Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts

As the importance of critical thinking has grown paramount, due to fake news, medical misinformation, AI and automation, our white paper, “Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts,” is a practical and relevant guide. Insight Assessment founder Peter Facione, Ph.D., clearly and engagingly, explains exactly what critical thinking is—and what it is not. He demonstrates why critical thinking is important in our personal and professional lives as well as throughout society and the world. Facione further introduces tools and strategies that enable us to improve our individual and collective critical thinking skills. Studied across the globe, in multiple…

Expert Consensus on Critical Thinking

The Delphi Report The landmark 1990 APA Delphi Report describes the findings of the two year project to articulate an international expert consensus definition of critical thinking, including its core cognitive skills. The experts identify the characteristics of an ideal critical thinker, and present specific recommendations relating to critical thinking instruction and assessment. Click here to download a PDF of the Executive Summary of  Critical Thinking: A Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction Defining Critical Thinking Skills “The Critical Thinking Movement” of the 1980s witnessed a growing accord that the heart of education lies exactly…

Characteristics of Strong Critical Thinkers

Strong critical thinkers demonstrate the following characteristics: inquisitiveness with regard to a wide range of issues concern to become and remain well-informed attentive to opportunities to use critical thinking self-confidence in one’s own abilities to reason open-mindedness regarding divergent world views flexibility in considering alternatives and opinions alertness to likely future events in order to anticipate their consequences understanding of the opinions of other people fair-mindedness in appraising reasoning honesty in facing one’s own biases, prejudices, stereotypes, or egocentric tendencies prudence in suspending, making or altering judgments willingness to reconsider and revise views where honest reflection suggests that change is…

Fifteen Positive Examples of Critical Thinking

Everyone needs critical thinking We all encounter opportunities in our daily lives to engage problems and decisions using strong critical thinking. Everyone needs to think ahead, to plan and to problem solve. In fact, strong thinking is the common denominator of success throughout the world.  It’s easy to find examples of  critical thinking skills being applied, everyday, in everyday life. Here are fifteen positive examples of critical thinking: A person trying to interpret an angry friend’s needs, expressed through a rush of emotion and snide comments, to give that friend some help and support. A manager trying to be as…

White Paper: What the Critical Thinking Data Tell Us About Our Reasoning

This white paper supplies an overview of empirical research on efforts to improve critical thinking in educational and employment settings. The unifying factor in these papers is the data provided by scholars measuring critical thinking using instruments developed and validated by the Insight Development research team, often in collaboration with international scholar colleagues and professional sector experts. Findings are organized under four broad questions: College students: How do the critical thinking skills of today’s students compare with skills demonstrated in earlier decades? Professional Programs: How helpful is an assessment of critical thinking for graduate and professional program admissions and for…

Cultivating a Critical Thinking Mindset PDF

Peter A. Facione, Carol A. Gittens, Noreen C. Facione Since the publication of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory in 1992, our research team has often been asked what a person might do in order to develop strong critical thinking habits of mind. The answer, as it turns out, is both easier and more difficult than might at first be imagined. This essay offers specific suggestions – practices which can be incorporate into daily living. After a quick summary of how education and socialization are used in the formation of character, the paper provides a summary analysis of the seven…

Why Measure Quantitative Reasoning (Numeracy)

The importance of quantitative reasoning skills (numeracy) Numeracy is simply the application of critical thinking skills like, analysis and interpretation, along with mathematical basics, like algebra, to quantitative information. Numeracy refers to the ability to solve quantitative reasoning problems, or to making judgments derived from quantitative reasoning in a variety of contexts. It is more than being able to compute or calculate a solution to a mathematical equation.  Numeracy includes understanding how quantitative information is gathered, represented, and correctly interpreted using graphs, charts, tables and diagrams. A person with strong numeracy skills can apply his or her knowledge of numbers,…

How are educators teaching critical thinking today?

