Critical Thinking: Learn The Tools The Best Thinkers Use

Preface. Introduction: A Start-up Definition of Critical Thinking. How Skilled Are You as a Thinker? Good Thinking Requires Hard Work. Concept of Critical Thinking. Become a Critic of Your Thinking. Establish New Habits of Thought. Develop Confidence in Your Ability to Reason and Figure Things Out. An Elaborated Definition of Critical Thinking. 1. How the Mind Can Discover Itself. Recognize the Mind's Three Basic Functions. Establish a Special Relationship to Your Mind. Connect Academic Subjects to Your Life. Learn Both Intellectually and Emotionally. 2. Discover Parts of Thinking. Thinking Is Everywhere in Human Life. Parts of Thinking. How the Parts of Thinking Fit Together. Relationship Between the Elements. Best Thinkers Think to Some Purpose. Best Thinkers Take Command of Concepts. Best Thinkers Assess Information. Best Thinkers Distinguish Between Inferences and Assumptions. Best Thinkers Think Through Implications. Best Thinkers Think Across Points of View. Point of View of the Critical Thinker. Conclusion. 3. Discover Universal Standards for Thinking. Take a Deeper Look at Intellectual Standards. Clarity. Accuracy. Precision. Relevance. Depth. Breadth. Logicalness. Significance. Fairness. Bringing Together the Elements of Reasoning and the Intellectual Standards. Purpose, Goal, or End In View. Question at Issue or Problem to Be Solved. Point of View or Frame of Reference. Information, Data, Experiences. Concepts, Theories, Ideas. Assumptions. Implications and Consequences. Inferences. Brief Guidelines For Using Intellectual Standard. 4. Redefining Grades as Levels of Thinking and Learning. Develop Strategies for Assessing Your Learning. Use Student Profiles to Assess Your Performance. Exemplary Students (Grade of A). High Performing Students (Grade of B). Mixed-Quality Students (Grade of C). Low-Performing Students (Grade of D or F). Apply Student Profiles to Assess Your Performance Within Specific Disciplines: Exemplified by an Introduction to Psychology Course. Exemplary to Low-Performing. Conclusion. 5. Learn to Ask the Questions the Best Thinkers Ask. Importance of Questions in Thinking. Questioning Your Questions. Dead Questions Reflect Inert Minds. Three Categories of Questions. Become a Socratic Questioner. Focus Your Thinking on the Type of Question Being Asked. Focus Your Questions on Universal Intellectual Standards for Thought. Focus Your Questions on the Elements of Thought. Focus Your Questions on Prior Questions. Focus Your Questions on Domains of Thinking. Conclusion. 6. Discover How the Best Thinkers Learn. 18 Ideas for Improving Your Studies. Logic of a College as It Is. How the Best Students Learn. Design of a College Class. Figure Out the Underlying Concept of Your Courses. Figure Out the Form of Thinking Essential to Courses or Subjects. Think Within the Logic of the Subject. A Case: Logic of Biochemistry. Make the Design of the Course Work for You. Sample Course: American History, 1600-1800. Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Thinking. Figure Out the Logic of an Article or Essay. Figure Out the Logic of a Textbook. Criteria for Evaluating an Author's Reasoning. A Test To Repeat In Every Class & Subject. 7. Learn How to Read Closely and Write Substantively. Part I: Discover Close Reading. Read for a Purpose. Consider the Author's Purpose. Avoid Impressionistic Reading and Writing. Read Reflectively. Think About Reading While Reading. Engage the Text While Reading. Think of Books as Teachers. Reading Minds. Work of Reading. Structural Reading. How to Read a Sentence. How to Read a Paragraph. How to Read a Textbook. How to Read a Newspaper. How to Read an Editorial. Take Ownership (Mark it Up). Best Readers Read to Learn. Part II: Discover Substantive Writing. Write for a Purpose. Substantive Writing. Problem of Impressionistic Writing. Write Reflectively. How to Write a Sentence. Write to Learn. Substantive Writing in Content Areas. Relate Core Ideas to Other Core Ideas. Work of Writing. Question as You Write. Non-Substantive Writing. Part III: Practice Close Reading and Substantive Writing. Five Levels of Close Reading (that Overlap With Substantive Writing). Paraphrasing. Clarification Strategies. Sample Paraphrases. Paraphrasing Short Quotes. Exercises in the Five Levels of Close Reading and Substantive Writing. Declaration of Independence, by Thomas Jefferson et. al. Civil Disobedience (Two Excerpts), by Henry David Thoreau. Exploring Conflicting Ideas. Exploring Key Ideas Within Disciplines. Analyzing Reasoning. Evaluating Reasoning. 8. Become a Fair-minded Thinker. Weak vs. Strong Critical Thinking. What Does Fair-Mindedness Require? Intellectual Humility: Best Thinkers Strive to Discover the Extent of Their Ignorance. Intellectual Courage: Best Thinkers have the Courage to Challenge Popular Beliefs. Intellectual Empathy: Best Thinkers Empathically Enter Opposing Views. Intellectual Integrity: Best Thinkers Hold Themselves to the Same Standards to Which They Hold Others. Intellectual Perseverance: Best Thinkers Do Not Give Up Easily, But Work Their Way Through Complexities and Frustration. Confidence In Reason: Best Thinkers Respect Evidence and Reasoning and Value Them as Tools for Discovering the Truth. Intellectual Autonomy: Best Thinkers Value Their Independence in Thought. Best Thinkers Recognize the Interdependence of Intellectual Virtues. Conclusion. 9. Deal With Your Irrational Mind. Part I: Best Thinkers Take Charge of Their Egocentric Nature. Understand Egocentric Thinking. Understand Egocentrism as a Mind Within the Mind. Successful Egocentric Thinking. Unsuccessful Egocentric Thinking. Rational Thinking. Two Egocentric Functions. Egocentric Domination. Egocentric Submission. Pathological Tendencies of the Human Mind. Best Thinkers Challenge the Pathological Tendencies of Their Minds. Challenge of Rationality. Part II: Best Thinkers Take Charge of Their Sociocentric Thinking. Nature of Sociocentrism. Social Stratification. Sociocentric Thinking Is Unconscious and Potentially Dangerous. Sociocentric Uses of Language. Disclose Sociocentric Thinking Through Conceptual Analysis. Reveal Ideology at Work Through Conceptual Analysis. Mass Media Foster Sociocentric Thinking. Conclusion: Best Thinkers Work to Free Themselves from Egocentric and Sociocentric Thought. 10. Stages of Critical Thinking Development: At What Stage Are You? Stage One: Unreflective Thinker. Stage Two: Challenged Thinker. Stage Three: Beginning Thinker. Stage Four: Practicing Thinker. APPENDICES. Appendix A: Further Exercises in Close Reading and Substantive Writing. Nineteenth-Century American, by Henry Steele Commager. Art of Loving, by Erich Fromm. Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl. History of the Great American Fortunes, by Gustavus Myers. On Liberty, by H. L. Mencken. Corn-Pone Opinions, by Mark Twain. Idea of Education, by John Henry Newman. Appendix B: Sample Analyses of The Logic of . Appendix C: What We Mean By The Best Thinkers? Glossary. References. Index.