CRLA I Topic 12
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Critical thinking and problem solving skills (CRLA Level 1 #12) 

Self Study:

Print and take the self-assessment test and read/study the entire Critical Thinking section.  See self study section at the end of the section for questions.

Critical thinking and creative problem solving self-assessment (Print out this and take the self-assessment) 

Never

Sometimes

Always

Question

1

2

3

I think there is more than one solution to every problem.

1

2

3

I know the obstacles that keep me from thinking creatively.

1

2

3

I am able to see connections between material in different classes.

1

2

3

I consider many options before choosing a solution to a problem.

1

2

3

I brainstorm when trying to come up with alternate solutions.

1

2

3

I write problems down in order to better understand them.

1

2

3

If I find that my initial solution to a problem doesn’t work, I modify my plan and try again.

1

2

3

When I am stuck on a problem, I take a break and come back to it later.

1

2

3

I evaluate both the negative and positive consequences of actions I am thinking about taking.

1

2

3

I break difficult problems up into smaller sub-problems and work on solving those first.

1

2

3

I believe that in order to solve a problem you sometimes may have to take some steps that appear to make the problem worse.

1

2

3

I describe the situation clearly and gather all the facts before making hasty decisions about my problems.

1

2

3

I recognize that different people have different problem-solving styles and I take that into account when I deal with them.

 

Take a moment to review your responses.  Pay attention to items on which you rated yourself with a “3,” because these are strengths.  Next, consider the items rated “1” or “2.”  Some of these, particularly those you rated “1,” represent areas of focus.  Keep these areas in mind because they represent areas in which improvement is possible.  Read and take notes on the following information. 

Defining Critical Thinking

At one level we all know what “critical thinking” means — it means good thinking, almost the opposite of illogical, irrational, thinking. But when we test our understanding further, we run into questions.  For example, is critical thinking the same as creative thinking, are they different, or is one part of the other?  How do critical thinking and native intelligence or scholastic aptitude relate?  Does critical thinking focus on the subject matter or content that you know or on the process you use when you reason about that content?

We humans learn better when we stop frequently to reflect, rather than just plowing along from the top of the page to the bottom without coming up for air.  The goal here is to help you sharpen your critical thinking skills and cultivate your critical thinking spirit. While memorization definitely has many valuable uses, fostering critical thinking is not among them.

This is true with all abstract concepts, including critical thinking.  There are people of whom we would say, on certain occasions this person is a good thinker, clear, logical, thoughtful, attentive to the facts, open to alternatives, but, then again, at other times, look out!  When you get this person on another topic, well it’s all over then.  You’ve pushed some kind of button and the person does not want to hear what anybody else has to say. The person’s mind is made up ahead of time.  New facts are pushed aside. No other point of view is tolerated.  Do you know any people that might fit that general description?   

What can we learn about critical thinking from such a case that is on the borderline?  This situation forces us to make important distinctions.  It confronts us and demands a decision: In or Out!  And not just that, but why!  So, let’s take the parts of our friend’s reason that we approve of because they seem to us to contribute to acting rationally and logically and include those in the concept of critical thinking, and let’s take the parts that work against reason, that close the mind to the possibility of new and relevant information, that blindly deny even the possibility that the other side might have merit, and call those poor, counterproductive, or uncritical thinking.

What is it about good critical thinkers that would lead you to put them in that category?  Suggestion: What can the good critical thinkers do (what mental abilities do they have), that the poor critical thinkers have trouble doing?  What attitudes or approaches do the good critical thinkers habitually seem to exhibit which the poor critical thinkers seem not to possess?  The experts include cognitive skills and affective dispositions on their list of critical thinking abilities, attitudes or habits.  As to the cognitive skills here’s what the experts include as being at the very core of critical thinking:

 Interpretation

Analysis

Evaluation

Inference

Explanation

Self-regulation.


Did any of these words or ideas come up when you tried to characterize the cognitive skills — mental abilities — involved in critical thinking?

