“Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking” (Lau & Chan, 2015).
As Lloyd and Bahr summarize, critical thinking’s “definition, since the seminal work of Glaser (1941), has related to its being an individual cognitive skill with three distinct characteristics:
- An attitude of being or state of mind to thoughtfully consider the problems and subjects that come within a range of one’s experiences;
- Knowledge of the methods of logical enquiry and reasoning; and,
- Some skill in applying those methods (Lloyd and Bahr 2010)
Although students often hear “critical” as meaning negative or argumentative, critical thinking involves measured, considered thought and evaluation of an idea or topic.
Critical Thinking Activities
- Clarify the vocabulary: The Center for Teaching and Learning at Western University advises “deconstructing” terms: “At the beginning of the course, discuss with students what you mean by terms like ‘analyse’, ‘assess,’ ‘critique,’ ‘reasoning,’ ‘fallacy,’ ‘assumptions,’ ‘logic,’ ‘compare and contrast,’ etc. Go through some very short readings in class to demonstrate the terms you want them to understand and have them ask questions about, and reflect back, what they understand about those terms.”
- Many active learning activities cultivate critical thinking
- Reflective writing (one-minute papers or longer)
- Think-pair-share
- Have students assess and debate concepts or readings.
- Model critical analysis and reading for students, and then encourage them to practice
- Guided social annotation (via Perusall, Hypothes.is, or Google docs): prompt students to evaluate and reflect on key aspects of a text
09.23.22 CK
For more information or help, please email the Office for Faculty Excellence or make an appointment with a consultant.
Teaching Resources by Montclair State University Office for Faculty Excellence is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Third-party content is not covered under the Creative Commons license and may be subject to additional intellectual property notices, information, or restrictions. You are solely responsible for obtaining permission to use third party content or determining whether your use is fair use and for responding to any claims that may arise.