1. Thinking In College
In this lesson, we’ll explore what it means to be a college-level thinker, and how to develop strong thinking skills. Any questions before we start?

2. College-Level Thinking
Fast thinking:
Automatic, emotional, stereotyped, subconscious
Good for quick decisions
Slow thinking:
Logical, rational, deep
Takes effort and careful attention
Slow thinkers
Investigate problems
Ask questions
Pose new answers
Discover new information
The level of thinking your college instructors expect from you is greater than that of your high school teachers. You will find that important questions usually do not have simple answers.
Economist Daniel Kahneman describes two types of thinking: “fast thinking” and “slow thinking.” Fast thinking is automatic, emotional, stereotyped, and subconscious. It is useful to make quick and easy decisions. Slow thinking takes more effort, careful attention, and is logical, rational, and deep.
Slow thinking makes you a better learner and problem solver; slow thinkers examine problems, ask questions, suggest new answers, discover new information, question authorities, make independent judgments, and develop creative solutions.
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3. Developing Strong Thinking Skills
Ask questions
Engage curiosity and question statements and assertions
Consider multiple points of view
Be fair and open-minded to all ideas
Draw conclusions
Examine the outcome of your
inquiry in a more demanding,
critical way
The first step of thinking at a deeper level, of true critical thinking, is to be curious. You must ask questions – about everything.
Before you draw any conclusions, it is important to consider multiple points of view. You should be fair and open-minded, and consider all ideas. The more ideas you consider, the better your thinking will become.
After considering multiple ideas, you can begin to draw conclusions. You will need to examine the outcomes of your inquiries in demanding, critical ways. Why have you come to the conclusion that you did? The point isn’t to arrive at the “right” answer, but at the one you think is most practical.
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4. Developing Strong Thinking Skills: Arguments
Make arguments
Make a claim, provide reasons to support it, and use evidence
Challenge assumptions
Listen to both sides before making a judgment
Examine the evidence
Check for quality
Arguments are not just fights; the word also refers to a calm, reasoned effort to persuade someone of the value of an idea. Effective arguments make a general claim, provide reasons to support it, and back those reasons up with evidence.
It is important to challenge your implicit assumptions and beliefs when you consider an argument. Listen to both sides before making a judgment.
Evidence is a key part of any argument, so a key point of critical thinking is checking that the evidence that supports an argument is of the highest quality. If you are uncertain of a piece of evidence, find another one – drawing on questionable evidence has a tendency to backfire.
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5. Recognize and Avoid Faulty Reasoning
Logical fallacies
Attacking the person
Begging
Appealing to false authority
Jumping on a bandwagon
Assuming truth because it hasn’t been proven false
Falling victim to false cause
Hasty generalizations
Slippery slope
You will need to make sure that an argument hasn’t been compromised by faulty reasoning or logical fallacies.
Some common logical fallacies include:
Attacking the person. Arguing against other people’s positions or arguments is perfectly acceptable Going after their personalities, however, is not.
Begging. Begging doesn’t offer evidence, appeal to facts, or reason. It is based purely on emotional appeals.
Appealing to false authority. Citing experts and authorities can be valuable support for an argument. However, claims based on the authority of someone with questionable expertise don’t use real evidence.
Jumping on a bandwagon. Sometimes we are more likely to believe something many others also believe. That doesn’t make it true, however.
Assuming something is true because it hasn’t been proven false. It is hard to prove complete negation, but evidence can be discredited.
Falling victim to false cause. Frequently, we make the assumption that just because one event followed another, the first event must have caused the second.
Making hasty generalizations. Sometimes it is tempting to draw conclusions based on limited evidence.
Slippery slope. Don’t allow arguments to escalate beyond what is logical.
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6. Applying Your Critical-Thinking Skills
Collaborate
Generates a greater number of ideas
Can happen face to face and over the Internet
Improves ability to think critically
Be creative and solve problems
Use critical thinking and creativity to be resilient and successful
You need to practice thinking critically in order to get good at it. One way to become a better critical thinker is to practice with others. Collaboration and critical thinking go hand in hand. Having more than one student involved in the learning process generates a greater number of ideas. You can collaborate in person or through digital communication.
Taking advantage of opportunities to be creative will also develop strong thinking skills. Many famous people in history have become successful by thinking outside of the box.
Learning to solve problems will aid not just your thinking skills, but also your resilience.
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7. Bloom’s Taxonomy and the First Year of College
Bloom’s Taxonomy: a system of classifying goals for the learning process
Level 1: Remember
Level 2: Understand
Level 3: Apply
Level 4: Analyze
Level 5: Evaluate
Level 6: Create
Benjamin Bloom, a professor of education at the University of Chicago, designed a system of classify goals for the learning process, known as Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom’s Taxonomy has six levels of learning, and the higher the level, the more critical thinking it requires.
Level 1: Remember – Being able to recall ideas and information
Level 2: Understand – Being able to restate in your own words what ideas mean
Level 3: Apply – Applying abstract, theoretical information to practical situations
Level 4: Analyze – Breaking information into parts. Determining structure, logic, consistencies, inconsistencies
Level 5: Evaluate – Making judgments and decisions about the value of new information
Level 6: Create – Combining concepts and theories to form new, unique ideas
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8. Tech Tip: Use Your Thinking Skills in Conducting Research
Use critical thinking to conduct online research
Start with good questions
Use databases
Use a variety of locations to confirm information
Consider the quality
What does an instructor mean when they ask you to conduct research? You’ll need to use your critical thinking skills to conduct your research. Start with good questions about a topic, and use databases to find credible sources online without just using a search engine such as Google.
Don’t trust the accuracy of information if you can only find it in one place. Confirm information by looking in a variety of locations. Consider the quality of the information. Where did it come from?
Combine your information literacy and thinking skills to conduct focused, credible research.
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