Meeting 2

CRITICAL THINKING
EXPLORED
UNIVERSITAS PELITA HARAPAN
FACULTY OF LIBERAL ARTS
KARAWACI, 2010
@ L.Sinuor Yosephus

SPECIFIC
INSTRUCTIONAL
OBJECTIVES
Students are able to understand
basic terms and concepts of CRT
and enable themselves to have a
mental checklist for being a lifelong learners or prospective
critical thinkers

AGENDA

Intrpduction: What is CRT?

A General Guide to CRT
Credibility and Disposition in CRT
Sharpen Your Mind!

INTRODUCTION
- Critical Thinking (CRT) is either an important or
a vital topic in modern education. All educators
are interested in teaching CRT to their
students. But, do they really teach their
students CRT? Tracing back your experience in
teaching-learning process you have ever had,
youll find that all education consist of
transmitting to students two different things:
(1). The subject matter or discipline content of
the course (what to think about), and
(2). The correct way to understand and to
evaluate the subject matter (how to think
about it).

- Perhaps you can now see the problem.

Educators or lecturers may do an excellent job
of transmitting the content of the respective
academic discipline, but they really fail to teach
students how to think effectively about the
subject matter, that is, how to properly
understand and evaluate it. Thats what we call
CRT.
- It is the way or methods to understand and to
evaluate something such as statements or
arguments.
But, how do educators and experts describe
and define the nature and the process of
Thinking&Critical Thinking?

- The origin of CRT essence, skills and process

can be traced back to the teaching of
Socrates 2400 years ago. His use of probing
questions set the basis of traditional CRT in
the aspect of questioning ones belief and
explanation reflectively. His idea influenced
Plato, Aristotle and other philosophers even
psychologists in the modern century as we
can see through the way they defined the
essence and process of thinking
and the skills of CRT.
- Here are some of the definitions of CRT:

- Thinking is the property of mind (Descartes)

- Thinking is developed from everyday life
experience (John Locke).
Both these definitions became a debatable
issue for years between rationalists and
empiricists since these definitions bring
different connotations and implications
regarding true-knowledge with thinking as its
organizing principle. Compare the following
examples!
- All circles are round (?)
- Hendra is a good and humble boy (?)
But,..
- The sun rises in the East (?)

Which one of the above statements do you think

the best (valid and cogent statement)?
The debate begins
- All the rationalists always hold in their mind
that the first statement is the best.
No knowledge comes out side the mind! But
- Rejecting the rationalists, all empiricists stuck
on the everyday-life experience that the
second statement is the best.
- How about the third statement?
That is what Immanuel Kant thought about a
priori and a posteriori knowledge.
Not every single knowledge
is derived from mind, vice versa.

Thats a thin explanation on the essence and the

process of thinking. During this lecture you are
requested to trace beyond that thin explanation
(what to think) to become a real thinker
(properly understand and evaluate how to think
effectively). This refers to thinking skills
signified by the term critical. What does this
term mean?
- The term critical derives from a Greek root
kritikos (discerning judgment) and
kriterion (standards). It implies the
development of discerning judgment based
on certain standards (to judge, to evaluate
and to assess).

Consider the followings!

- Henny is critical.
- Henny has been critical in the hospital since last week.
- Critical Thinking is something you strain your brain
over.
What does the term critical in the above statements
mean?
Answer this question may lead you to become a critical
thinker!
Becoming a critical thinker means:
a. Being capable of assessing something as a positive
or negative.
b. It is a habit of not immediately accepting things at
face value, but subjecting them first to through
evaluation.
So, being critical doesnt mean beiong negative with a
particular thing.!

Just to Sharp Your Mind!

Sit in pairs or in your group
and discuss the following issues!
1. What is the difference between a priori and a
posteriori knowledge and truth (Immanuel
Kant)?
2. Is thinking different from critical thinking?
In what way they are different?

(You are requested nor only to answer

those questions but also to give your own
arguments as to prove your answers).

- Definition of Critical Thinking

There are many definitions of CRT. Some of
them are:
1.CRT means correct thinking in the pursuit of
relevant and reliable knowledge about the world.
2.Another way to describe CRT is reasonable,
reflective, responsible and skillful thinking that
is focused on deciding what to believe or do.
3.It is the scientific method applied by ordinary
people to the ordinary world.
CRT mimics the well-known method of scientific
investigation: a question is identified, an hypothesis
formulated, relevant data sought and gathered, the
hypothesis is logically tested and evaluated and
reliable conclusions are drawn from the result.

4. CRT is the ability to think for ones self and

reliably and responsibly make those
decisions that affect ones life.
5. CRT is also critical inquiry, so such critical
thinkers investigate problems, ask questions,
pose new answers that challenge the status
quo, discover new information that can be
use for good or ill, question authorities and
traditional beliefs, challenge received dogmas
and doctrines and often end up possessing
power in society greater than their numbers.
Thus, true CRT enables you to be a responsible
citizen who contribute to society and not be
merely a consumer of societys distractions.

In short, Critical
thinking is a high level
of thinking.
It is a study on how
we think critically.
Do you agree or disagree?
(Discuss with your friends in
your group)

II. A GENERAL GUIDE TO CRT

- A general guide for you to distinguish CRT from
thinking as the property of mind is to trace the
taxonomy or hierarchy of thinking proposed by
Benjamin Bloom. According to Bloom, as an
activity or a process of mind thinking has a
number of functions and levels range from
simple skills or lowest level, such as recall and
recognition to the complex level or highest
skills, such as judgment, evaluation or
assessment. In this context, stating the CRT as
a high level of thinking means thinking with the
highest skills (to judge, to evaluate and to assess) as they
appear in analyzing, evaluating and assessing
something.

Benjamin Blooms
Taxonomy/hierarchy of thinking skills:
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge

Exercise of Learned Judgment

Creation of new relationship and
combinations
Breaking up into parts and
determination of relationships
Use of generalized knowledge in
other instances and contexts
Translation, interpretation, and
extrapolation.
Recall and recognition

Based on Blooms Taxonomy, we may conclude

that CRT is a higher level of thinking that
primarily involves the skills or functions of
analyzing and evaluating, and secondarily of
synthesizing.
- It breaks down knowledge and information to
know whether its component is reliable or not
(analysis).
- It needs to pass judgment whether a given
knowledge or information is reliable or not.
- It also teaches the students how to construct
and create reliable knowledge or information.

- As a higher-Level of Thinking, CRT always

deals with certain questions (question words or
phrases) such as explain, compare, do you,
why, which is a solution to the problem, what is
the best and why, etc.
- Here is some examples of higher-level thinking
questions:
1. Memorization & Description (Knowledge):
what, who, how, define, describe, identify,
state, show, etc.
- Why should I do or refrain of doing that?
- Why should I believe that, or not believe
it?

2. Comprehension (explanation & Comparison):

explain, give an example of, conclude,
demonstrate, rephrase, differentiate, etc.
3. Application (solution & application): how
would you, build, construct, solve,
demonstrate, test, etc.
4. Analysis (induction, deduction & logical
order): what, what assumptions, what reason
support your, does the evidence support the
conclusion, etc.
5. Synthesis (productive thinking): develop,
suggest, purpose a plan, think of a way,
formulate a solution, etc.

6. Evaluation (selection, assessment and

judgment):
choose, evaluate,
judge, assess,
decide, defend,
what is the most
appropriate,
which would you
consider, etc.

- When we ask the question why? we are

asking for a reason for doing what we are
being enjoyed to do, or believe what we are
being enjoyed to believe. And, when we ask for
a reason, of course we are asking for a
justification for taking the action
recommended or accepting the belief. It is not
just a reason, but a good reason (proper, clear,
accurate, credible and contextual) that ought
to motivate us to act or to believe as we are
recommended to do.
- To attempt to persuade by giving good
reasons is to give an argument (will be
discuss in the 4th meeting).

III. CREDIBILITY AND DISPOSITION IN CRT

- Credibility and disposition are the most two
important recommended elements in
developing the critical thinking skills.
- Credibility derives from Latin verb credere
(believe or trust). The verb refers to true
speech or information based on accurate facts
and evidence both empirical and rational.
- Disposition in CRT refers to psychological
terms of attitudes or affects which are sought
after in an individual. Attitudes or affects are
dispositional characters which must
possessed and used by an individual to
develop his/her critical thinking skills.

7 Dispositions In CRT
(Dispositional Characters):
1. Inquisitiveness: Ones intellectual curiosity
and desire for learning.
2. Open-mindedness: Being tolerant of divergent
views and sensitive to the possibility of ones
own bias.
3. Systematicity: Being orderly, organized,
focused and diligent inquiry.
4. Analyticity: Prizing an application of reasoning
and used of evidence to resolve problems,
anticipating potential conceptual or practical
difficulties, and consistently being alert to the
need to intervene.

5. Self-Confidence: Trusting the soundness of ones

own reasoned judgments and leading others in the
rational resolution opinions.
6. Truth-Seeking: Being eager to seek the best
knowledge in a given context, courageous about
asking questions, honest and objective about
pursuing inquiry even if the findings dont support
ones self-interest or ones preconceived opinions.
7. Maturity: Approaching problems, inquiry and
decision-making with a sense that some
problems are necessarily ill-structured; some
situations admit more than one plausible
option, and many times judgments must be
made based on standards, contexts, and
evidence that preclude certainty.

If an individual is not truth-seeking, she/he may

not consider other opinions or theories
regarding an issue or problem before forming an
opinion.
A students may possess knowledge to think
critically about an issue, but if the above
dispositional characters do not work in concert,
he/she may fail to analyze, evaluate, and
synthesize the information to think critically.
A student will be a critical thinker only if he/she
posses and use all the above dispositional
characters.

IV. SHARPEN YOUR MIND!

(Group Activity)
Discuss the following issues
with your friends in group!

1. Being a critical thinker one must be

an ethical mature person first.
2. He who has imagination without learning has
wings, but no feet (Joseph Joubert)
3. It is not enough to have a good mind, the
main thing is to use it well (Rene Descartes)
[State your intellectual position, then give arguments
to strengthen your position by rational or empirical
facts and evidence. The result of discussion should
be presented in front of the class in the next lecture]