Critical Thinking for Scientific

Writing

By

Dr. Laetitia Ako Kima

Course Code: MSR 101

Course Title: Critical Thinking for Scientific Writing

First Semester 2016/2017 Academic Year

Course Lecturers:
1. Dr. Laetitia Kima (course coordinator)
2. Fr. George Nkeze

CUIB General Course © 2016

Course Title: Critical Thinking for Scientific Writing

Course Credit: 2
Duration: 12 weeks
Lectures: 2 hours a week

Evaluation
Test = 10
Base Group Project = 20
Attendance = 10
Portfolio = 10
Final Exam = 50
Total Points = 100
 Course Rationale
• Science is not just a collection of facts, concepts, and useful ideas about
nature. Neither is it a systematic investigation of nature, although both are
common definitions of science. Science is a method of discovering reliable
knowledge about nature; of investigating nature; a way of knowing about
nature – one that discovers reliable knowledge about it.

• For many students, especially those who have just left high school, the
thought of writing and/or summarizing a 20-page scientific research paper
is quite overwhelming.

• Like most tasks, however, once the process is broken down into a series of
smaller steps, the end product becomes more realistic and attainable.

• This course will examine two of the first steps in scientific writing which
include critical thinking and the beginnings of a literature review or
information gathering.
 Course Rationale Cont.
• Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding
the logical connection between ideas.
– Students will be helped to acquire critical thinking skills that will lead them to
rigorously question ideas and assumptions rather than accepting them at face
value.
– Through these skills, it is hoped that, they will always seek to determine
whether the ideas, arguments and findings of any information in question
represent the entire picture and are open to finding or accepting that they do
not.

• People’s personal and cultural beliefs influence both their perceptions and
their interpretation of data, natural phenomena and various kinds of
information and reasoning.
– These skills are not innate and require practice before they can be used
effectively.
– Because we receive information from biased sources and interpret it through
our own lenses, critical thinking can be a difficult task.
– Nevertheless, these skills help us to develop objectivity and consider
information and opinions outside of our own beliefs.
• In order to function effectively, competitively, and productively in a
technological society that places complex demands upon the individual,
students need a basic understanding of various concepts and their
relationships to their present and future needs.
 Description:

• This course will provide such a basic foundation. It will introduce the
concept of critical thinking and reasoning as well as give students tips and
tricks to keeping inductive and deductive reasoning straight. It will also
equip students with skills and knowledge on how to search for and
organize information for their writing (review of literature specific to the
project topic), teach the fundamentals of effective scientific writing while
demystifying the process of scientific writing. It will give the students a
foundation on how to use higher order thinking skills in the searching of
information, reviewing relevant materials, summarizing, conceptualizing
and writing of articles.

• In summary, this course is not a prerequisite for any course, but it

empowers the students with analytical skills that they can use in many
aptitude tests, assignments and lectures while strengthening their grasp
on critical thinking and use of deductive reasoning to reach a logical true
conclusion.
 Learning Outcome
By the end of this course the students will be able to
• Understand and apply concepts of critical thinking and reasoning;

• Analyze and interpret various types of information, writings, data and

situations.

• Students will be able to analyze each assignment to:

- Describe what the author is trying to say
- Explain how they know this
- Give alternative interpretations of the issue(s) if any
- State if the author is saying anything indirectly
- Show the parts of the text that lead them to that conclusion
- Say if the author has any biases

• Explain the purpose and importance of a literature review

• Explain the concept of objectivity and its importance in a literature review

• Properly cite the literature used

 Course Outline
Week Topic
Week 1 Introduction
 Self-introduction

 Introduction of Course Outline

 Transition into university

 Critical Thinking – ice breaker

Week Topic
Week 2 Scientific and critical thinking

Base groups  Central components of Scientific and critical

formed thinking
- Empiricism: the use of Empirical Evidence
- Rationalism: The Practice of Logical Reasoning
- Skepticism: Possessing a Skeptical Attitude

• Inductive and Deductive Reasoning

Week 3 - 4 Topics
Base Group  An understanding of science based on
Assignment students’ perspective

 What is science? - Definition of Science

 The Scientific Method
 What is a Scientific Theory?
 What is a Scientific Hypothesis?
Week 5 Topics
In-text citations

Portfolio • Research ethics

• Plagiarism
• What type of information requires a reference

Searching for information

• What is a literature review

• Why is it important to undertake a literature

review as part of your research?

• What are the purposes of a literature search?

