1. ISD 200 Week 5 CRITICAL THINKING IMMIGRATION INSTRUCTORS: Mari Acob-Nash Ryan Packard

2. Critical Thinking  What is it?

3. Definitions  "reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do“  “the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action”

4. Definitions  “purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based”  From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking

5. Definitions  “thinking which helps you figure out whether you should believe some claim and how strongly you should believe it”  Systematic way of thinking  A thinking activity to create confidence in that knowledge.  From Tim van Gelder, Teaching Critical Thinking: Lessons from Cognitive Science, www. Austhink.org

6. Importance  Critical thinking is an important element of all professional fields and academic disciplines

7. Importance  Critical thinking includes identification of prejudice, bias, propaganda, self- deception, distortion, misinformation, etc.  From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking

8. Importance  it enables one to analyze, evaluate, explain, and restructure their thinking, thereby decreasing the risk of adopting, acting on, or thinking with, a false belief

9. How to gain this skill?  skills includes observation, interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation, and meta-cognition.

10. Skills  Evidence through observation  Context  Relevant criteria for making the judgment well  Applicable methods or techniques for forming the judgment  Applicable theoretical constructs for understanding the problem and the question at hand

11. How do teachers teach this?  Strategies to teach:  Reflection  Reasons  Alternatives

12. Homework  With your limited knowledge on critical thinking in the US classrooms, please reflect on your current classes here at NSCC. Can you name and describe three methods that your teachers use to develop critical thinking in your classes?