1. Introduction to Critical Thinking
GXEX1406 Thinking and Communication Skills
Introduction to Critical Thinking

2. What is critical thinking?
Cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed to effectively:
Identify, analyze and evaluate arguments and truth claims
Discover and overcome personal prejudices and biases
Formulate and present convincing reasons in support of conclusions
To make reasonable, intelligent decisions about what to believe and what is true
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

3. What does not thinking critically look like?
Blindly reproducing old learned reactions
Blindly accepting face value all justifications of organizations & political leaders
Blindly believe TV commercials
Blindly trust political commercials
Blindly accept and say that if the textbook says it, it must be so
Blindly accept and say that if the organization does it, it must be right
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

4. What does Critical Thinking Look Like?
Contextual sensitivity - being sensitive to stereotypes about people of particular group & accept others at face value unconditionally
Perspective thinking - trying to get into other person's head, or walk in other’s shoes to see the world way that person sees it
Tolerance for ambiguity - ability to accept multiple interpretations of same situation
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

5. What are the Major Concepts in Critical Thinking?
Perception
Assumptions
Emotion
Language
Argument
Fallacy
Logic
Problem Solving
You will learn all these major concepts throughout the course
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

6. Something else is needed
More to Critical Thinking than just cognitive skills
Human beings are more than just thinking machines
In addition to the six cognitive skills, the experts say that something
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

7. Need “the Critical Spirit” (affective dispositions)
A probing inquisitiveness
A keenness of mind
A zealous dedication to reason
A hunger or eagerness for reliable information
Almost sounds like Sherlock Holmes. The kind of person described here always wants to ask “why” or “how?” or “what happens if
. . .?”
Difference is Holmes always solved the mystery. No guarantees in real world.
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

8. Critical thinkers strive for these intellectual standards
Clarity
Precision
Accuracy
Relevance
Consistency
Logical correctness
Completeness
Fairness
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

9. Why is Critical Thinking of Value?
You can answer—why of value to you?
What’s value of cognitive skills?
What’s value of the critical spirit?
Would these mean more success at what you do?
Would it mean better grades for students?
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

10. Grades – Yes! 1,100 college students
Significant correlation between CT scores & college GPA
Critical Thinking skills can be learned
Significant correlation between Critical Thinking and Reading Comprehension
So we are certain that good critical thinking skills mean better grades, but . . .
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

11. Main Purpose of College Experience
Achievement of liberal (liberated) education. It’s about
Learning to learn
Learning to think for one’s self
Leads away from naïve acceptance of authority
Leads above self-defeating relativism
Beyond ambiguous contextualism
Culminates in principled, reflective judgment
Good grades transitory Half-life of technical and professional programs at college level is about 4 years. Limited time value.
Not liberal in the sense of a smattering of this and that but . . .
Obviously more to liberal education than CT—
understanding of methods, principles, theories, and ways of achieving knowledge
encounter with cultural, artistic, spiritual dimensions of life
evolution of decision making to level of principled integrity
realization of ways lives are shaped by global as well as local social, political, psychological, economic, environmental forces
Refinement of human sensibilities through reflection on recurring questions of human existence: love, death, meaning, life
Sensitivity, appreciation, critical appraisal of all that is good and bad in human condition
CT plays a role in achieving all these things.
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

12. So..the benefits of critical thinking
In the classroom….
Understand materials you are studying
Critically evaluate what you are learning
Develop your own arguments on particular issues
In the workplace….
Problem-solving
Analyze information, draw appropriate conclusions
In Life…
Avoid making foolish decisions
Help to free us from unexamined assumptions, dogmas & prejudices
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

13. If critical thinking is so important, why is that uncritical thinking is so common?
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

14. Barriers to critical thinking
Lack of relevant background information
Poor reading skills
Bias
Prejudice
Superstition
Peer pressure
Face-saving
Resistance to change
Selective perception
Rationalization
Scapegoating
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

15. Cont…. (barriers to critical thinking) – THE MAJOR HINRANCES
Egocentrism (self-centred thinking)
Sociocentrism (group-centred thinking)
Stereotyping
Unwarranted assumptions
Wishful thinking
All these play a powerful role in hindering critical thinking
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

16. SELF-SERVING BIAS – tendency to overrate oneself
EGOCENTRISM – the tendency to view one’s own interests, ideas and values as superior to everyone’s else
SELF-INTERESTED THINKING – tendency to accept and defend beliefs that harmonize one’s own self-interest
SELF-SERVING BIAS – tendency to overrate oneself

17. Are you overconfident in your belief?
Activity 1: Make a low and high guess such that you are 90 percent sure the correct answer falls between the two. Your challenge is to be neither too narrow (I.e overconfident) nor too wide (underconfident)
The number of Malaysia’s Internet users
(90% confidence range)
LOW - ?
HIGH - ?
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

18. Sociocentrism: group-centred thinking
Group bias – the tendency to see one’s own group as being inherently better than others
Herd instinct (conformism) – the tendency to follow the crowd
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

19. Unwarranted Assumptions & Stereotyping
Assumption – something taken for granted, something we believe to be true without any proof or conclusive evidence
Unwarranted assumption – something taken for granted without good reason
Stereotyping – making a hasty generalization
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

20. Wishful thinking
Believing something not because you had good evidence for it but simply because you wished it were true.
Believing something because it makes one feel good, not because there is good rational grounds for thinking it is true.
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

21. Activity 2 - Refer to the handout
Activity 2 - Refer to the handout. Read the story and answer the questions that follow:
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

22. Answer the following Which one did you choose? Why?
As you read, you probably imagined what the characters looked like. From the image you had of them, describe the following characters in a few sentences:
The Captain
Dr Brown
Marie Brown
Lieutenant Ashley Morganstern
Letty
Eagle-Eye Sam
What is the relationship between Dr Brown and Marie Brown?
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

23. Get into your group. Discuss the followings
Compare your responses to Questions 1 & 3? Is there any consensus in the group?
Look at your portrait of Dr Brown. How many assumptions did you make about the doctor’s gender, age, appearance, and profession? What evidence in the story supports your image of the doctor?
Look at your portraits of the other characters. What similarities do you find among your group members?
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

24. Read Bassham’s Critical thinking – Chapter 1
Critical thinkers exhibit a number of traits that distinguish them from uncritical thinkers
Read Bassham’s Critical thinking – Chapter 1
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking