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Quick Guide To Critical Thinking: 1. Being Critical in An Academic Context

Critical thinking involves open-mindedly evaluating evidence, considering alternative explanations, and acknowledging limitations in understanding. Key attributes of critical thinkers are open-mindedness, inquisitiveness, self-confidence, and truth-seeking. It can be difficult to think critically due to time constraints, discomfort with evidence that disconfirms existing views, or reluctance to question experts. Developing critical thinking is important for academic maturity and involves building skills up through Bloom's Taxonomy from basic to more advanced levels like evaluation and generating one's own arguments. A model for critical thinking encourages generating meaningful questions to facilitate critical engagement with topics.

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108 views3 pages

Quick Guide To Critical Thinking: 1. Being Critical in An Academic Context

Critical thinking involves open-mindedly evaluating evidence, considering alternative explanations, and acknowledging limitations in understanding. Key attributes of critical thinkers are open-mindedness, inquisitiveness, self-confidence, and truth-seeking. It can be difficult to think critically due to time constraints, discomfort with evidence that disconfirms existing views, or reluctance to question experts. Developing critical thinking is important for academic maturity and involves building skills up through Bloom's Taxonomy from basic to more advanced levels like evaluation and generating one's own arguments. A model for critical thinking encourages generating meaningful questions to facilitate critical engagement with topics.

Uploaded by

Omar Ashraf
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Quick Guide to Critical Thinking

1. Being Critical in an Academic Context


Being critical involves an open-minded approach in reading and writing. Evidence
and arguments need to be evaluated and alternative explanations and conclusions
considered. It may be necessary to accept that current understanding is only partial,
or that there are no clear-cut answers to questions.

2. Key Attributes to Critical Thinking


Open-mindedness
Maturity of Judgement Inquisitiveness

Self-confidence Attributes of a
Critical Thinker Truth-seeking

Adapted from Casey


et al. (2013, p.25)
Systematicity Analyticity

3. Why it can be difficult to be critical


 There may be little time to think deeply or to adopt different perspectives.
 It may be inconvenient to examine evidence that ‘does not fit’, or to change a
line of argument.
 It may feel presumptuous to question experts’ views and findings.

4. Blooms Taxonomy
This hierarchy of knowledge, which goes from the easiest level of challenge at the
bottom of the pyramid to the highest at the top, can help us understand the types of
thinking that are required at university level education. In order to think critically and
show this in our work, we need to build ourselves up to the higher levels.
(Vanderbilt
University Center
for Teaching, 2016)

A developing ability to be critical in this way is seen as a sign of growing academic


maturity (as reflected in the Descriptors for study at Levels 4 to 7. For more on these,
see http://www.seec.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/SEEC-descriptors-2016.pdf.

5. Critical Thinking for Your Studies

Search for relevant


information,
Understand the task
interact with the
text and make notes

Evaluate others'
arguments

Convice your reader Find your own Adapted from


of your argument argument Cottrell (2017)

6. A Model for Critical Thinking


In order to help the development of critical thinking skills, we can look at this model
for guidance. The idea is to encourage generation of meaningful questions which will
facilitate critical engagement throughout your studies.
So what? What?
What Where?
next? When? Who?

(University of
Leeds, 2020)
How? Why? What
if?

References
Casey, D., Clark, L., and Hayes, S. (2013). Study Skills for Master’s Level Students.
Banbury: Lantern.
Cottrell, S. (2017). Critical Thinking Skills: Effective Analysis, Argument and
Reflection. London: Palgrave.
University of Leeds (2020) Critical Thinking. Available at:
https://library.leeds.ac.uk/info/1401/academic_skills/105/critical_thinking/2 (Accessed
6 May 2020).
Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching (2016) Bloom’s Taxonomy. Available at:
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/ (Accessed 21 January
2020).

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