Chapter 7: College Success
The most creative idea starts with Select one: A. brainstorming. B. systematic thinking. C. abstractions. D. None of the above
A. brainstorming.
One study found that students who participated in collaborative learning performed significantly better on a test requiring critical thinking than did Select one: A. students who studied individually. B. students who didn't study. C. students in a different major. D. None of the above
A. students who studied individually.
Which of the following is NOT a question a good critical thinker would ask? Select one: A. Why does Speaker X feel so strongly about the issue? B. Did Speaker X move me to feeling strongly about the issue? C. Has Speaker X adequately supported his viewpoint? D. What was Speaker X trying to say?
B. Did Speaker X move me to feeling strongly about the issue?
Critical thinking is considered Select one: A. negative and harsh. B. thoughtful consideration. C. quick decision making. D. None of the above. Check
B. thoughtful consideration.
Which of the following statements will NOT help you to think critically? Select one: A. Attack the argument, not the person. B. Don't beg. C. Appeal to authority. D. Avoid hasty generalizations.
C. Appeal to authority.
In a liberal education, students are taught to investigate Select one: A. all sides of a question. B. all possible solutions to a problem. C. Both A & B D. None of the above
C. Both A & B
A critical thinker possesses all of the following EXCEPT Select one: A. the ability to analyze a problem. B. the ability to imagine solutions, weight them by rational criteria, and commit to one. C. the ability to create a simplistic analysis of a compound issue. D. a tolerance for ambiguity and complexity.
C. the ability to create a simplistic analysis of a compound issue.
7.4 Study Strategies Learning Objective Understanding how to apply critical thinking skills in your study strategies.
Critical Thinking as an active, self-reflective, and deliberate attempt to utilize cognitive skills to increase learning and master concepts throughout various context. You can improve your learning, enjoy your college courses, and make your lecture notes even better through The Study Cycle. It's a process for learning to help you get the bigger picture, study more efficiently, and ace your exams. The Study Cycle consists of the following five steps: PREVIEW: Before class, skim the chapter, note headings and boldface words, review summaries and chapter objectives, and note questions you would like answered in class. ATTEND: GO TO CLASS! Ask questions and take meaningful notes. REVIEW: Within 24 hours, review notes, fill in gaps, and develop any questions that need answering. STUDY: Repetition is the key. Ask questions such as "why," "how," and "what if." CHECK: Periodically perform reality checks. Ask yourself questions such as: Am I using study methods that are effective? Do I understand the material enough to teach it to others?
The Bright IDEA! (I.I.D.E.A)
Critical thinking is a part of everyday life, too. Decisions you make can have a lasting impact on your life, and these decisions benefit from critical thinking. Did you ever decide to quit smoking or to lose weight? Were you successful? How did you decide to attend the college you are in? Was that the right choice for you? In any of these cases, could you have made a better decision if you had better or more information? Critical Thinking as an active, self-reflective, and deliberate attempt to utilize cognitive skills to support decision making, problem solving, or mastery of concepts throughout various contexts. Critical thinking involves the following five reasoning skills: 1. Inference - Inference skills enable people to draw conclusions from reasons and evidence. Inference is used when someone offers thoughtful suggestions and hypothesis. Inference skills indicate the necessary or the very probable consequences of a given set of facts and conditions. Conclusions, hypotheses, recommendations or decisions that are based on faulty analysis, misinformation, bad data or biased evaluations can turn out to be mistaken, even if they have reached using excellent inference skills. 2. Induction - Decision making in contexts of uncertainty relies on inductive reasoning. We use inductive reasoning skills when we draw inferences about what we think is probably true based on analogies, case studies, prior experience, statistical analysis, simulations, hypotheticals, and patterns recognized in familiar objects, events, experiences and behaviors. As long as there is the possibility, however remote, that a highly probable conclusion might be mistaken even though the evidence at hand is unchanged, the reasoning is inductive. Although it does not yield certainty, inductive reasoning can provide a confidence basis for solid belief in our conclusions and a reasonable basis for action. 3. Deduction - Decision making in precisely defined contexts where rules, operating conditions, core beliefs, values, policies, principles, procedures and terminology completely determine the outcome depends on strong deductive reasoning skills. Deductive reasoning moves with exacting precision from the assumed truth of a set of beliefs to a conclusion which cannot be false if those beliefs are untrue. Deductive validity is rigorously logical and clear-cut. Deductive validity leaves no room for uncertainty, unless one alters the meanings of words or the grammar of the language. 