Week 6 Topics

• Sources of information
- Literature Search
- Process of conducting literature search
- The use of key words
Week 7 Topics
What to look for as you read a text under review

 Critically examining the assigned readings for

deficiencies in writing.
 With each assigned reading you should analyze
it and ask yourself:
- What is the author trying to say?
- How do you know?
- Are there any alternative interpretations of the
issue(s)?
- Does the author say anything indirectly?
- What parts of the text lead you to that
conclusion?
- Does the author have any biases?
 Searching for information cont.
Week 8 - 9 Topics

Reading and note-taking strategies

- Critical Reading
- Reason for note taking
- Techniques for taking notes
- Your own comments (foregrounding writer voice)
- Hand written notes vs computer note taking
- Making connections between different texts –
using key words
- Techniques for writing a summary
 Reference management: keeping records and
organizing information
Week 10 Topic

• A record of key word searches

• A record of bibliographic details
• Choice of citation pattern

• Revision
Week 11 - 12 Topic

Group Presentations
 Critical Thinking Exercise
• Critical thinking involves suspending your beliefs to explore and question
topics from a "blank page" point of view. It also involves the ability to
know fact from opinion when exploring a topic.

The following short quiz was developed by Anderson Consulting Worldwide to

test critical thinking. Answer each question in order..

• 1. How do you put a giraffe into your refrigerator?

• 2. How do you put an elephant into your refrigerator?
• 3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend -
except one. Which animal does not attend?
• 4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles and you do
not have a boat. How do you manage it?
 Critical Thinking Exercise Answer Sheet
1. How do you put a giraffe into your refrigerator?
The correct answer to question number 1 is:

• Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door.

This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly

complicated way.

2. How do you put an elephant into your refrigerator?

Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the
refrigerator? Wrong answer.

• Correct answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in
the elephant and close the door.

This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your

previous actions.
 Critical Thinking Exercise Answer Sheet cont.
3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend - except
one. Which animal does not attend?

Correct Answer:
The elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. You just put him in there.
This tests your memory. Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions
correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.

4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles, and you do not
have a boat. How do you manage it?

Correct Answer:
• You jump into the river and swim across. Have you not been listening? All
the crocodiles are attending the animal conference.

This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals tested got all questions
wrong.
 Chicken Little
Chicken Little likes to walk in the woods. She likes to
look at the trees. She likes to smell the flowers. She
likes to listen to the birds singing.
One day while she is walking an acorn falls from a •
tree, and hits the top of her little head.

CHL: My, oh, my, the sky is falling. I must run and
tell the lion about it, - says Chicken Little and begins
to run. She runs and runs. By and by she meets the
hen.

Hen - Where are you going? - asks the hen.

CHL - Oh, Henny Penny, the sky is falling and I am
going to the lion to tell him about it.

Henny Penny - How do you know it? - asks

Henny Penny.
 Chicken Little
CHL - It hit me on the head, so I know it must be
so, - says Chicken Little.

- Henny Penny - Let me go with you! - says

Henny Penny. - Run, run.

So the two run and run until they meet Ducky

Lucky.

Henny Penny - The sky is falling, - says Henny

Penny. - We are going to the lion to tell him about
it.
 Chicken Little
Ducky Lucky - How do you know that? - asks
Ducky Lucky.

Henny Penny - It hit Chicken Little on the

head, - says Henny Penny.
Ducky Lucky - May I come with you? - asks
Ducky Lucky.

Henny Penny - Come, - says Henny Penny.

So all three of them run on and on until they
meet Foxey Loxey.

Foxey Loxey Where are you going? - asks

Foxey Loxey.
 Chicken Little
Ducky Lucky - The sky is falling and we are going to the lion to tell
him about it, - says Ducky Lucky.

Foxey Loxey - Do you know where he lives? - asks the fox.

• - I don't, - says Chicken Little.

• - I don't, - says Henny Penny.
• - I don't, - says Ducky Lucky.
• - I do, - says Foxey Loxey.
• - Come with me and I can show you the way.

• He walks on and on until he comes to his den.

• - Come right in, - says Foxey Loxey.

• They all go in, but they never, never come out again.
Just to recap the saga of Chicken Little, the tale begins with a hen who,
while wandering through a yard, is hit on the head by a falling acorn.
• The hen jumps to the conclusion that the sky is falling, and is
convinced that disaster is pending.

• On her way to tell the king, she runs through the farmyard warning
friends like Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey, and Ducky Lucky.

• One by one, the other farm animals follow along behind Chicken
Little.

• Each animal believes Chicken: some believe the story because the
frantic fowl makes such a great emotional appeal, and some believe
simply because so many others do—in other words, they just join
the bandwagon.

• In the end, the animals meet their doom because the sly fox sees
the folly and lures them into his den.
 Recognize Common Fallacies
• Gullible people - or those who don't think through
situations very deliberately - can be misled by common
fallacies (or tricks of logic).

• Once you really think about this, you will realize that
fallacies are all around us!

