Critical thinking is a way of approaching any subject, content, or problem in which the thinker is deliberate about the process of thinking and reasoning and imposes intellectual standards upon his or her thinking.
People are constantly bombarded with information from their own senses and experiences as well as from what they read, hear, or see from various media. Everyone thinks, but when not using critical thinking skills much human thinking is biased, distorted, partial, or uninformed. A critical thinker seeks out credible sources of information, sifts through the inputs received, tests those inputs relative to other standards, and uses the sifted information to inform decisions. Critical thinking involves analysis and synthesis of information and can help a person make sense of the world.
Several academic subjects include the development of critical thinking skills.
Health literacy by definition includes being a critical thinker. Science as inquiry depends on thinking critically...
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Suggested Reading
Facione, P. A. (2006). Critical thinking: What it is and why it counts. Insight assessment. Available at http://www.insightassessment.com/pdf_files/what&why2006.pdf
Suggested Resources
Internet School Library Media Center (ISLMC)—http://falcon.jmu.edu/∼ramseyil/critical.htm: This critical thinking page, which is part of the school library section at James Madison University, has general information, lesson plans and bibliographies to help educators interested in higher order thinking skills.
The Critical Thinking Community—www.criticalthinking.org/: Consisting of the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking and Moral Critique and the Foundation for Critical Thinking, the Critical Thinking Community provides educational materials, professional development workshops, and conferences designed to develop critical thinking.
The National Center for Teaching Thinking—http://www.nctt.net/lessonsarticles.html: This website offers lesson plans for use in a variety of subject areas.
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Wooley, S.F. (2010). Critical Thinking. In: Clauss-Ehlers, C.S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural School Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71799-9_97
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71799-9_97
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