PROMOTING AND ASSESSING CRITICAL THINKING (WEEK 15)

Question 1

• The ability to discern judgments based on standards.
• Critical thinking is the art of thinking about thinking while thinking in order to make thinking better. It involves three interwoven phases:

Answer 1

Critical Thinking

Question 2

By focusing on the parts of thinking in any situation

Answer 2

It analyzes thinking

Question 3

By figuring out its strengths and weaknesses

Answer 3

It evaluates thinking

Question 3

By building on its strengths while reducing its weaknesses

Answer 3

It improves thinking

Question 4

three dimensions of critical thinking

Answer 4

analytic, an evaluative, and a creative component.

Question 5

Identify its:
1. Purpose
2. Question
3. Information
4. Conclusion(s)
5. Assumptions
6. Implications
7. Main concept(s)
8. Point of view

Answer 5

To Analyze Thinking

Question 6

Check it for:
1. Clarity
2. Accuracy
3. Precision
4. Relevance
5. Depth
6. Breadth
7. Significance
8. Logic and fairness

Answer 6

To Assess Thinking

Question 7

1. Raises vital questions and problems, formulates them clearly and precisely
2. Gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively
3. Comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards
4. Thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences
5. Communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems

Answer 7

A Well-cultivated Critical Thinker

Question 8

analyzes, assesses, and improves our ordinary thinking.

Answer 8

second level of thinking

Question 9

is first-order thinking raised to the level of conscious realization (analyzed, assessed, and reconstructed).

Answer 9

Second-order Thinking

Question 10

is spontaneous and nonreflective.
It contains insight, prejudice, truth and error, good and bad reasoning, indiscriminately combined.

Answer 10

First-order Thinking

Question 11

• understandable, the meaning can be grasped
• The reader or listener can understand what is being said
• “Gateway” standard to critical thinking
• If a statement is unclear, we cannot determine whether it is accurate or relevant
• This is essential for both educator and student

Answer 11

Clarity

Question 12

• free from errors
• Remember that a statement may be clear but inaccurate -> Validate Sources of information always.

Answer 12

Accuracy

Question 13

• exact to the necessary level of detail
• Exactness and Specificity
• Giving exact amount of detail that is required for a given situation

Answer 13

Precision

Question 14

• relating to the matter at hand
• How is this idea connected to the topic at hand
• How to presented facts bare to the topic
• How do ideas presented by students relate to the ideas discussed.

Answer 14

Relevance

Question 15

• contains complexities and interrelationships
• How do ideas/ presentations address the complexities of topic at hand
• How do deal with significant factors that must be addressed (i.e.lectures)

Answer 15

Depth

Question 16

• encompasses multiple viewpoints
• The idea of using multiple points of view
• Using other ways to look at and solve problems

Answer 16

Breadth

Question 17

• no contradictions
• If the topic/ problem makes sense
• If answers to question sets follow from given data/information.

Answer 17

Logic

Question 18

• focuses on the most important
• What the most significant information is needed to be gathered (for students) or conveyed (for educators)
• How important are the facts being presented with regards to the context of discussion.

Answer 18

Significance

Question 19

• justifiable; not self-serving
• If the thinking, assumptions and behaviors are justified
• If the concepts discussed are being justifiably used or
  discussed

Answer 19

Fairness

Question 20

• Implies excellence in thinking within the subject
• Use their intellectual skills to develop a broad range of knowledge.
• Exemplary work is clear, precise, and well-reasoned,
  but also insightful and well-informed
• Student has internalized the basic intellectual
  standards appropriate to assessing his or her own work in a subject and is highly skilled at self-evaluation.

Answer 20

Exemplary Students

Question 21

• Sound thinking within a subject
• Development of a range of knowledge acquired
  through the exercise of thinking skills and abilities.
• Thinking is, clear, precise, and well-reasoned, but
  sometimes lacks depth of insight (especially into
  opposing points of view).
• Internalize the intellectual standards relevant to the
  subject and demonstrate competence in self-evaluation

Answer 21

High-Performing Students

Question 22

• Perform inconsistently in a subject, and therefore
  develop a limited body of knowledge.
• Often use memorization as a substitute for
  understanding
• Learning at this level demonstrates incomplete
  comprehension of basic concepts and principles
• Internalized a few of the intellectual standards
  appropriate to the assessment of their own work in a
  subject, but demonstrate inconsistency in self evaluation.

Answer 22

Mixed-Quality Students

Question 23

• They frequently try to get through courses by
  memorizing things rather than by understanding them.
• Often produce work that is unclear, imprecise, and
  poorly reasoned.
• May achieve competence in reciting information and
  naming concepts, but they often use terms and concepts incorrectly because their understanding is superficial or mistaken.

Answer 23

Low-Performing Students