• A critical thinker is not easily convinced; instead, a

critical thinker sees right through "false logic.“

• There are many types of fallacies, and the more you

think about them, the more readily you will recognize
them all around you - especially in advertisements,
arguments, and political discussions.
 Assignment
What do these mean? Use the story of
Chicken Little to identify them

• Bandwagon appeals

• Scare tactics

• Appeal to emotion

• False dichotomy
 Recognize Common Fallacies cont.
• Bandwagon appeals: the argument that you
should follow along with something because
everyone else believes it.

• Scare tactics: using scary stories to make

someone believe what you believe.

• Appeal to emotion: using a fiery speech or a

tragic story to convince someone to side with
you.
Recognize Common Fallacies cont
• False dichotomy: claiming that there are only
two possibilities in an argument.

• In Chicken Little, a false dichotomy would be

that the barnyard animals must either believe
that the sky is falling or believe that Chicken
Little is lying.

• The smart fox knew that there were other

possibilities!
 SOME DEFINITIONS OF CRITICAL THINKING CONT.
Several definitions to critical thinking:

• “The ability to cross-examine evidence and

logical argument. To sift through all the noise.”
Richard Arum, New York University sociology professor

• “Thinking about your thinking, while you’re

thinking, in order to improve your thinking.”
Linda Elder, educational psychologist; president, Foundation for Critical Thinking
SOME DEFINITIONS OF CRITICAL THINKING CONT.

• “Making use of information that’s

available in your journey to arrive
at a conclusion or decision. ”
Michael Desmarais, global head of recruiting, Goldman Sachs Group

• Thinking and judging for

yourself
Grace Fleming
 Critical Thinking Defined cont.
• Critical thinking means making reasoned
judgments 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 exposed to but rather
have an attitude involving questioning such
arguments and conclusions.
 Critical Thinking Defined cont.
• It requires wanting to see what evidence
is involved to support a particular
argument or conclusion.
– People who use critical thinking are the
ones who say things such as:
• How do you know that?
• Is this conclusion based on evidence or gut
feelings?
• Are there alternative possibilities when
given new pieces of information?‘
 Critical Thinking Defined cont.
Additionally, critical thinking can be divided into the following
three core skills:

Curiosity
• It is the desire to learn more information and seek
evidence as well as being open to new ideas.

Skepticism
• This involves having a healthy questioning attitude
about new information that you are exposed to and not
blindly believing everything everyone tells you.

Humility
• It is the ability to admit that your opinions and
ideas are wrong when faced with new convincing
evidence that states otherwise.
Someone with critical thinking dispositions or skills:
• Understand the links between ideas.

• Determine the importance and relevance of arguments

and ideas.

• Recognize, build and appraise arguments.

• Identify inconsistencies and errors in reasoning.

• Approach problems in a consistent and systematic way.

• Reflect on the justification of their own assumptions,

beliefs and values.
 What is Critical Thinking?
• Critical thinking involves the evaluation of information,
data, facts, observable phenomenon or research
findings.
– Good critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions
from a set of information and discriminate between useful
and less useful inputs for solving a problem or making a
decision.

– Critical thinkers can synthesize a range of information and

identify the most important elements for consideration.

– Critical thinkers can present coherent reasons for adopting

a position and debunk faulty reasoning regarding a
proposal or assertion.
 In Summary
• Critical thinking is aimed at achieving the best possible outcomes in any
situation. In order to achieve this it must involve gathering and
evaluating information from as many different sources possible.

• Critical thinking requires a clear, often uncomfortable, assessment of

your personal strengths, weaknesses and preferences and their possible
impact on decisions you may make.

• Critical thinking requires the development and use of foresight as far as

this is possible. As Doris Day sang, “the future’s not ours to see”.
– Implementing the decisions made arising from critical thinking must take into
account an assessment of possible outcomes and ways of avoiding potentially
negative outcomes, or at least lessening their impact.

• Critical thinking involves reviewing the results of the application of

decisions made and implementing change where possible.
 The Benefit of Foresight
• Perhaps the most important element of thinking
critically is foresight.

• Our decision making will be infinitely better and

more likely to lead to success if, when we reach a
tentative conclusion, we pause and consider the
impact on the people and activities around us.

• The elements needing consideration are generally

numerous and varied. In many cases, consideration
of one element from a different perspective will
reveal potential dangers in pursuing our decision.
 The Benefit of Foresight cont.

• For instance, moving a business activity to a new

location may improve potential output considerably
but it may also lead to the loss of skilled workers if the
distance moved is too great.

• Which of these is the more important consideration? Is

there some way of lessening the conflict?

