1. Critical Thinking

2. What Is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking means making reasoned judgements that are logical and well thought out.
It is a way of thinking in which you don’t simply accept all arguments and conclusions you are presented with, but rather question them.

3. What Is Critical Thinking?
A critical thinker will ask:
Is that really true?
How do you know?
Show me the evidence.
Is that evidence reliable?

4. Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know

5. Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking can be divided up into three main skills:
Curiosity – the desire to learn more information, seek evidence, and be open to new ideas.
Skepticism – having a healthy questioning attitude about new information and not blindly believing everything everyone tells you.
Humility – the ability to admit that your ideas are wrong when faces with new convincing evidence that states otherwise.

6. Using Critical Thinking Skills
Many people make decisions in their daily lives based on anecdotes, or stories from one person’s experience.

7. Using Critical Thinking Skills
Example:
Your aunt told you that she takes vitamin C supplements every day. One morning she was running late for work and forgot to take them. That afternoon, she developed a cold. She now insists that you take vitamin C every day or you will get sick, just like she did in her story.

8. Using Critical Thinking Skills
Many people hearing this story would just accept this and think, “To avoid getting sick, I should take vitamin C.”
Although this logic is common, it lacks critical thinking skills.
Where does the idea of vitamin C stopping illness come from?
Why did your aunt take vitamin C instead of vitamin D or any other vitamin?
Maybe your aunt was already developing a cold and it just happened to get manifest itself that day.
Maybe she shook hands with someone who had a cold.

9. Why Is Critical Thinking Important?
Helps with intellectual self improvement
Allows you to become a better team player
Improves creativity
Helps you stay calm and rational under stress
Improves ability to make decisions
Helps you focus on logical reasoning instead of emotional or interpersonal team dynamics – check your ego at the door

10. Critical Thinking Review Video

11. Critical Thinking: Cause and Effect
The concept of cause and effect (consequence) addresses who or what influenced events to occur and what the repercussions of those events were.
Think about this:
What was the grade of your last big assignment or project in one of your classes?
What were the causes of this grade?
Which cause was immediate and which one was underlying?

12. Critical Thinking: Cause and Effect
Think beyond these simple factors:
How much time did you have to study?
Did you leave the essay until the last minute?
Consider other factors:
Health issues, social environment, physical environment, etc.
*Think outside the box for determining factors
Underlying causes are usually more important or serious than immediate causes.

13. The Importance of Consequence
Depth of impact: How deeply felt or profound was the consequence?
(deep)
Breadth of impact: How widespread was this felt?
(size - small or great?)
Duration of impact: How long- lasting was the consequence?
(time)