4. Evaluation - Evaluative reasoning skills enable individuals to assess the credibility of sources of information and the claims they make. And, people can use these skills to determine the strength and weakness or arguments. Applying evaluation skills can judge the quality of analysis, interpretations, explanations, inferences, options, opinions, beliefs, ideas, proposals, and decisions. Strong explanation skills can support high quality evaluation by providing evidence, reasons, methods, criteria, or assumptions behind the claims made and the conclusions reached. 5. Analysis - Analytical reasoning skills enabling people to identify assumptions, reasons and claims, and examine how they interact in the formation of arguments. Individuals use analytics to gather information from charts, graphs, diagrams, spoken language and documents. People with strong analytical skills attend to patterns and to details. They identify the elements of a situation and determine how those parts interact. Strong interpretations skills can support high quality analysis by providing insights into the significance of what a person is saying or what something means.
A good job candidate will have the following abilities characteristic of critical thinking. Select one: A. Judgment skills B. Collaboration skills C. Analytical skills D. All of the above
D. All of the above
In college, the term "argument" refers to Select one: A. a physical confrontation. B. an emotional confrontation. C. a formal complaint you file against your professor. D. a collection of reasons and information that form logical support of some idea.
D. a collection of reasons and information that form logical support of some idea.
Arguably, the most important skill you will acquire in college is Select one: A. sports related. B. music related. C. the art of arguing. D. the ability and confidence to think for yourself.
D. the ability and confidence to think for yourself.
7.1 It's All In Your Head Learning Objectives
DECLARATIVE KNOWLEDGE The factual knowledge the learner needs before being able to process or use critical thinking related to the topic Knowledge of one's skills, intellectual resources, and abilities as a learner PROCEDURAL KNOWLEDGE The application of knowledge for the purposes of completing a procedure or process Knowledge about how to implement learning procedures (e.g. strategies) CONDITIONAL KNOWLEDGE Knowledge about when and why to use learning procedures Application of declarative and procedural knowledge with certain conditions present The application of metacognition enable individual's to analyze one's own thinking skills and processes through strategies such as planning, monitoring, and revising the progress of cognitive skills. PLANNING Scheduling Goal setting Allocating resources prior to learning INFORMATION MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: Skills and strategy sequences used to process information more efficiently. Organizing Elaborating Summarizing Selective focusing COMPREHENSION MONITORING: Assessment of one's learning or strategy use. DEBUGGING STRATEGIES: Strategies used to correct comprehension and performance errors. EVALUATION: Analysis of performance and strategy effectiveness after a learning episode.
Metacognition is essential to successful learning It enables individuals to better manage their cognitive skills by:
Determining weaknesses that can be corrected Constructing new cognitive skills Become more strategic Plan, sequence, and monitor their learning in a way that directly improves performance
Metacognitive skills enable individual's to analyze one's own thinking skills and processes through strategies such as planning, monitoring, and revising the progress of cognitive skills. Metacognition is essential to successful learning It enables individuals to better manage their cognitive skills by:
Determining weaknesses that can be corrected Constructing new cognitive skills Become more strategic Plan, sequence, and monitor their learning in a way that directly improves performance DECLARATIVE KNOWLEDGE: The factual knowledge the learner needs before being able to process or use critical thinking related to the topic Knowledge of one's skills, intellectual resources, and abilities as a learner PROCEDURAL KNOWLEDGE: The application of knowledge for the purposes of completing a procedure or process Knowledge about how to implement learning procedures (e.g. strategies) CONDITIONAL KNOWLEDGE: Knowledge about when and why to use learning procedures. Application of declarative and procedural knowledge with certain conditions present. The application of metacognition enable individual's to analyze one's own thinking skills and processes through strategies such as planning, monitoring, and revising the progress of cognitive skills. PLANNING: Scheduling Goal setting Allocating resources prior to learning INFORMATION MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: Skills and strategy sequences used to process information more efficiently. Organizing Elaborating Summarizing Selective focusing COMPREHENSION MONITORING: Assessment of one's learning or strategy use. DEBUGGING STRATEGIES: Strategies used to correct comprehension and performance errors. EVALUATION: Analysis of performance and strategy effectiveness after a learning episode.
