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33 Learning to ThinkCriticallyLearning to ThinkCritically

L E S S O N

Quick Write Learning to ThinkLearn to think? You’re probably saying, “I’ve been thinkingsince I was born. It doesn’t take any training.”

But have you ever really thought about thinking? Just what is thinking? Is it the sense of confidence you feel when youknow you’ve just given the right answer to a question on atest? Or the pleasure of solving a math problem? Or is it the“in-gear” feeling in your head when you’re listening to yourfavorite music? Or what about the pride you feel when you’vejust made a great move on the soccer field? Or suppose yourteacher asks your classmates what they “think” about capitalpunishment. “I’m all for it,” someone might reply. “It’s giving them what they deserve,” another student mightsay. But another student might say, “I think it’s wrong.” Still another student might add, “No one has a right to makelife-or-death decisions about another human being.”

These are all possible first responses, and they might lead to an exciting discussion. But are these statements thinking?

One thing is for sure: Thinking is more than just the ability toprocess information. Any second-rate computer can do that! And it’s not just the ability to interpretsensations and feelings inside your own head. Thinking involvesmore than gut reactions or instinct.After all, even cats and dogs haveinstincts. Thinking is also more thanthe feeling that many people callintuition—that “sixth sense” that some people have about other people and events. Once you begin to think about it, you may realize that thinking is hard to define.

What was the last greatmovie you saw? What didyou like about it? What wasmemorable about the movie?Why would you recommendthe flick to your friends?Write five sentences that tell why you thought the filmwas good. Then share yourthoughts with a partner. Howare your standards for moviesthe same as your partner’s?How are they different?

Rodin’s The ThinkerThe Thinker, by Auguste Rodin, 1880, courtesy of MuséeRodin, Paris, France/Timothy McCarthy/Art Resource, NY

• the importance oflearning to think

• the parts of thinking

• the standards forcritical thinking

• asking goodquestions

Learn About . . . B

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Thinking is a function of your mind that makes sense of yourlife’s events and helps you figure out what is going on aroundyou. Thinking happens when you begin to see patternsamong all the stuff pouring into your head through yoursenses and emotions. Humans think by nature. You’re amember of the only species on Earth that’s “hard-wired” to think.

When you take time to consider all the information, sights,sounds, and smells coming to you from the world, you areengaging in reflection. Reflection is the process of making sense of the world by thinking. Reflection takes place slowly.Based on reflection, you form thoughts and ideas.

Because thinking and reflection take time, it’s usually best to do it in places where there are few distractions. This mightbe a library, your room, or a quiet park bench. It’s hard to think on the dance floor or when you’re walking down a noisy street. And you probably can’t get much thinkingdone with your earphones plugged into loud music.

William Wordsworth, a great nineteenth-century Englishpoet, defined poetry as “emotion recollected in tranquility.” He meant that to be a good thinker, writer, or speaker, you have to stop and reflect on how the world has impressedyou. In other words, to really think, you have to stop andthink about what you think. Your favorite rock or country-music artist doesn’t just step up to a microphone and start jamming. Song lyrics are thoughtful expressions of the artist’s message. When you listen to their music, these performers are telling you what they think.Wordsworth did the same thing in his poetry.

Thinking is one of the brain’s three major functions.The two other functions are feeling and wanting. It can be hard to separate what you think from what you feel, particularly when you’re growing up.But with practice, you can learn how to think clearly.One way to do this is to focus your attention on the result. In other words, what can clear thinkinghelp you do better? Two places where thinking is very important are decision making and problem solving.

• designing your own learning

• evaluating your own learning

Learn About . . . B

• intuition• thinking• reflection• decision making• problem solving • critical thinking• analysis• critical reading• logic• bias• premise

VocabularyB

Thinking and reflection take time.Courtesy of Anna Peisl/zefa/Corbis Images

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Decision Making

Theo and Maria are high school freshmen. They’ve been buddies since seventh grade.They hang out with a group of classmates but hardly ever get the chance to talk one-on-one. A number of boys in the group have expressed an interest in datingMaria. But she likes Theo the best. She wants to get to know him better. But he’s shy.He doesn’t like to talk on the phone or online. When the group gathers after school,he stands near Maria but doesn’t talk much.