It is possible to teach critical thinking Much has been learned about effective teaching strategies that lead to demonstrable student gains in critical thinking in the two decades since educators have focused increased efforts on training critical thinking skills and habits of mind. Opportunities to teach critical thinking span every kind of educational discipline and professional specialty: Courses in critical thinking and human reasoning Seminars examining historical judgments Internships training novice professionals Clinical rotations Online training modules Group discussion series Training programs in problem analysis Case-based programs on error prevention Field studies in community problem solving Training in decision mapping…

Can critical thinking be assessed with rubrics?

Rubrics are rating forms designed to capture evidence of a particular quality or construct. The quality of the measure obtained from a rubric depends on how well it is designed. If the rubric is poorly designed, the rating is confounded or inaccurate. The quality of the rubric is also affected by the skill of the rater using the rubric.  When using a rubric it is necessary to train and calibrate the raters to use the rubric well to assure that ratings are accurate and consistent across all raters. Ratings using rubrics cannot be benchmarked against national comparison groups or compared…

Snap Judgments PDF

“Snap Judgments – Risks and Benefits of Heuristic Thinking” There are two important systems at work in human thinking and decision making. One is a highly reflective judgment process (referred to often as ‘System Two’) and the other (‘System One’) is an heuristic process that relies on previous learning and sensory input. Both systems are at work all the time. Both systems are valuable to survival, and they check and balance each other when humans think well.  Both need to be monitored for error to prevent poor decision making and lost opportunity. This material describes System One and cautions against…

Perspectives that Influence Thinking and Knowing

Perspectives that Influence Thinking and Knowing – This tool describes seven different ways that individuals see the world. These varying perspectives have a profound effect on how a person interprets new information, identifies problems (or fails to), and determines how or whether the problems can be solved. Effective training programs aimed at reasoning and decision making skills and mindset account for the variation of knowledge perspectives present in the training group.

Talking Critical Thinking PDF

In this allegorical essay, which appeared in Change: The Magazine of Higher Education, we walk side by side with an academic dean who is preparing to explain to the Board of Trustees the importance of critical thinking.  Between the dean’s office and the Board’s meeting room we encounter members of the faculty, staff professionals, senior administrators and coaches.  Each encounter provides the dean with another insight into critical thinking.  Travel with the dean and reflect on the  progress of our understanding of critical thinking.  Imagine how you would explain critical thinking to people outside of academia. 

Tips on the Strategy of Interest-Based Negotiation

In these days before the election the American people are calling upon their elected representatives in Washington and in State capitols around the country to focus on how they can think together to find the solutions we need to move forward. Through the use of purposeful reflective judgment we will be striving to agree on goals that are derived from our core values (controlling debt, being fiscally accountable, supporting the life and work of America’s people, protecting and enriching the future of our children). If we dig in (dominance structure) around our own views as the only way to achieve…

Facione: Essays On Liberal Learning and Institutional Budgeting

Dr. Peter A. (Pete) Facione brings three decades of higher education leadership experience as a Provost, Dean, Director and Department Chair. His higher education writings include essays on budgeting, governance, liberal education, outcomes assessment, faculty evaluation, and critical thinking. He has consulted on-site at over sixty institutions around the country. To discuss your academic leadership development program needs with Dr. Facione contact him directly through at [email protected] for Heads, Hands, and Hearts: Random Rants and Reflections on Liberal Education Learning for Heads, Hands and Hearts: Random Rants and Reflections on Liberal Education PDF "Straight Talk: College Survival Guide" PDF

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Teach for Thinking

“There is no secret to teaching for thinking.” Students learn from what teachers do as much, if not more, than from what they say. To teach for thinking one must show a passionate disposition toward thinking and explicitly and reflectively use thinking skills to form reasoned judgments. Educators must demonstrate thinking in multiple contexts including those that are rich in subject matter content and problem-complexity.  The more a teacher is able to extend students’ thinking into new domains of learning and inquiry, demanding solid content knowledge and the correct application of standards and methods appropriate to the domain, the stronger students’ thinking…