A strong argument appeals most to your emotions. Select one: True False
False
Your high school English teacher gave you firm rules for writing, yet your college English teacher has her own set of rules. One of them must be wrong. Select one: True False
False
Critical thinking involves utilizing the following five reasoning skills:
Inference Induction Deduction Evaluation Analysis
You will need to use critical thinking throughout your college years and beyond. Here are some common critical thinking situations and the kinds of questions you should ask to apply critical thinking. Note that critical thinking is central to themes covered in detail throughout this book.
Personal choices. Examples include "What should I major in?" and "Should I buy a new car?" What do you know about each of your options? What is the quality of that information? Where can you get more (reliable) information? How do those options relate to your financial and emotional needs? What are the pros and cons of each option? Are you open to the points of view of others who may be involved? (See Chapter 11 "Taking Control of Your Finances" and Chapter 4 "What is your Career Goal?".) Reading, listening, note taking, and studying. What are the core messages of the instructor or author? Why are they important? How do these messages relate to one another or differ? (This is covered in much more detail in Chapter 8 "Listening, Taking Notes, and Remembering" and Chapter 9 "Reading to Learn".) Research papers. What evidence do you need to support your thesis? What sources are available for that evidence? Are they reliable sources? Are there any fallacies in your argument? (This is covered in more detail in Chapter 3 "Writing for Classes".) Essay questions on exams. What is the professor really asking you to do? What do you know about the question? What is your personal belief about the question? What are the beliefs or biases of the professor or quoted authors? What are the arguments against your point of view? What are the most important pieces of evidence you should offer to support your answer? (This covered in more detail in Chapter 10 "Preparing for and Taking Tests".) Key Takeaways Effective problem solving involves critical thinking. Critical thinking involves utilizing the following five reasoning skills: Inference Induction Deduction Evaluation Analysis
PLANNING
Scheduling Goal setting Allocating resources prior to learning
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Skills and strategy sequences used to process information more efficiently organizing, elaborating summarizing selective focusing
7.0 Thinking about Thought
Throughout this book, we make the case that college is really quite different from high school. Sure, the social life is different, and there are different pressures in college, perhaps a family to support or a job schedule to coordinate with studies. But the two most fundamental differences involve expectations—the expectation that you will be independent and take responsibility for your actions and the expectation that you will think for yourself. Remember the heavy "thinking" you did in high school? Most of it was recalling facts or information you had previously committed to memory. Perhaps in some courses you were asked to support a statement or hypothesis using content from your textbook or class. Your thinking in high school was very structured and tied closely to reflecting what was taught in class. In college, you are expected to think for yourself; to access and evaluate new approaches and ideas; to contribute to your knowledge base; and to develop or create new, fresh ideas. You will be required to develop and use a variety of thinking skills—higher-order thinking skills—which you seldom used in high school. In college, your instructors' roles will be not only to supply a base of new information and ideas, as good instructors will challenge you to stretch your skills and knowledge base through critical and creative thinking. Much of their teaching involves the questions they ask, not the directions they give. Your success in college education—and in life beyond college—is directly linked to becoming a better and more complete thinker. Becoming a better and more complete thinker requires mastering some skills and consistent practice.