Maria decides to start talking to Theo about a music group she knows he likes.“They’re giving a concert in town in three weeks,” she tells him.

The next day, Theo calls Maria. He asks if she’d like to go to the concert with him.

Decision making is the process of making choices and selecting appropriate options based on thinking. Life involves a series of decisions. Some are small; others are big. A decision based on thinking is one that is based on reason. When you develop a pattern of making thoughtful decisions, you are living a rational life. Your decisions will most likely be good for you. At the same time, they will not harm the well-being of others. Decisions that are not based on thinking are irrational.Irrational decisions can make your life more complicated. They can also have a negative effect on others.

For example, Maria thought carefully about how to talk to Theo. She did not make fun of him in front of others for being shy. She was not too bold: She did not ask himto the concert. Instead, she thought about what might make Theo comfortable yet also get her a date. And she succeeded.

Socrates, a famous Greek philosopher, thought that a healthy, reasonable personwould never deliberately choose to do bad things. He believed that everyone whomade a rational decision would choose the good thing. And most people thinkSocrates was right: People tend to use their thinking to make rational decisions thatimprove both their lives and the lives of others. When they don’t, it’s usually becauseanother factor is at work. For example, substance abuse, illness, and strong emotionscan be barriers to good thinking.

If you have trouble making big decisions, try breaking them down into smallerdecision points. Suppose a friend is going through a hard time. She asks you if she canmove into your parents’ basement for three weeks. She also asks if she can borrowyour car to look for a job. Finally, she asks if you’d tutor her boyfriend for a big exam.She’s asking you to make three decisions at once. That’s a lot to ask. You can’t make allthose decisions at once and shouldn’t even try. Take one issue at a time.

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Here are some other tips on making good decisions:

• State the situation

• List the possibilities or options

• Think about possible complications and outcomes

• Consider your values and sort or judge the alternatives in a systematic way—take your time!

• Discuss the issue with people you trust

• Think about what you don’t know—do research if necessary

• Make a decision and act

• Evaluate the decision.

Problem Solving

Theo and Maria have their concert tickets to the concert for Friday night. Neither ofthem has a driver’s license. So they have to figure out how they will get to the show.They can take a cab, or they can ask a family member to drive them and pick them up.But cabs are expensive, and all their family members have their own plans for Friday.

Theo and Maria talk about the issue. Finally, Maria has an idea: Her neighbor, Mrs.Graham, works the night shift at the hospital down the street from the arena. If shecould take Maria and Theo to the concert on her way to work, they could catch a bushome afterward. Maria calls her and Mrs. Graham agrees. Theo and Maria each pitchin on gas money for Mrs. Graham.

Problem solving is putting your thinking to work on the things you need to accomplish.Problem solving involves carefully considering a problem or an issue and taking itapart. For example, Theo and Maria had a few options for getting to the concert. But on closer look, each option had its own difficulty. So they rethought the problem.Maria finally came up with a solution. They identified and removed the obstacles blocking the solution.

Critical Thinking

To solve their problem, Maria used her power of critical thinking. Critical thinkingis the ability to explore an issue, problem, decision, or option from many angles. It is the capacity to search, make connections, evaluate possibilities, and probe. Criticalthinking has nothing to do with negative criticism or fault finding. It is simply deep thinking. The word criticism comes from a Greek root meaning “to judge.”

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When making decisions, it helps to discuss the issue with people you trust.Courtesy of Flying Colours Ltd/Digital Vision/Getty Images

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Critical thinking involves analysis. Analysis is theprocess of breaking down an issue into its basic parts to figure out its nature, how it works, or why it is a helpor an obstacle to your progress. Think about the lasttime you were in science lab. More than likely, youhad to call on your ability to think critically aboutthe problem—that is, to analyze it.