Critical thinking – in being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes - is incorporated in a family of interwoven modes of thinking, among them: scientific thinking, mathematical thinking, historical thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking, moral thinking, and philosophical thinking.

Critical thinking can be seen as having two components:

  1. A set of skills to process and generate information and beliefs, and

  2. The habit, based on intellectual commitment, of using those skills to  guide behavior.  

It is thus to be contrasted with:

  1. The mere acquisition and retention of information alone, (because it involves a particular way in which information is sought and treated,)

  2. The mere possession of a set of skills, (because it involves the continual use of them,) and

  3. The mere use of those skills ("as an exercise") without acceptance of their results.  

Quoting from the consensus statement of the national panel of experts:

Interpretation is “to comprehend and express the meaning or significance of a wide variety of experiences, situations, data, events, judgments, conventions, beliefs, rules, procedures, or criteria.” Interpretation includes the sub-skills of categorization, decoding significance, and clarifying meaning.  Recognizing a problem and describing it without bias; reading a person’s intentions in the expression on his/her face; distinguishing a main idea from subordinate ideas in a text; constructing a tentative categorization or way of organizing something you are studying; paraphrasing someone’s ideas in your own words; or, clarifying what a sign, chart or graph means would all be illustrations of interpretation?  In the discipline of English, an author’s purpose, theme, or point of view would also qualify as interpretation.

Analysis is “to identify the intended and actual inferential relationships among statements, questions, concepts, descriptions, or other forms of representation intended to express belief, judgment, experiences, reasons, information, or opinions.” The experts include examining ideas, detecting arguments, and analyzing arguments as sub-skills of analysis Identifying the similarities and differences between two approaches to the solution of a given problem; picking out the main claim made in a newspaper editorial and tracing back the various reasons the editor offers in support of that claim;  identifying unstated assumptions; constructing a way to represent a main conclusion and the various reasons given to support or criticize it; sketching the relationship of sentences or paragraphs to each other and to the main purpose of the passage; and  graphically organizing this chapter are all illustrations of analysis.

Evaluation means “to assess the credibility of statements or other representations which are accounts or descriptions of a person’s perception, experience, situation, judgment, belief, or opinion; and to assess the logical strength of the actual or intended inferential relationships among statements, descriptions, questions or other forms of representation.”  Examples might be: judging the credibility of an author or speaker, comparing the strengths and weaknesses of alternative interpretations, determining the credibility of a source of information, judging if two statements contradict each other, or judging if the evidence at hand supports the conclusion being drawn.   

Do the people you regard as good critical thinkers have the three cognitive skills described so far? Are your examples of poor critical thinkers lacking in these cognitive skills?  To the experts inference means “to identify and secure elements needed to draw reasonable conclusions; to form conjectures and hypotheses; to consider relevant information and to educe the consequences flowing from data, statements, principles, evidence, judgments, beliefs, opinions, concepts, descriptions, questions, or other forms of representation.” As sub-skills of inference the experts list querying evidence, conjecturing alternatives, and drawing conclusions.  Some examples of inference could include seeing the implications of a position someone is advocating, drawing out or constructing meaning from the elements in a reading, or identifying and securing the information needed to formulate a synthesis from multiple sources.

Beyond being able to interpret, analyze, evaluate and infer, good critical thinkers can do two more things.  They can explain what they think and why they arrived at that judgment.  And, they can apply their powers of critical thinking to themselves and improve on their previous opinions.  These two skills are called “explanation” and “self-regulation.”           

Explanation is being able “to state the results of one’s reasoning; to justify that reasoning in terms of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, and contextual considerations upon which one’s results were based; and to present one’s reasoning in the form of cogent arguments.”  The sub-skills under explanation are stating results, justifying procedures, and presenting arguments.

Maybe the most remarkable cognitive skill of all, however, is this next one. This one is remarkable because it allows good critical thinkers to improve their own thinking.  In a sense this is critical thinking applied to itself.  Self-regulation is like a recursive function in mathematical terms, which means it can apply to everything, including itself.  You can monitor and correct an interpretation you offered.  You can examine and correct an inference you have drawn. You can review and reformulate one of your own explanations. You can even examine and correct your ability to examine and correct yourself! How?  It’s as simple as stepping back and saying to yourself, “How am I doing?  Have I missed anything important?  Let me double check before I go further.”   

Self-regulation means “self-consciously to monitor one’s cognitive activities, the elements used in those activities, and the results deduced, particularly by applying skills in analysis, and evaluation to one’s own inferential judgments with a view toward questioning, confirming, validation, or correcting either one’s reasoning or one’s results.” The two sub-skills here are self-examination and self-correction. 

But, you might say, I know of plenty of people who have skills but don’t use them.  We can’t call someone a good critical thinker just because she or he has these six cognitive skills, however important they might be, because what if they just don’t bother to use them.  It’s hard to imagine a person deciding not to think.  In a very real sense critical thinking is pervasive.  There is hardly a time or a place where it would not seem to be of use.  As long as people have purposes in mind and wish to judge how to accomplish them, as long as people wonder what’s true and what’s not, what to believe and what to reject, good critical thinking is going to be necessary.  It’s probably true that some people decide to let their thinking skills grow dull.  It’s easier to imagine times when people are just too tired or too frightened.  But imagine it we can, so there has to be more to critical thinking than just the list of cognitive skills.  Human beings are more than thinking machines. 

Critical thinking is about how you approach problems, questions, and issues.  It is the best way we know of to get to the truth.  But!  There still are no guarantees — no answers in the back of the book of real life.  Does this characterization, that good critical thinkers possess a “critical spirit, a probing inquisitiveness, a keenness of mind...” fit with your examples of people you would call good critical thinkers?

Consider what life would be like without the things on this list and you will understand.  The approaches to life and living in general that characterize critical thinking include:

  • Inquisitiveness with regard to a wide range of issues

  • Concern to become and remain well informed  

  • Alertness to opportunities to use critical thinking

  • Trust in the processes of reasoned inquiry

  • Self-confidence in one’s own abilities to reason

  • Open-mindedness regarding different world views

  • Flexibility in considering alternatives and opinions

  • Understanding of the opinions of other people

  • Fair-mindedness in appraising reasoning

  • Honesty in facing one’s own biases, prejudices, stereotypes, or egocentric  tendencies

  • Prudence in suspending, making or altering judgments

  • Willingness to reconsider and revise views where honest reflection suggests that change is warranted

The experts went beyond approaches to life and living in general to emphasize that good critical thinkers can also be described in terms of how they approach specific issues, questions, or problems. The experts said you would find these sorts of characteristics:

  • Clarity in stating the question or concern,

  • Orderliness in working with complexity,

  • Diligence in seeking relevant information,

  • Reasonableness in selecting and applying criteria,  

  • Care in focusing attention on the concern at hand,

  • Persistence though difficulties are encountered,  

  • Precision to the degree permitted by the subject and the circumstances.  

Why is critical thinking important?

 “Why is critical thinking of value?” Why would it be of value to you to have the cognitive skills of interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation?  Why would it be of value to you to learn to approach life and to approach specific concerns with the affective dispositions listed above.  Would you have greater success in your tutoring?  Would you get better grades and be able to help students get better grades?

Actually the answer to the grades question, scientifically speaking, is very possibly, Yes! A study of over 1100 college students shows that scores on a college level critical thinking skills test significantly correlated with college GPA.  It has also been shown that critical thinking skills can be learned, which suggests that as one learns them one’s GPA might well improve.  In further support of this hypothesis is the significant correlation between critical thinking and reading comprehension.  Improvements in the one are paralleled by improvements in the other.  Now if you can read better and think better, might you not do better in your classes, learn more, and get better grades.  It is, to say the least, very plausible.

The Role of Questions in Thinking, Teaching, & Learning

Thinking should be driven by questions

Thinking is not driven by answers but by questions.  Every field stays alive only to the extent that fresh questions are generated and taken seriously as the driving force in a process of thinking. To think through or rethink anything, one must ask questions that stimulate thought.

Feeding Students Endless Content to Remember

Feeding students endless content to remember (that is, declarative sentences to remember) is akin to repeatedly stepping on the brakes in a vehicle that is, unfortunately, already at rest.  Instead, students need questions to turn on their intellectual engines and they need to generate questions from our questions to get their thinking to go somewhere.  Thinking is of no use unless it goes somewhere.

Dead Questions Reflect Dead Minds

Unfortunately, most students ask virtually none of these thought-stimulating types of questions. They tend to stick to dead questions like "Is this going to be on the test?", questions that imply the desire not to think.  We must continually remind ourselves that thinking begins with respect to some content only when students generate questions. No questions equal little or no understanding.  Superficial questions equal superficial understanding. 

If we want thinking we must stimulate it with questions that lead students to further questions. We must overcome what previous schooling has done to the thinking of students. We must resuscitate minds that are largely dead when we receive them.  We must give our students what might be called "artificial cogitation" (the intellectual equivalent of artificial respiration).

A five-step process for critical thinking and creative problem solving 

1. Preparation

Well-defined problems typically have a clear objective and few possible solutions.  Well-defined problems are generally found in math and science.  Most of the problems that students will encounter in these disciplines are quite well researched and there are known methods for solving the problems.  The goal in solving well-defined problems is the emulation of known methods of problem solving.  In other words, how has the problem in question been solved traditionally? 

Write the problem down.  Many students are visual learners and problems seem more solvable to a visual learner when written on paper. 

2. Production 

Difficult problems can often be simplified by breaking the problem up into smaller pieces or steps.  Many students don’t realize that problem solving is a process involving the step-by-step analysis of the problem, setting up the problem, solving the problem a step at a time, and checking their work once the problem has been solved.  The aforementioned steps are critical thinking.  Students all too often want answers to their problems-what they really need to know is how to systematically solve problems. 

3. Incubation 

Incubation is really the process of letting it sink in.  By that we mean filling in the background information that might be missing.    Help the students fill in the missing piece by listening for clues as to what that missing detail might be.   

4. Analysis and selection 

There can be more than one way to solve many problems.  If that is the case with the student you’re helping, work with the student to come up with several alternate ways to solve the problem.  This is often called brainstorming which can sometimes lead to greater depth of understanding for the student.

5. Implementation and reconstruction

Don’t forget to make the student implement what you’ve discussed.  Don’t simply solve the problem for the student and walk away satisfied that the student’s worries are over.  The student must be able to solve the problem on his/her own.  Ask the student to work a problem that is similar to the one that you’ve helped them with.  Insist that your student practice the skills that you’ve introduced and developed in your tutoring session-practice is critical for knowledge retention.

Source:  Compiled from the following: 

Peter A. Facione, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Santa Clara

University.  The URL is:  http://www.calpress.com/critical.html

 http://www.criticalthinking.org/University/univlibdir.html

 

Read this short essay on how to gain wisdom in the middle of all the knowledge (data) we must learn. 

http://www.foundationsmag.com/wisdom.html

critical thinking skills

 Self Study:

Print and take the self-assessment test and read and study the entire Critical Thinking section.  Copy/paste/complete/print the answers to the following questions and give your paper to your supervisor for review and discussion. 

1.   Does “memory work” play a part in critical thinking skills? Why or why not.

 2.      What is the difference between acquiring knowledge and critical thinking, and why is it important to know the difference? Explain and give examples.

 3.      Are you usually a critical thinker based on the self test? If you are, which three of the critical thinking characteristics are your strongest.

4.      If you are not a critical thinker now, what skills do you need to acquire to make this a part of your life?

5.      Explain “Thinking should be driven by questions, not answers.” 

 6.      Do emotions help or hinder critical thinking? Explain and give examples

7. In the last URL, explain what the 4 steps to gaining wisdom are and how that leads to gaining wisdom.