Creative thinking refers to seeking connections, finding new possibilities, and rejecting nothing. Select one: True False
True
Questions that suggest complex answers do not engage you in the process of critical thinking. Select one: True False
True
When employers say they want workers who can find reliable information, analyze it, organize it, draw conclusions from it, and present it convincingly to others, they are seeking individuals who are critical thinkers. Select one: True False
True
7.2 Types of Thinking Learning Objectives
Understand that there are different types of thinking. Identify how each type of thinking contributes to learning. Metacognitive skills may include tapping into one's own memory to try and remember knowledge learned, which is called "metamemory," and knowing whether or not one comprehended the material that one has read which is called "metacomprehension." In the 1950s, Benjamin Bloom developed a classification of thinking skills that is still helpful today; it is known as Bloom's taxonomy. He lists six types of thinking skills, ranked in order of complexity: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The Types of Thinking Skills below outline each skill and what is involved in that type of thinking, as updated by Lorin Anderson and David Krothwohl [1]. Types of Thinking Skills All of these thinking skills are important for college work (and life in the "real world," too). You've likely had a great deal of experience with the lower-level thinking skills (Declarative Knowledge). The mid level skills are skills you will get a lot of practice with in college, and you may be well on your way to mastering them already (Procedural Knowledge). The higher-level thinking skills (Conditional Knowledge) are the most demanding, and you will need to invest focused effort to develop them. Exercise: Thought Inventory Think about the Types of Thinking Skills shown above. Are you using all six thinking skills? Reflect on your schoolwork in the past three weeks and identify specific examples where you used each of the thinking skills. The Thinking Verb Examples below show some of the most common verbs associated with each thinking skill. Throughout this book, we give tips that will help you develop your metamemory and metacomprehension. You have read about the learning cycle and the importance of applying your knowledge. You will learn tips for remembering information from your notes and classes. Preparing for class requires you to analyze what you know and what you need to learn. The sections on listening and reading will help you develop your understanding skills. Look for those tips and practice them. In this chapter, we will focus on critical thinking. Key Takeaways We use different types of thinking skills to address different requirements, and these skills are classified in Bloom's taxonomy. Metacognition involves comprehension and recalling of information.
Critical Thinking is defined by GMC's as an
active, self-reflective, and deliberate attempt to utilize cognitive skills to support decision making, problem solving, or mastery of concepts throughout various contexts
Metacognition is essential to successful learning. It enables individuals to better manage their cognitive skills by:
determining weaknesses that can be corrected constructing new cognitive skills becoming more strategic planning, sequencing, and monitoring their learning in a way that directly improves performance
Why are arguments central to academic study, work, and life in general?
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Why should some assumptions be carefully examined?
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Identify a newsworthy item that is clearly polarizing the population. Defend both positions.
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Think about the courses you are taking this term and illustrate how each one encourages critical thinking.
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Explore the process of creative thinking. Begin by describing what defines creative thinking. Then, choose an idea and demonstrate your creative thoughts about it.
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Explore why critical thinking is at the core of a liberal education.
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Why is it important to examine the evidence for an argument?
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Explain the value of brainstorming.
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You can also increase your studying efficiency, accomplish your studying goals, stay on task and track your studying progress. You can study better and smarter for college by utilizing the Intense Study Sessions - a strategy that
improves efficiency. It involves the four following steps: Set a Goal: (1-2 min) Decide what you want to accomplish in your study session. Study with Focus: (30-50 min) Interact with material - organize, concept map, summarize process, re-read, fill-in notes reflect, etc. Reward Yourself: (10-15 min) Take a break - walk around, get a snack, relax. Review: (5 min) Go over, summarize, and wrap-up what you just studied. View the Intense Study Session Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnQsmwRQOqU. Key Takeaways Critical thinking is an active, self-reflective, and deliberate attempt to utilize cognitive skills to increase learning. The Study Cycle can improve your learning. The Intense Study Session improves efficiency.
Name the three aspects of critical thinking.
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