Critical thinking involves making informed, open-minded decisions. To build and strengthen yourcritical-thinking skills, you will need to practice:

• holding back your emotions about the subject

• looking at the subject from different points of view

• breaking down information

• asking probing questions

• solving problems systematically

• separating facts from opinions.

Critical Reading

Critical reading is linked to critical thinking. Critical reading is the ability to thinkcarefully about what you read, to ask questions, and to develop your own understanding of the writer’s words.

For example, perhaps you’ve read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. This first novel in the trilogy tells of how the hobbit Frodo Baggins inherits a powerful ring from his uncle Bilbo, only to learn that he must destroy it to save the world. As a critical reader, you might ask yourself: Why does Gandalf the wizard entrust this task to one of the smallest and least powerful races in Middle-earth? What flaws in wizards, elves, dwarves, and men prevent him from entrusting it to one of them instead? Why is it important that each of these races be included inthe fellowship? What does the ring represent? By asking these questions and answeringthem critically, you help yourself understand what Tolkien was trying to say about thestruggle between good and evil, human nature, and the meaning of heroism.

Critical reading will not answer all your questions. In fact, the best stories don’t givesimple answers. But you can get to the core of your reading by asking good questions.

To be a critical reader, you can use this three-part technique to analyze almostanything you read:

1. Describe: Tell “who/what/when is it?” (Get the facts straight.) This is what all good reporters do.

2. Interrogate: Ask “how” and “why” questions (Probe and explore.)

3. Evaluate: Decide “what does it mean?” (Seek deeper insight.)

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Like a hammer to a crystal, analysisbreaks an issue into its basic parts.Courtesy of Charles D. Winters/Photo Researchers, Inc.

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The Parts of ThinkingTo understand critical thinking, it’s helpful to analyze the process of thinking itself.You can do this by breaking thinking down into parts.

The key parts of thinking are:

Purpose—Thinking always has a goal. That’s what gives your thinking its meaningor its significance to you, the thinker.

Point of view—Thinking always takes place from a point of view. You cannot thinkoutside of your body. In other words, your thinking originates inside a creaturewho is sensitive to temperature, hunger, thirst, fatigue, and so forth. Your pastexperiences help form your point of view.

Assumptions—Thinking is subject to certain rules or assumptions. People generallyagree on these assumptions. For instance, if you are talking to someone aboutbaseball, you both start from the assumption that it’s the game with nine inningsand four bases.

Implications and consequences—Thinking leads to certain ideas or outcomes. Forexample, if you say that you support democracy, the implication is that you favora political system that allows citizens to exercise the power of self-government.

Data and facts—These are recognized foundations of thinking. For example,suppose your science class is discussing global warming. It’s a controversial topic.But if you mention that ocean temperatures worldwide rose more between 1990 and 2000 than they did between 1980 and 1990, that is an established fact.You can’t argue against the facts—or at least not very successfully.

Inferences and judgments—These are ideas based on facts, but not facts themselves.For example, if you see Tanya with a bruise on her cheek, you might infer—or guess—that she had a fight with her boyfriend. But that’s risky thinking, isn’t it? It could be that Tanya fell when she went ice skating last week. You should be very careful to draw your inferences and judgments from the facts. You should consider many possibilities and not jump to conclusions.

Concepts and theories—Thinking is governed by accepted, established concepts.Some concepts are only theories: They have not been proved, but they are still supported by facts. For instance, most scientists agree thatdinosaurs became extinct because of a catastrophic global change. Several factssupport this theory. To argue otherwise in the absence of facts would be skatingon the edge of nonsense. You couldn’t argue, for example, that dinosaurs createdweapons and killed each other off.

Solutions and outcomes—Thinking points you toward conclusions, outcomes,solutions, and improvements. Otherwise, why think at all?

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Standards for Critical ThinkingGood thinking is logical. Logic is a way of thinking that seeks to form solid connectionsand support for the way you think about how the world works. For example, the statement“If I follow the example of friends who take risks, I could put myself in danger” isbased on logic. It shows that you have thought about and understand the connectionbetween risky behavior and personal safety. Critical thinkers ask questions. This helpsthem hone their ideas into solid, logical thoughts.

Critical thinkers also try to avoid the pitfalls that shut thinking down. One commonpitfall is bias. Bias is a personal way of thinking that makes it impossible to use logic.Bias is based on emotion instead of facts. For example, you might say, “My friend Jimis a real clown.” That statement might seem true to you, particularly after hanging out with Jim for a while. But it isn’t logical. Calling Jim a clown slaps a label on him.And is it based on fact or personal opinion? What is the measure of clownishness? Is there such a thing as a “clown meter?” Next week, you may have a differentopinion of Jim. You may find yourself apologizing for calling him a clown.

Rather than label Jim a clown, why not try to analyze his behavior? You’ll probablyfind that he does sometimes make decisions that put him in a bad light. But doesn’teveryone? You could conclude that Jim needs to think through his decisions andbehavior a little more. Both of you need to be more logical.

Logical thoughts follow from premises that are true. A premise is an idea on which a logical conclusion stands. Premises can be true or false. They can be good or bad.

To understand good critical thinking, think about what happens when you drive a cardown a narrow, winding road. If you steer carelessly or go too fast around the turns,your wheels will come off the road. You might have an accident. A failure of goodcritical thinking can also have dangerous results. So take it easy. Wear your seatbelt.Steer carefully. Keep all four wheels on the road. Check your premises to make surethey’re true. Make sure that they are making solid contact with the road—with reality.

For instance, read the following set of premises and conclusion. Where do the wheelsof logic go off the road?

Premise A: The Wall Street Journal is a newspaper.

Premise B: All newspapers are liberal.

Conclusion: The Wall Street Journal is liberal.

While you might “think” the Wall Street Journal is a liberal newspaper, your conclusionis based on two premises, one of which is true (“The Wall Street Journal is a newspaper”)and one of which is a bias (“All newspapers are liberal”). This kind of “thinking” can beharmful. It can cause conflict between people in general and among friends and familyin particular. If you think about the premises that support your conclusions, you’llbecome a more careful thinker—and a better friend.

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All critical thinking has a number of things in common called standards. Theseuniversal intellectual standards can help guide your questions when you are analyzingor exploring an issue. Like signposts on that winding road, these standards can helpyou keep your wheels on the pavement. The standards for thinking are as follows:

Clarity—Is the language used to express the thought clear? Is it focused?

UNCLEAR: Somebody needs to fix the schools. CLEAR: To improve our schools, the school board should spend money

on teacher development and textbooks.

Accuracy—Is the statement true?

INACCURATE: All dogs bark because they are nervous. ACCURATE: Experts say that dogs bark for a variety of reasons.

Precision—Is the thought specific enough?

IMPRECISE: Rock music is cool.PRECISE: Rock music is based on a variety

of sources but mainly grew out of blues music.

Relevance—Does the thought apply well to the issue in question?

IRRELEVANT: Most people have brown eyes RELEVANT: To protect your eyes, you should always

wear sunglasses in bright sunlight.

Depth—Does the idea dig into the issue’scomplexities or just glance off the surface?

SHALLOW: Bluegrass music is old-fashioned.DEEPER: Bluegrass music is closely related to

the Celtic music of the Scots-Irish immigrantswho settled in Appalachia.

Breadth—Does the thought consider otherpoints of view?

NARROW: I don’t care what anybody says, jazz rules the house.

BROAD: I realize everyone’s tastes are different,but I like jazz best because it takes in a little of every sort of musical tradition.

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A saxophone player on the street in Savannah, GeorgiaCourtesy of Jerry Driendl/Taxi/Getty Images

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Logic—Does the thinking follow from solid premises?

ILLOGICAL: I had a dalmatian once. That dog would do anything I told it to do.LOGICAL: Because they’ve been bred for service, breeds like the dalmatian

and German shepherd are more responsive to training than others.

Significance—Is the thinking important enough to be included in the deeper discussion?

LESS SIGNIFICANT: How do I get at least a passing grade in this course?MORE SIGNIFICANT: What’s the best way for our teacher to evaluate how well

we do in this science course? Test results? Lab work? Or both?

Fairness—Is the thought balanced and based on truth?

UNFAIR: Don’t lend anything to Adam. He’ll never give it back.FAIR: I loaned a book to Adam and he didn’t return it like he promised.

I had to remind him twice.

In summary: Good decision-making and problem-solving skills are a direct result of critical thinking. By analyzing and refining your thought process, applying the standards of thinking, and engaging in reflection, you’ll be better able to think critically about the world around you. You’ll also be able to express your thoughts more clearly.

Asking Good QuestionsThe artist Pablo Picasso once said that computers are useless—they give us only answers. He meantthat computers can only process information. They can’t think, reason, or question. Picassounderstood the importance of questioning to critical and creative thinking. Artists, philosophers,scientists, and writers question the nature of things on a fundamental level. That’s an importantthing to do. “Deep” questioning forces us to gobeneath the surface of things to a more complex and useful level.

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Picasso’s Old GuitaristThe Old Guitarist, by Pablo Picasso, 1903/04, reproduced by permission of the Art Institute of Chicago. Copyright © 2001Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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The philosopher Socrates would ask people not only to explain what they thought but also to question the very foundation of their thinking. He asked people toexamine their basic beliefs and the language they used to express themselves. Thisstyle of deep questioning made him famous—and got him into trouble! Today, goodjournalists probe the “who, what, when, and where” of their stories, but they also ask the harder questions of “how” and “why.” This lets them dig deeper into the news. Like Socrates, good journalists don’t let people in the news off the hook easily.They probe their stories and the people they interview to get at the reasons behind the news.

Can you become a better questioner? Absolutely! While there aren’t any yardsticks or scales to measure it, deep questioning is an art anyone can master.

The Waste of Dead Questioning

One sure-fire way to practice the art of deep questioning is to avoid “dead” questions. Dead questions are superficial. They lead nowhere and don’t stimulatefurther thinking.

For example, if a teacher is explaining a concept and starting a discussion, one student might ask, “Is this going to be on the quiz?” That’s a dead question. Ratherthan try to grasp the concept and dig into the subject, this student is evidently justtrying to get by. Such a student will memorize what’s needed to pass the quiz, but will he or she really understand it? Probably not. And you quickly forget what youdon’t understand.

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Good journalists ask hard questions to get at the reasons behind the news.Courtesy of Bob Daemmrich/PhotoEdit

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Other dead questions might be “Do we have to write in complete sentences?” or “Does spellingcount?” or “Did King Louis XIV really wear a wig?”Dead questions are a waste of everyone’s time. And true learning comes only from serious, deep questioning that probes beneath the facts. So instead of asking whether or not King Louis XIVwore a wig (a dead question), a student might ask,“Why did the French nobles in the eighteenthcentury spend so much time, money, and effort on their appearance when the average French person was starving?” This is an example of a deep question. It shows critical thinking, and it invites the listener to think as well.

Think about how good detectives work. They begin by collecting and analyzing the evidence.They then work down to the motivation of theperson who has committed the crime. When youunderstand the human truth at the heart of a deed, the reasons—or lack of reasons—for people’s actions become clearer.

Three Types of Questions

Most questions fall into three broad categories:

1. Questions of fact require evidence and reasoning within a system. They result in a correct answer and lead to the development of knowledge. For example, a question of fact would be “What are the basic tastes that humans can sense?” The answer would be “There are four basic tastes—sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.”

2. Questions of preference ask the listener to state a choice. They result in anindividual opinion that you cannot measure or judge. A question of preferencewould be “What is your favorite taste?” One answer could be “Sour is my favorite taste.”

3. Questions of judgment require evidence and reasoning within multiple systems.They produce a variety of answers, some of which are better than others, that lead to a conclusion or judgment. A question of judgment might be “Why do you think that humans developed a sense of taste?” One answer might be “The human sense of taste may have developed to help people recognize foodsthat were dangerous to eat.”

