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