinking as a Student of Psychology (Grade of C) | |
| |
| |
Low-Performing Thinking as a Student of Psychology (Grade of D or F) | |
| |
| |
Conclusion | |
| |
| |
| |
Learn to Ask the Questions the Best Thinkers Ask | |
| |
| |
The Importance of Questions in Thinking | |
| |
| |
Questioning Your Questions | |
| |
| |
Dead Questions Reflect Inert Minds | |
| |
| |
Three Categories of Questions | |
| |
| |
Questions of Fact | |
| |
| |
Questions of Preference | |
| |
| |
Questions of Judgment | |
| |
| |
Become a Socratic Questioner | |
| |
| |
Focus Your Thinking on the Type of Question Being Asked | |
| |
| |
Focus Your Questions on Universal Intellectual Standards for Thought | |
| |
| |
Focus Your Questions on the Elements of Thought | |
| |
| |
Focus Your Questions on Prior Questions | |
| |
| |
Focus Your Questions on Domains of Thinking | |
| |
| |
Conclusion | |
| |
| |
| |
Discover How the Best Thinkers Learn | |
| |
| |
18 Ideas for Improving Your Learning | |
| |
| |
The Logic of a College as It Is | |
| |
| |
How the Best Students Learn | |
| |
| |
The Design of a College Class | |
| |
| |
Figure Out the Underlying Concept of Your Course | |
| |
| |
Figure Out the Form of Thinking Essential to a Course or Subject | |
| |
| |
Think Within the Logic of the Subject | |
| |
| |
A Case: The Logic of Biochemistry | |
| |
| |
Make the Design of the Course Work for You | |
| |
| |
Sample Course: American History, 1600-1800 | |
| |
| |
Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Thinking | |
| |
| |
Figure Out the Logic of an Article or Essay | |
| |
| |
Figure Out the Logic of a Textbook | |
| |
| |
Criteria for Evaluating an Author's Reasoning | |
| |
| |
| |
The Best Thinkers Read Closely and Write Substantively | |
| |
| |
The Interrelationship Between Reading and Writing | |
| |
| |
| |
Discover Close Reading | |
| |
| |
Consider the Author's Purpose | |
| |
| |
Avoid Impressionistic Reading | |
| |
| |
Read Reflectively | |
| |
| |
Think About Reading While Reading | |
| |
| |
Engage the Text While Reading | |
| |
| |
Think of Books as Teachers | |
| |
| |
Reading Minds | |
| |
| |
The Work of Reading | |
| |
| |
Structural Reading | |
| |
| |
How to Read a Sentence | |
| |
| |
How to Read a Paragraph | |
| |
| |
How to Read a Textbook | |
| |
| |
How to Read an Editorial | |
| |
| |
Take Ownership of What You Read: Mark It Up | |
| |
| |
The Best Readers Read to Learn | |
| |
| |
| |
Discover Substantive Writing | |
| |
| |
Write for a Purpose | |
| |
| |
Substantive Writing | |
| |
| |
The Problem of Impressionistic Writing | |
| |
| |
Write Reflectively | |
| |
| |
How to Write a Sentence | |
| |
| |
Write to Learn | |
| |
| |
Substantive Writing in Content Areas | |
| |
| |
Relate Core Ideas to Other Core Ideas | |
| |
| |
Writing Within Disciplines | |
| |
| |
The Work of Writing | |
| |
| |
Nonsubstantive Writing | |
| |
| |
| |
Practice Close Reading and Substantive Writing | |
| |
| |
Paraphrasing | |
| |
| |
Exercises in the Five Levels of Close Reading and Substantive Writing | |
| |
| |
Exploring Conflicting Ideas | |
| |
| |
Exploring Key Ideas Within Disciplines | |
| |
| |
Analyzing Reasoning | |
| |
| |
Writing Substantively to Analyze Reasoning: An Example | |
| |
| |
Evaluating Reasoning | |
| |
| |
| |
Become a Fair-Minded Thinker | |
| |
| |
Weak Versus Strong Critical Thinking | |
| |
| |
What Does Fair-Mindedness Require? | |
| |
| |
Intellectual Humility: The Best Thinkers Strive to Discover the Extent of Their Ignorance | |
| |
| |
Intellectual Courage: The Best Thinkers Have the Courage to Challenge Popular Beliefs | |
| |
| |
Intellectual Empathy: The Best Thinkers Empathically Enter Opposing Views | |
| |
| |
Intellectual Integrity: The Best Thinkers Hold Themselves to the Same Standards to Which They Hold Others | |
| |
| |
Intellectual Perseverance: The Best Thinkers Do Not Give Up Easily, But Work Their Way Through Complexities and Frustration | |
| |
| |
Confidence in Reason: The Best Thinkers Respect Evidence and Reasoning and Value Them as Tools for Discovering the Truth | |
| |
| |
Intellectual Autonomy: The Best Thinkers Value Their Independence in Thought | |
| |
| |
The Best Thinkers Recognize the Interdependence of Intellectual Virtues | |
| |
| |
Conclusion | |
| |
| |
| |
Deal with Your Irrational Mind | |
| |
| |
| |
The Best Thinkers Take Charge of Their Egocentric Nature | |
| |
| |
Understand Egocentric Thinking | |
| |
| |
Understand Egocentrism as a Mind Within the Mind | |
| |
| |
Successful Egocentric Thinking | |
| |
| |
Unsuccessful Egocentric Thinking | |
| |
| |
Rational Thinking | |
| |
| |
Two Egocentric Functions | |
| |
| |
Pathological Tendencies of the Human Mind | |
| |
| |
The Best Thinkers Challenge the Pathological Tendencies of Their Minds | |
| |
| |
The Challenge of Rationality | |
| |
| |
| |
The Best Thinkers Take Charge of Their Sociocentric Tendencies | |
| |
| |
The Nature of Sociocentrism | |
| |
| |
Social Stratification | |
| |
| |
Sociocentric Thinking Is Unconscious and Potentially Dangerous | |
| |
| |
Sociocentric Uses of Language | |
| |
| |
Disclose Sociocentric Thinking Through Conceptual Analysis | |
| |
| |
Reveal Ideology at Work Through Conceptual Analysis | |
| |
| |
The Mass Media Foster Sociocentric Thinking | |
| |
| |
Conclusion | |
| |
| |
| |
The Stages of Critical Thinking Development: At What Stage are You? | |
| |
| |
| |
The Unreflective Thinker | |
| |
| |
| |
The Challenged Thinker | |
| |
| |
| |
The Beginning Thinker | |
| |
| |
| |
The Practicing Thinker | |
| |
| |
A "Game Plan" for Improvement | |
| |
| |
A Game Plan for Devising a Game Plan | |
| |
| |
Integrating Strategies One By One | |
| |
| |
Appendices | |
| |
| |
| |
Further Exercises in Close Reading and Substantive Writing | |
| |
| |
| |
Sample Analysis of the Logic of... | |
| |
| |
| |
What Do We Mean by "The Best Thinkers"? | |
| |
| |
Glossary | |
| |
| |
References | |