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King Louis XIV of FranceCourtesy of Giraudon/Art Resource, NY

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It’s important to remember that questions of preference produce subjective (orinternally based) responses that can’t be proved right or wrong. Sour might be yourfavorite flavor, and that’s fine. It’s your opinion.

But opinions can be tricky because they can turn into biases or prejudices that shutdown further thinking and questioning. Here’s an example: “I don’t like classicalmusic because it’s boring.” What effect might such a statement have on furtherdiscussion of the subject?

Designing Your Own LearningSomething mysterious happens when you push yourself to become a critical thinkerand a deep questioner. You start looking at the world in a whole new way. You findyourself able to make better choices—if not more easily, at least more effectively. As you learn and mature, you begin to weigh more carefully your experiences and the possibilities daily life presents. This mindset follows you not only through yourschoolwork but also in all parts of your life.

When it comes to schoolwork, you can design your own learning by taking charge of your courses in a new way. Don’t think of your courses and assignments as a seriesof hurdles that you must clear to reach the finish line—graduation. Instead, start tolook at the logic of your course work. Probe the logic of the course with—you guessedit—good questions:

• What’s the purpose of this course? Why am I studying it?

• What am I expected to learn and demonstrate?

• How will my teacher evaluate my progress? What measures will show that I’ve learned what I’m supposed to learn?

• How are the course and textbook set up?

• Who is the teacher? What do I know about the teacher’s style of instruction?

• What concepts or questions will the course explore?

• How does the course connect to other classes I’m taking now or have taken in the past?

• How can I best organize my time and effort in this course to get the most out of the material?

• What will be my strategy for success in the class?

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Evaluating Your Own LearningBy now you know that to be a good learner, you must be a good thinker. One aspectof effective critical thinking is that it measures, or assesses, itself. If you need a teacherto follow you around and constantly tell you how well or how poorly you are doing,you’re not thinking critically.

Some questions to ask of your performance in a course are the same as the standardsyou’ve already studied in this lesson:

• Do I raise important questions and issues in class? Do I avoid dead questions?

• Do I analyze key questions and problems clearly and precisely?

• Do I recognize the subject matter’s key assumptions?

• Can I identify key concepts (the “big ideas”)?

• Do I use language appropriate to an educated mind? Do I avoid slang in my formal written and spoken expression?

• Do I recognize and analyze competing points of view? Do I respect other learners’ points of view?

• Do I reason carefully from clearly stated premises? Do I create logical thoughts?

• Do I recognize important implications and consequences?

Most teachers will supply the guidelines to help you figure out how to achieve aspecific grade in a course. But if you’re still not certain, don’t hesitate to ask theinstructor to explain his or her guidelines for assessing projects or assigning grades. It’s OK to ask relevant questions about assignments, such as “Can we use the ‘I’ pointof view in this essay?” or “Is it OK to go over the page length required?” or “Whichannotation form would you like us to use?” Good teachers appreciate honest questions.

Understand the rules of the road in the class, then don’t try to bend them. If a teacher says, for instance, that late work won’t be graded, don’t assume you can be the exception to the rule and try to submit something late. Take ownership of yourlearning and plan ahead to complete your work on or before the deadline.

By applying this strategy of critical thinking and deep questioning, you’ll develop the habit of lifelong learning.

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LESSON 3 | Learning to Think Critically 39

Lesson 3 ReviewUsing complete sentences, answer the following questions on a sheet of paper.

1. Describe the impact of thinking on decision making.

2. Describe the impact of thinking on problem solving.

3. Identify three situations in your own life in which critical thinkinghas been important.

4. Describe the eight parts of thinking.

5. List the nine standards of critical thinking.

Applying Thinking Skills

6. Think about a volunteer activity you’ve completed.Write a short essay that states why you chose that activity, how it benefited the community, and what you learned from it.Trade papers with a partner. Does your partner’s paper use good critical thinking skills? Is the explanation informative?Persuasive? Logical?

CHECKPOINTS

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