Chapter 6: COLLEGE-LEVEL THINKING
What does "critical thinking" in college mean?
Own Early Thinking
good critical thinking?
Additional Resources &
This chapter gives you the basics of what "critical
thinking" means at the college level. "Critical" thinking does not mean
negative or angry thinking. Instead, it means good, logical, deep, and
wide thinking. This chapter explains critical thinking and suggests
several ways to use it.
Writing is a form of thinking, which is why this chapter is in this writing textbook.
In "The Art of Changing the Brain" by J. Zull (Educational Leadership
2004), the author says that "practice" and "emotion" are two extremely important
brain activities for learning. Zull says that when we practice (as in
practicing writing), our brain cells "fire repeatedly" and, as a result, become
larger and spread to other brain cells. The result is more connections
among more brain cells: the growth of the connections or "synapses" become
"networks [that] are the physical equivalent of knowledge" (69). In other
words, all your knowledge is like a thick, complex, three-dimensional web, with
webbing connecting to webbing connecting to webbing. And every time you
learn something new, some of your three-dimensional strands of webbing grow
longer, and the overall web becomes a little thicker, richer, and more complex.
Emotion also is very important. Zull says, "Emotion and thought are
physically entangled" (70). In general, you're more likely not just to
think well--but remember your thoughts--if you associate some kind of emotion
with what you have learned, and that emotion is in some way positive or
associated with important learning. In other words, though this may sound
simple and basic, if you are having a good time, you're more likely to remember
what you were thinking. If, on the other hand, you're in a terrible mood,
you can barely stay awake, or you hate the book or lecture you are trying to
absorb, then you are highly likely to forget it. This may explain, among
many other things, why people report eating snacks, drinking sweet drinks, and
listening to music they like as aids in studying. it also helps explain
why finding a good study place and a regular study time are so important: they
set the background conditions for a more positive emotional experience, hence
the greater likelihood you'll remember what you studied. This
factor--positive emotion--also helps explain why most of us report learning
more--and learning better--in classrooms that are fun, especially in active
situations that engage more of our thinking and doing, and from active teachers
who make education fun and interesting.
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Own Early Thinking
does any of us start "thinking"? What is "thinking"? And how is
writing a form of thinking?
I--like most people, I imagine--didn't consider writing as
thinking when I first began to look at my own thinking. My mom taught me
what most of us think of as "thinking"--a form of talking to yourself. You could do it out
loud, or you could talk to yourself in your head. My mom explained to me
that it was an especially good way to stop being mad at my sister if she did
something silly or tried to start an argument with me. "You're older
than she is," my mom said, "and you know how to stop fighting
better. Just think first."
Pogue and Rocks in the Water Pump
So, I learned to think first, not only at home but also in school.
Sometimes my first thoughts weren't always the best ones, like the time Tommy
Pogue and I put rocks down the water-well pump outside our one-room school, and
the teacher had to fix it. "What were you thinking!" she
exclaimed. "I wanted to help Tommy," I said. My idea had
been that he didn't have a lot of friends, and doing this with him would help us
be friends. Needless to say, I learned that first thoughts weren't always
I also learned, once I could write, that I could put
some of my thoughts on paper and even get good grades for them. I was
careful not to write anything about which the teacher thought differently--I'd
learned my lesson well with Tommy Pogue. However, within reason, I found
that my thoughts on paper were rewarded.
Then, with a change of schools in fourth grade and a
suddenly increasing interest in the sexuality in the fifth grade, I found lots
of thoughts to think that I didn't want my parents and school officials--and in
some cases not even my friends--to know about. This was when I started
writing some of my private thoughts in a journal. I started journaling in
fifth grade now and then, and increased the amount and frequency of it through
high school and my first year of college. It was this kind of personal
journaling--my responses to objective and subjective events and feelings--that
enabled me to more closely examine my own thinking and feeling: to think
thoughtfully about my own self. It really took this deeper inner
observation for me to learn how to become a good "critical" thinker.
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What is good "critical" thinking?
It is simply good, thorough, creative and logical thinking. The word critical
does not mean "negative" or "mean" in the academic world; it
simply means careful, thorough, and insightful thinking. Good critical
thinking usually demonstrates at least a few of the following traits at any
GOOD CRITICAL THINKING
It demonstrates familiarity with and
understanding of its subject.
It uses logic and reason in presenting
While it may contain some emotional
resources or material, it does so with balance and respect for its subject.
It develops new or unusual ideas that
may represent thinking "outside of the box."
It offers reasonable supporting details
for the ideas it develops about its subject
It uses an organizational plan to
present its ideas about its subject, step by step.
Richard Paul and Linda Elder, two of the leading experts in the
critical-thinking movement, offer another list of elements in good critical
thinking: “clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance,
depth, breadth, logic, significance, fairness” (Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools
9, Dillon Beach,
CA, The Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2001.)
These can be turned into a nine-part table, as follows (from "Other
Processes" in the "Advanced" part of Chapter C4,
"Evaluating a Reading"):
A Table of Critical Thinking
Elements --Paul and Elder
CLARITY: Is your thinking
clear both in its
usage (words, phrases, and style) and in its explanations of ideas (for
the appropriate audience)?
ACCURACY: Is your thinking factually correct?
PRECISION: Is your thinking precise? Does it not waste words but
make its points efficiently and cleanly?
RELEVANCE: Does your thinking connect in valuable ways with other
public discussions or needs?
DEPTH: Does your thinking not just skim the surface of the subject but
instead go deeply into the underlying issues, problems, and events?
BREADTH: Does your thinking cover its subject broadly enough to have
meaning for more than just a very narrow segment of people or problems?
LOGIC: Is your thinking logical? Does it proceed in a step by step,
sufficiently cause-and-effect structure that makes sense?
SIGNIFICANCE: Is your thinking
significant to a large enough audience?
FAIRNESS: Does your
thinking "play fair" by assuming ethical rules and guidelines
most of us
hold in common (e.g., democracy, equality, disclosure of bias, etc.)?
What is a "taxonomy"?
Is it possible to find a good system to help you use
critical thinking? There are many such systems. A popular one--that
naturally follows from the above--is the well known "taxonomy" developed in 1964
by B.S. Bloom. A "taxonomy" is a classification system in which there are
necessary steps, each one including all the ones before it. For example,
the steps in growing from a flower seed to a final, complete organism represent
a taxonomy, with the lowest level being the simplest and the top level being the
a fully mature plant
a young plant
The sprout has within it
the basics of the seed; the young plant has within it the basics of the sprout
and the seed; and the fully mature plant has within it the basics of a young
plant, a sprout, and a seed. Each step is necessary before the next can
Bloom's famous taxonomy classifies educational
objectives. His classification reads from the bottom up, with the lowest
level being the simplest educationally and intellectually:
(from Taxonomy of Educational Objectives published by David McKay in
This taxonomy or classification system shows six skills that students need to
learn. What is more, these skills occur in steps, with each of the five
higher skills requiring what is beneath them.
This means, for example, that a student cannot learn "Application"
until he or she has a reasonable mastery of both "Recall" and
"Comprehension." The very top skill, "Evaluation,"
requires mastery and use of all five skills below it.
This taxonomy highlights, in particular (in terms
of college-level thinking), the three higher-level skills of "Analysis,"
"Synthesis," and "Evaluation." "Analysis," in particular, often is where
real college-level critical thinking begins. The three simpler thinking skills
below it must be mastered in a particular situation requiring a good analysis.
Everyone who reaches college is capable of and experienced in the first three
skills--the ones below analysis (i.e., "Application," "Comprehension," and
"Recall"). Most people also are capable of analysis, but if they do not
learn to master it quickly, they are unlikely to succeed in college.
Almost all courses--and certainly all degrees and certificate
programs--require the ability to analyze, at the least, a situation and
develop sound, logical, clear results. This is true whether you are a
paramedic trying to assess how to handle a victim, a medical assistant trying
to develop an intake diagnosis of a new patient, or a student in a liberal
arts class learning to interpret meanings. And if you are attempting a
four-year degree or more (and sometimes even a two-year degree), you will have
to master not only analysis but also the two educational objectives that
follow it and are highest in Bloom's taxonomy, "Synthesis" and "Evaluation."
analysis is so important, how can you transfer what you have learned in this
chapter to future classes and work? Simply remember that whenever you
are confronted with a task involving thinking, analyze the task. Break
it down into its parts. And ask yourself, "How am I supposed to
perceive or explain the parts?" Every task of this kind--every
one--can be broken into parts and analyzed accordingly. Of course, other
kinds of thinking skills such as intuition, creativity, and freewriting (and
free speaking!) are very useful, too. However, whether you use an
outline, a visual diagram, a discussion with others, or some rough drafting of
ideas on your own, eventually you will need to break down a subject and then
think about its parts, step by step, using a theory, viewpoint(s), or
method. Whenever you have a problem at work (or in your personal life),
this is how you will eventually solve it if you solve it efficiently and
Look everywhere around you in the academic world
in which you now live, at courses, at lectures and discussions, and at
textbooks (including this one). Analyses are everywhere: someone has
taken the time to look at a problem, situation, or subject, break it into its
parts, and then decide how to talk about these parts, step by step, so that
others can understand them, too. That is, in fact, exactly what this
chapter--and this discussion of analysis--is doing now. It divides the
task of analyzing into different parts and then discusses them from several
viewpoints--of a college student just learning analysis, of a college student
taking advanced college courses, and of a college student going into the
be simplified greatly to refer to the ability to develop and support an opinion:
in short, to make an argument. It is important to remember, however, that
good synthesis often does not represent just one argument or point of view, but
rather two or more: the variety of alternate/opposing arguments that can be made
from the same sets of evidence. For more on the varieties of argument, see
the extensive "Argument" section of this book.
[Use "Advanced" sect. of arg. ch.?]
Evaluation is, in Bloom's taxonomy, the highest
level of thinking to which one can aspire. It is important to remember
that "evaluation" includes not only its own particular intellectual behavior or
methods, but also all the other thinking skills listed beneath it: all are
necessary to good evaluation. For example, think of what a good judge must
do. If a judge is to accurately deliver a verdict in a complex case, he or
she must be able to recall all the evidence presented in court and also all
relevant laws, comprehend the meaning of each, apply the laws to the evidence,
analyze which laws apply to the evidence and how, synthesize the several
possible results or outcomes of this analysis, and only then, finally, evaluate
which result or outcome is the most correct.
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What is "problem solving"?
Problem solving is another method you can adopt to
use critical thinking. A good problem solving process helps you solve a
specific problem in a concrete situation, step by step. Good problem
solvers go through several basic steps. They consider the problem, try to
get as much information about it as they can, think of several possible ways to
solve the problem, choose one and apply it, and examine the results to see if
more improvements can be made.
The Navajo Indians, for example,
have an educational philosophy called "ana'ho'o't'l" or "issue
based," which means it is problem-solving based. This system involves
four steps, sometimes nicknamed SNBH:
ANA'HO'O'T'L: Sa'ah Naagh'i' Bik'eh
Thinking and generating
Planning and implementing
Doing or implementing plans
Achieving and producing
Reviewing or bringing tasks
Dine (Navajo). www.dinecollege.edu
Starks-Martin. "Integrating a Culture into the Teaching of
Reading and Writing: A Navajo Experience." College Reading
and Learning Conference 2005. Minneapolis, 4 Nov. 2005.
Dean Mellow. "An Examination of Western Influences on
Indigenous Language Teaching." In Reyhner, et. al. Learn
in Beauty: Indigenous Education for a New Century. Flagstaff:
Northern Arizona UP, 2000. 102-113.
Another problem solving process is "DARE." It is a taxonomic
problem-solving system and is especially useful in situations requiring a lot of
thought. In this case, thought actually is the action: one thoroughly
examines a problem, need, or text. On the one hand, DARE is a summary of
many academic ways of writing and thinking. On the other hand, it is a
very thorough, detailed method of completing just the very first step in Navajo
problem solving, called "Sa'ah," which is "thinking and
generating ideas" (above).
problem, need, or text and its related issues.
Analyze the information: examine
or sort it according to several possible viewpoints, methods, or
("One way of sorting this information is ___. Another
group of people might see it as meaning ___. Still others would
perceive that ___.")
Respond by offering several
possible opposing or differing arguments, positions, or opinions that
reviewers, the public, scientists, or others might have.
("One argument that could be made about this is ___.
Another argument is ___.")
Having collected all this data,
evaluate which is best and why using a set of criteria.
("Using the criteria of ethical, financial, and psychological
value, the responses above would be ranked as
(For additional discussion about using these four steps of
D.A.R.E., go to "The
Steps of D.A.R.E. in a Critical Review" in another chapter.)
As noted in the chapter on evaluation, the
process may be applied to much more than just texts. It can be used to
review people and problems professionally and personally, work situations,
professional needs and projects, and many other elements of life and work.
It is, as explained in the evaluation chapter, a sort of summary and
highest-level meaning of this whole section of the Web site, on responding to
readings. D.A.R.E. is only one system of problem solving among many that
require a series of steps similar to it. Like any good problem-solving process, D.A.R.E. is not
completed unless an additional step of examining the process itself--a review, evaluation, and revision
of your work--is added
before the result is shared with others. In this respect, it is much
like the writing process. If you can learn to apply D.A.R.E.--the summary
of this "Responding to Readings" section of the textbook--on almost
any problem in your life, you have learned perhaps the single most important
lesson in critical thinking that this section has to offer.
Additional Resources & Activities
Individual Types of Critical Thinking:
"Providing Deeper Explanation," "Offering
New Evidence," and "Working with Audience Bias": See
Processes" in the "Advanced" part of the chapter called "Disagreeing with a Reading."
"Types of Analysis": See "Types
of Analysis" in the "Basics" part and "Advanced
Types of Analysis" in the "Advanced" part of the chapter
"Analyzing a Reading."
Critical Thinking in Research Writing: See
the chapter called "Critical
Thinking" in the Researching section.
Thinking Activities & Exercises:
to Teach Thinking, an essay
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