Critical Thinking: Using Reflection Friday, 21 st November 2008

What is This Session About? critical (adj) Making or involving adverse or censorious comments or judgements Expressing or involving criticism Skilful at or engaged in criticism Critical: ‘incisive, questioning, probing’

Some Critical Questions Definitions Are all the concepts sufficiently well defined for you to be able to judge whether what is said about them is justified? Clarity Is everything that is stated sufficiently clear for you to be able to judge whether what is said is justified? Are some statements so vague that they could hardly be contradicted?

Some Critical Questions Facts Is everything that is presented as ‘fact’ really fact? Where facts are stated, are there some good reasons given to accept them as facts (e.g. references to reliable sources)? Opinions Where opinions are given is it made clear that they are opinions and not ‘facts’? What is the balance of well-supported fact or argument on the one hand and opinion on the other?

Some Critical Questions Assumptions What assumptions are being made that you are asked to accept? Are these well justified? Relevance Are there statements or claims that are actually irrelevant to the arguments? Is everything that is included relevant and is that relevance made clear?

Group Exercise You are a team of management staff in a College You have to save £100,000 out of a total budget of £500,000 in one year You have three options: ◦Cut two teachers or three admin staff ◦Cut a course ◦Cut plans for a new building, but there are too many students to fit in the existing teaching facilities

Cut Staff Best to make the cut quick Lecturers will adapt they are used to completing admin work Cut Admin Staff The lecturers are well valued Is it going to be us next? Important to the work and success of the College Cut Teachers

Cut a Course Will free up staff time both academic and administrative It’s about time we looked again at that programme, it was getting stale For Cutting the Course Poor long term strategy It is a popular course, another college may snap it up It attracts a lot of overseas money Against Cutting the Course

Cut a Course Students are used to going outside the building. It’s good for them to mix with other students Facilities have to be shared For Cutting the New Build Students feel estranged from the department. Poorly attended course?? Staff have to travel across campus to deliver lectures Against Cutting the New Build

Tracking the Decision How did you come up with your decisions? Consultation process Consequences of action ◦For Individuals ◦For Stakeholder groups ◦For organisation Why ideas are always best formulated after reading a number of relevant materials, then prepare an opinion or line of argument

Elements of Critical Thinking Analyse = Examine ideas, detect and analyse arguments Evaluate = Monitoring and weighing the process of decision making Inference = Querying evidence, conjecturing alternatives and drawing conclusions Explanation = Stating results, justifying procedures and presenting arguments Interpret = decoding significance, clarifying meaning

Critically Analyse the Success of the Barclays Premiership

Critically Analyse the Success of the X Factor

Developing a Literature Review or Discussion Use as many reliable sources as possible Books, journals, periodicals, newspapers, etc Try and develop a line of argument e.g. what are you hoping to find out You hope to find this out, however in other similar research or studies, this was found so my line of argument may have to follow this thought Literature reviews always need a for and against argument Critical Analysis + Evaluation = Good Marks Description + Own Opinion = Poor Marks

Key Questions 1. What resources will you use for your next literature review? 2. How many references do you think are appropriate? 3. How can you amend the structure of your work to become more critical?