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Critical Thinking Application Essay example

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Critical Thinking Application

Teaching higher order thinking skills is not a recent need. It is apparent that students, at all levels of education, are lagging in problem-solving and thinking skills. Fragmentation of thinking skills, however, may be the result of critical thinking courses and texts. Every course, especially in content subjects, students should be taught to think logically, analyze and compare, question and evaluate.
Implications for Teaching Thinking must be practiced in each content field at each educational level. For the teacher, this means hard work. To teach students to memorize facts and then assess them with multiple-choice tests is a much easier choice to make. In a course that emphasizes thinking, …show more content…

The criteria for critical thinking are:
1. Distinguish between fact and opinion.
2. Examine the assumptions, including ones own.
3. Be flexible and when looking for explanations, causes, and solutions to problems.
4. Be aware of erroneous arguments, vagueness, and controlling reasoning.
5. Stay focused on the whole picture, while examining the specifics.
6. Look for reputable sources.

The instructional design parameters for self-paced instruction included these factors:
1. Instructional objectives stated initially to the learner.
2. The learner selects his or her own path of inquiry.
3. Small steps, with the necessary tools introduced only as they are needed.
4. Frequent student interaction, requiring high level cognitive involvement.
5. Alternative paths available for variable levels of involvement or usefulness.

In research, there is no right or wrong process; although there are many heuristics that can be passed on. Appropriate use of information requires that we see knowledge acquirement as fluid and varying. (Jones, 1996)
Critical Reading Teaching students to think while reading--critical reading--should be central to any discussion of thinking skills. This is in part because the reading of textbooks has such an important role in the content fields. Critical reading is defined as learning to assess, draw inferences and arrive at conclusions based on the evidence.
Critical

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