The Art of Critical Thinking part 1

Knowledge is power.

Education is important to acquire knowledge. Nothing can be done without knowledge, and little can be done with limited knowledge. Knowledge is more powerful than strength. A large army of strong but dumb brutes can overpower a small country, but without knowledge they will not be able to run the country and all that force will have been for naught.

With knowledge you can empower yourself to make informed decisions. If you don’t know there is a choice, how can you make a choice?

Knowledge is freedom.

I worked with refugees in the late 2000’s. They came from an area of the world where women are not taught to read. They each had many children, one year apart in age or less. And many had several children who had died as a side effect from poverty.

By giving them knowledge: health, the woman’s reproductive cycle, birth planning, rhythm method birth control as their culture frowned on birth control, reasons why it’s important to space pregnancies- her own body recovering, more nutrition for the nursing child, less poverty, etc, the women were able to make informed decisions to greatly impact the lives of their entire families.

There are some who looked down upon this acquiring of knowledge. There is a reason women are not taught to read. One may be kept this way so they do not know there are choices and different way of doing things. When kept with little knowledge they do not question, and therefore serve the agenda of their leaders without argument.

But every woman we taught came out of the program with joyful tears. Each one was grateful and happy, and developed a tremendous thirst for more knowledge. I have never seen anyone more excited to receive a library card.

"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness..."

~ Michael Scriven & Richard Paul, presented at the 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, 1987

Thinking critically is truly an artform, and one not often taught in primary education atmospheres. How do you teach how to think?

How do you learn how to think critically?

By starting with a question.

What do you wish to know more about? Ask the question. Avoid questions with an easy one dimensional yes or no answer. It must be something you wish to explore thouroughly and understand on a deep level.

This is the critical first step in any critical thinking endeavor.

Essential, open ended question must be developed. Questions to inspire a hunger for knowledge. Questions to lead a passionate quest for problem solving.

These are questions that inspire a quest for knowledge and problem-solving. Formulate questions to provoke gradually higher levels of learning. This supports critical thinking skills beautifully.

Question Everything

Examples of critical thinking questioning paths:

After formulating your question, ask some of these questions:

What do we already know about...?
Why is it important?
What are the implications if...?
How does it affect...?
Why is it happening?
Do you agree or disagree?
What do you think causes it?
How would you explain it to someone who has never heard of it?
What is a solution?
What is the nature?
How does it tie in with what you already know?
What are the strengths and weaknesses?
What might have happened if...?
What is another way of looking at it?

You must ask varying questions to gain depth of knowledge and train the brain to automatically apply critical thinking to all you learn.

Student ability and learning outcome starts with remembering. You can see in the chart above how cognitive learning progresses as the ability to think critically is learned.

When you ask the question, encourage brainstorming amongst peers. Sharing ideas opens each learner to different points of view and new ideas.

Write down possible answers for all to see as a reference to build from. This is one of the easiest yet biggest parts of defining and dissecting the answers to the question. Have in-depth discussions, and remember that no question is a dumb question.