• These are the sort of problems that may arise from

incomplete critical thinking, a demonstration perhaps
of the critical importance of good critical thinking.
 Useful Terminology for Critical Thinking

Analysis Synthesis Evaluation

Analyse Argue Assess
Apply Categorise Appraise
Break down Combine Challenge
Compare and Compare and
Compile
contrast contrast
Deconstruct Create Conclude
Determine Devise/develop Criticise/critique
Discuss Design Defend
Describe Explain Discriminate
Differentiate Generate Evaluate/judge
 Useful terminology for critical thinking Cont

Analysis Synthesis Evaluation

Discriminate Modify Explain
Distinguish Organize Interpret
Identify Plan Justify
Illustrate Prioritize Recognize
Rearrange,
Infer Relate
reconstruct
Manage Reorganize Review
Outline Relate Select
Relate Revise Summarize
Review Rewrite Support
Select Summarize
Separate
 What is science?
The word "science" probably brings to mind many
different pictures:
• A fat textbook,
• White lab coats and microscopes,
• An astronomer peering through a telescope,
• A naturalist in the rainforest,
• Einstein's equations scribbled on a chalkboard,
• the launch of the space shuttle,
• Bubbling beakers ….
All of those images reflect some aspect of science,
but none of them provides a full picture because
science has so many facets:
 What is science?

These images all show an aspect of science, but a

complete view of science is more than any particular
instance.
 What is science?
Several definitions:
• The systematic observation of natural events and
conditions in order to discover facts about them and to
formulate laws and principles based on these
facts. The organized body of knowledge that is derived
from such observations and that can be verified or tested
by further investigation.
Academic Press Dictionary of Science & Technology

• Science is a systematic and logical approach to

discovering how things in the universe work. It is also
the body of knowledge accumulated through the
discoveries about all the things in the universe.
By Alina Bradford, Live Science Contributor | March 30, 2015
 Science is both a body of knowledge
and a process.
• In school, science may sometimes seem like a
collection of isolated and static facts listed in a
textbook, but that's only a small part of the story.
• Just as importantly, science is also a process of
discovery that allows us to link isolated facts into
coherent and comprehensive understandings of
the natural world.
• Isolated fact
1.Throw a ball up }
2.It falls back down }
Link = gravity
 Science is exciting.
• Science is a way of discovering what's in the
universe and how those things work today,
how they worked in the past, and how they
are likely to work in the future.

• Scientists are motivated by the thrill of seeing

or figuring out something that no one has
before.
• Science is useful. The knowledge generated by
science is powerful and reliable. It can be used to
develop new technologies, treat diseases, and
deal with many other sorts of problems.
• Science is ongoing. Science is continually refining
and expanding our knowledge of the universe,
and as it does, it leads to new questions for
future investigation. Science will never be
"finished."
• Science is a global human endeavor. People all
over the world participate in the process of
science.
• And you will too!
 Central components of Scientific and
critical thinking
• The use of Empirical Evidence: Empiricism
• The Practice of Logical Reasoning: Rationalism
• Possessing a Skeptical Attitude: Skepticism
• Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
 Definitions by goal and process cont.
• Science is an intellectual activity carried on by
humans that is designed to discover information
about the natural world in which humans live and to
discover the ways in which this information can be
organized into meaningful patterns.

• A primary aim of science is to collect facts (data). An

ultimate purpose of science is to discern the order
that exists between and amongst the various facts.

Dr. Sheldon Gottlieb in a lecture series at the University of South Alabama

Definitions by goal and process cont.

• Science involves more than the gaining of

knowledge. It is the systematic and organized
inquiry into the natural world and its phenomena.
Science is about gaining a deeper and often useful
understanding of the world.

from the Multicultural History of Science page at Vanderbilt University.

 Definitions by contrast
• To do science is to search for repeated patterns,
not simply to accumulate facts.
Robert H. MacArthur, Geographical Ecology
=========================================
• A modern poet has characterized the personality
of art and the impersonality of science as follows:
• Art is I;
• Science is We.
Claude Bernard (1813-1878), Physiologist and "the
father of modern experimental medicine"
 Not quite definitions, but critical statements:
The real purpose of the scientific method is to make sure Nature
hasn't misled you into thinking you know something you don't
actually know. Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

================================================
A carpenter, a school teacher, and scientist were traveling by train
through Scotland when they saw a black sheep through the
window of the train.

– "Aha," said the carpenter with a smile, "I see that Scottish
sheep are black."

– "Hmm," said the school teacher, "You mean that some

Scottish sheep are black."

– "No," said the scientist glumly, "All we know is that there is

at least one sheep in Scotland, and that at least one side of
that one sheep is black."
 Types of Research
• APPLIED RESEARCH
• BASIC RESEARCH
• CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH
• DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH
• ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
• EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
• EXPLORATORY RESEARCH
• GROUNDED THEORY RESEARCH
• HISTORICAL RESEARCH
• PHENOMENLOGICAL RESEARCH
• QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
• QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH