32 Animated Videos by Wireless Philosophy Teach You the Essentials of Critical Thinking Do you know someone whose arguments consist of baldly specious reasoning, hopelessly confused categories, archipelagos of logical fallacies buttressed by seawalls of cognitive biases? Surely you do. Perhaps such a person would welcome some instruction on the properties of critical thinking and argumentation? Not likely? Well, just in case, you may wish to send them over to this series of Wireless Philosophy (or “WiPhi”) videos by philosophy instructor Geoff Pynn of Northern Illinois University and doctoral students Kelley Schiffman of Yale, Paul Henne of Duke, and several other philosophy and psychology graduates. What is critical thinking? “A good reason for a belief,” Pynn says, “is one that makes it probable. In abductive arguments (or what are also called “inductive arguments”), above, we reason informally to the best, most probable explanation. Find more helpful resources in the Relateds below. Related Content: How to Spot Bullshit: A Primer by Princeton Philosopher Harry Frankfurt
Most of the you tube clips here are clips i use Oxford's Free Course Critical Reasoning For Beginners Will Teach You to Think Like a Philosopher When I was younger, I often found myself disagreeing with something I’d read or heard, but couldn't explain exactly why. Despite being unable to pinpoint the precise reasons, I had a strong sense that the rules of logic were being violated. After I was exposed to critical thinking in high school and university, I learned to recognize problematic arguments, whether they be a straw man, an appeal to authority, or an ad hominem attack. Faulty arguments are all-pervasive, and the mental biases that underlie them pop up in media coverage, college classes, and armchair theorizing. Want to learn how to avoid them? Talbot builds the course from the ground up, and begins by explaining that arguments consist of a set of premises that, logically linked together, lead to a conclusion. Critical Reasoning For Beginners is currently available on the University of Oxford website in both audio and video formats, and also on iTunesU and YouTube. Related Content:
10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking | TeachThought 10 Team-Building Games That Promote Critical Thinking by TeachThought Staff One of education’s primary goals is to groom the next generation of little humans to succeed in the “real world.” Yes, there are mounds of curricula they must master in a wide breadth of subjects, but education does not begin and end with a textbook or test. Other skills must be honed, too, not the least of which is how to get along with their peers and work well with others. This is not something that can be cultivated through rote memorization or with strategically placed posters. Students must be engaged and cooperation must be practiced, and often. 10 Team-Building Games That Promote Collaborative Critical Thinking You can purchase a classroom-ready version of team-building games that promote critical thinking here. 1. This team-building game is flexible. Then, give them something to construct. You can recycle this activity throughout the year by adapting the challenge or materials to specific content areas. 2. 3.
3 Simple Strategies to Develop Students’ Critical Thinking – Education to Save the World This week we’ve focused on critical thinking using the model developed by the Foundation for Critical Thinking. By now you’re probably excited about the incredible potential that these tools hold…and a little overwhelmed. Where to start? Simple. 1) TELL students that you want them to work on their thinking. You might start this way: “In this class we will learn to be better thinkers. Students should know that you are interested in their thinking and that improved critical thinking is a goal of your classroom. 2) Choose ONE element of thought, intellectual standard, or intellectual trait and teach students what it means. 3) Give students something to think about and ask them to practice improving their thinking. Here are some easy ways to help kids practice: — A and B: Ask students to work in pairs. Image credit: Foundation for Critical Thinking — Telephone: Ask all students to write out answers to your question. — Make it better: Ask one student to share his or her answer with the class.
The Questioning Toolkit - Revised The first version of the Questioning Toolkit was published in November of 1997. Since then there has been substantial revision of its major question types and how they may function as an interwoven system. This article takes the model quite a few steps further, explaining more about each type of question and how it might support the overall investigative process in combination with the other types. photo ©istockphoto.com Section One - Orchestration Most complicated issues and challenges require the researcher to apply quite a few different types of questions when building an answer. Orchestration is the key concept added to the model since its first version. orchestrate: To combine and adapt in order to attain a particular effect: arrange, blend, coordinate, harmonize, integrate, synthesize, unify. As the researcher moves beyond mere gathering to discovering and inventing new meanings, the complexity and the challenge of effective orchestration grows dramatically. --- Essential Questions ---
edutopia Editor's note: This post is co-authored by Nancy Frey, a Professor of Literacy in Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a credentialed special educator, reading specialist, and administrator. Questions are a common way for teachers to check for understanding, right? The answer we’re looking for is "yes." Who hasn't questioned a group of students to determine whether or not they understood the content? What does the text say? What does the text say? The questions in this category require students to think literally about the text. The amount of time that teachers spend at the literal level will vary based on student responses. Questions at this level could include: What is the relationship between the narrator and the main character? How does the text work? When students have a grasp of the text at the literal level, we move to the structural level. For example, questions at the structural level could include: What is the _______ referenced by the narrator?
Overcoming Obstacles to Critical Thinking The ability to think critically is one skill separating innovators from followers. It combats the power of advertisers, unmasks the unscrupulous and pretentious, and exposes unsupported arguments. Students enjoy learning the skill because they immediately see how it gives them more control. Yet critical thinking is simple: It is merely the ability to understand why things are they way they are and to understand the potential consequences of actions. Devastating Consequences, Tremendous Opportunities Young people—without significant life experience and anxious to fit in—are especially vulnerable to surface appeal. Every educator is in a position to teach students how to gather information, evaluate it, screen out distractions, and think for themselves. A World of Illusions Seeing beyond superficial appearances is especially important today because we are surrounded by illusions, many of them deliberately created. Making a Start in Teaching Critical Thinking
Bloom's Digital Taxonomy Verbs [Infographic] When using Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy (a revised take on Bloom’s devised by educator Andrew Churches), it helps to have a list of verbs to know what actions define each stage of the taxonomy. This is useful for lesson planning, rubric making, and any other teacher-oriented task requiring planning and assessment strategies. The Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy verbs in this handy infographic apply specifically to each stage of the taxonomy. According to Churches on his wiki Edorigami, “Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy describes many traditional classroom practices, behaviours and actions, but does not account for the new processes and actions associated with Web 2.0 technologies …” This means the verbs listed below are applicable to facilitating technology use in the modern classrooms. A Quick Reference Tool for Bloom’s Taxonomy Verbs We hope you find this infographic of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy verbs useful in your classroom practices. Poster Files For You
35 Psychology-Based Learning Strategies For Deeper Learning 35 Psychology-Based Critical Thinking Strategies by Sara Briggs, opencolleges.edu.au Have you ever considered letting your students listen to hardcore punk while they take their mid-term exam? Here are 35 critical thinking strategies, straight from the mind of Sigmund Freud. 35 Psychology-Based Critical Thinking Strategies 1. Definition: It is easiest to recall information when you are in a state similar to the one in which you initially learned the material. Application: Urge your students to sit in the same room they studied in when they complete their take-home quiz. 2. Definition: The tendency to overemphasize internal explanations for the behavior of others, while failing to take into account the power of the situation. Application: Sometimes students need your help distinguishing between internal and external factors that affect academic performance. 3. Application: Unfortunately, effort does not always correlate positively with performance. 4. Application: F. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
The Critical Thinking Skills Cheatsheet [Infographic] Critical thinking skills truly matter in learning. Why? Because they are life skills we use every day of our lives. Everything from our work to our recreational pursuits, and all that’s in between, employs these unique and valuable abilities. It’s a simple infographic offering questions that work to develop critical thinking on any given topic. How Does It Work? Critical thinking is thinking on purpose. The Critical Thinking Skills Cheatsheet includes categories for Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. In these questions you’ll find great potential conversation starters and fillers. Critical Thinking Skills Cheatsheet for Printing You can grab an 11x17 PDF file of the Critical Thinking Skills Cheatsheet for quick and easy printing. We really hope you enjoy this cheatsheet.
Happy Birthday, Descartes: 12 “Rules for the Direction of the Mind” from the Founding Father of Western Philosophy By Maria Popova In the late 1620s, about a decade before he coined Cogito ergo sum (“I think, therefore I am”) — the slogan that would establish him as the founding father of modern Western philosophy — the great French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician René Descartes (March 31, 1596–February 11, 1650) set about delineating the rules of critical thinking. His list, titled Rules for the Direction of the Mind and partway in time between the Buddha’s Charter of Free Inquiry and Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit, endures as a timeless tuning mechanism for the inner workings of reason. Of the 36 rules Descartes planned to write, he only penned 21, the first twelve of which outlined the principles of the scientific method. His twelve-vertebrae backbone of critical thinking reads as follows: