Critical Thinking Techniques

Darryl WalkerMaryAnn MacKenzie

Mery Rojas-LupoliKemaly Parr

Critical Thinking Critical Thinking TechniquesTechniquesObjectives

◦Discuss the definition of critical thinking.

◦Discuss how to model critical thinking.

◦Discuss various ways educators may facilitate critical thinking including: modeling, critical debate, critical reading, and evaluation.

Critical Thinking Critical Thinking TechniquesTechniquesDefinition

◦What does it mean to critically think? Uniquely an adult process?

“I believe that it is in adulthood that critical thinking is learned and lived at its deepest and most significant level” (Brookfield, 2004, p.341)

"An unexamined life is not worth living.” -Socrates

Critical Thinking Critical Thinking TechniquesTechniques

At next recall, if recommendations followed, what progress do you expect to see?

Treatment plan (nutritional counseling, local anesthetic choice, scaling, oral hygiene instruction education, etc.)

What other effects result from HBP?

How does HBP affect oral cavity or treatment choices?

What do the ranges mean? Health/disease

Blood Pressure Ranges

Critical Thinking Critical Thinking TechniquesTechniques

◦Assumptions “…we are our assumptions”

(Brookfield, 2004, p. 341-2)

◦Main Purposes Hegemonic assumptions Power relationships

Modeling Critical ThinkingModeling Critical ThinkingWhat does it mean to model

critical thinking? How is this accomplished?

◦Starts and fits◦“experiential deflowering”◦Hostility◦Builds trust

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfC4u5GCy3I

Critical DebateCritical Debate“…a theatrical device with an

element of playful swagger built into it” (Brookfield, 2004, p. 351)

◦Experience?????

Critical DebateCritical DebateContentious issuePropose motion and form teamsSwitch sidesConduct the debateDebrief

Critical DebateCritical DebateReflection paper

◦Assumptions clarified or confirmed◦Hidden assumptions◦Research new assumptions◦New perspectives◦Existing assumptions challenged or

changed

Critical DebateCritical DebatePros?

Cons?

Critical Thinking Critical Thinking TechniquesTechniquesLectures

◦End with a series of questions◦Deliberately introduce alternative

perspectives◦Introduce periods of assumption

hunting

Critical Thinking Critical Thinking TechniquesTechniquesQuestionaires

◦Most engaged◦Most distanced◦Action most affirming/helpful◦Action most puzzling/confusing◦Surprised most about class

Critical Thinking Critical Thinking TechniquesTechniquesScenario Analysis

Critical Thinking Critical Thinking TechniquesTechniquesStructured Critical Conversation

Critical ReadingCritical Reading

What is Critical Reading?

Critical ReadingCritical Reading Critical reading is an analytic activity. The reader reads and rereads a text to identify

patterns of elements -- information, values, assumptions, and language usage-- throughout

the discussion. These elements are tied together

in an interpretation, an assertion of an underlying

meaning of the text as a whole.

When you read between the lines, you can probably come up with a simpler definition being true to yourself. When you have integrity,

you’re honest with yourself and others.Unknown

How to do Critical ReadingHow to do Critical ReadingFive step process to critical

reading◦Pre-Reading◦Interpretive Reading◦*Critical Reading◦Synoptic Reading◦Post-Reading

Four Categories of Critical Four Categories of Critical Reading QuestionsReading QuestionsEpistemologicalExperientialCommunicativePolitical

Epistemological QuestionsEpistemological Questions

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that seeks answers to two main questions: How do we know? and How do we know we know?

Sample◦To what extent does the writing seem

culturally skewed?◦To what extent are the central insights

of a piece of literature ground in empirical evidence?

Experiential QuestionsExperiential QuestionsDefined as: The process of making

meaning from direct experience

Sample

How do the metaphors for teaching used in a piece of educational literature compare to the metaphors you use to describe your own experience of practice?

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."

Aristotle

Communicative QuestionsCommunicative Questions

SampleWhose voices are heard in a

piece of academic writing?Does the paper use colloquial

language of adult learners and adult educators?

Political QuestionsPolitical Questions

Sample◦Whose interests are served by the

publication of a text?◦In writing on adult educational change,

to what extent are the political impediments to educational innovations addressed?

Evaluate Critical ThinkingEvaluate Critical Thinking

◦How do you know people are thinking critically

◦How to judge whether adult educators are having any effect?

Critical Practice Audit (Handout)◦Understand how you analyze situations◦How you make decisions◦How to take actions

Critical Thinking Critical Thinking TechniquesTechniquesC o n c l u s i o n …