Wendy Lewis Only R2

R2 Lecture

Hello welcome to critical thinking, week two, where we will be discussing more about the characteristics of thinking.

Comprehensive, critical thinking has the following characteristics:

1. It is thinking which is responsive to and guided by intellectual standards, such as relevance, accuracy, precision, clarity, depth and breadth. Without intellectual standards to guide it, thinking cannot achieve excellence.

To be helpful and academic and to contribute to certain fields with critical thinking you need to have a set of standards and values within that industry or realm that you are discussing and critiquing. This is so you do not wind up having a lot of bias and extraneous information and opinion brought into you what you're trying to teach and show others. if you have a set of standards, making sure that what you're saying is relevant and accurate and at a certain level of clarity and depth to it then you know it is something which can help and teach others and provide a new way of thinking and dealing with whatever industry you are discussing. It’s just like having a certain set of values and of ways of living this is having a certain set of standards on ways to criticize and dissect and explore something without allowing a lot of bias and extraneous stuff to get in the way and muddle things up. You want to keep it as pure as possible, as focused as possible, on the topic that you are trying to dissect. It is very easy, when going through your research in the papers that you’re writing, to get taken off the topic that you’re supposed to be discussing. Do a Google search on any topic and you'll find that there are thousands and thousands of ways to take on a topic at different angles. You can focus different areas with thousands of subtopics and opinions. If you don't know exactly what you're focusing on, making sure everything is relevant and accurate and stay focused on that topic it can really muddle a thesis. A set of standards in critical thinking helps you to make sure what you are writing or discussing is relevant and at the highest level for academic papers, seminars and even when published in peer journals. areas so that's where this whole set of standards comes into play unless you're listening to someone at reading the text you can see from most of the points that everything that made how they stack up to this intellectual standards that have been set up the

2. Critical thinking is thinking that deliberately supports the development of intellectual traits in the thinker such as: intellectual humility, intellectual integrity, intellectual perseverance, intellectual empathy and intellectual self-discipline.

What this means is that the thinker their self learns to develop certain traits while pursuing this type of thinking. You learn to how develop a certain type of humility because you are not just discussing your opinions and your beliefs. You looking to be more balanced and in the center to see what you may or may not know. You’re sort of exploring a little bit and not stepping up to say a biased statement about something. You’re constantly looking to see if you are being biased or not. That helps develop a sort of humility. Intellectual integrity comes just from attempting to put a set of standards into place and wanting to be sure that everything that you are writing and saying is accurate. That helps you develop a sense of integrity in your words and also in looking at what other people have written. In time you find yourself looking for integrity in what they are writing and for the purity of not having any bias. You will find that you will be able to start analyzing text quickly as you move forward. it will be quite interesting when you do spot bias and are able to analyze more what people are saying, where they're coming from and whether their argument is good or not. The minute you can see a lot of bias in someone's work and that things that are inaccurate then their whole argument can fall apart. You are learning to be empathetic to the subject and industry you are discussing. You’re learning empathy for what is needed in your audience and what they're looking to learn from you. You learn to discipline yourself by seeking facts and seeking ways to help others and the industry you are working in. you learn to really look for bias, to be able to spot it and to be middle-of-the-road when you're exploring certain topics. You can also find all of these things in someone else's work. It’s not just about being able to critique certain topics but also to critique authors of these topics. You need to be able to develop a dialogue and critical thinking debate or argument with other authors as well.

3. Critical thinking is also the thinking in which the thinker can identify the elements of thought that are present in all thinking about any problem such that the thinker makes the logical connection between the elements and the problem at hand.

You identifying the different pieces to an argument and are able to connect them in ways that other people may not have seen before. It is seeing something in different pieces and parts that other people may not have seen. You’re thinking more deeply about a topic and your experience and education allows you to pull from another topic or another area and see connections. This allows you illustrate concepts and points that you're trying to make. You’re making connections that are logical with in the topic that you're discussing. You also can pull from other areas that your readers may know about in order to illustrate and see the connections better. It allows you to start thinking outside the box a little more and seeing your topic from perspectives of other industries, other people and other authors. You can present your critique and then bring in some elements from other critiques or other industries. You can draw them in to contrast and to compare for the audience to better understand the topic. It helps to have a broad range of knowledge about your topic and all the topics and industries that may relate to it.

A critical thinker will routinely ask their selves questions such as:

· What is the purpose of my thinking? What is my overall goal here? What do I want to convey to the reader? What do I want my audience to get up and do when this talk is over? Am I motivating people? Am I just educating them? Do I want them to take action?

· What precise question I am trying to answer? You need to be very clear when developing your thesis on your topic as to what focus you want and what question you're trying to answer. It’s always good if you answer that question right away to present an argument for that answer that you are presenting. You want to be giving strong answer to the question.

· Within what point of view am I thinking? Where are you coming from? Are you coming from a general standpoint? Are you allowing a biased opinion to come in? You want to make sure that you are very clear on the point of view that you're using.

· What information am I using? Will you include scholarly articles? Are you looking at regular self-help books? Are you having discussions with peers and other people who are expected in a certain industry or topic? You want to be very clear on the level of material that you're using to develop your critical thinking.

· How am I interpreting the information? You want to be sure that you are interpreting it from a place that's not biased with opinions. You can use your experiences, but don't use your experiences to create any bias or opinion that would keep the integrity out of the argument or turn people off. You want to try and be as neutral in the argument as possible so that you can be more persuasive.

· What concepts and ideas are central to your thinking?

· What conclusions are you coming up with? The thesis is all about knowing the answer to your main question and work. It about knows where you want to go by the end of the discussion and what you want to leave your reader with. Whether its information or action, it's up to you. But understanding this before you even get started helps a lot.

· What am I taking for granted? What assumptions am I making? These might be assumptions that you making about the topic or the industry that you're discussing. It could also be assumptions about your reader’s level of understanding. You may assume that they know all the industry jargon or that that they understand the topic at some level. By assuming this you might be tempted to jump in the middle and start discussing the topic because you believe they have all the background. But you need to know if this is accurate or not. If you're talking to beginners, you need to make the right assumption about what they do and don't know. You may need to review certain concepts so that they have an understanding of it. This helps them come to your critical thinking argument understanding exactly what you are talking about and not feeling lost in the process. Make sure you understand the conclusions and implications of what you are presenting so you have the right effect that you're trying to achieve with your audience. This way you’re not putting something forth that could be harmful. Make sure the consequences are acceptable and you feel good about what you are discussing.

Here is a flowchart to show you the different connecting words you can use between your different points as you're developing your argument. These are just ways of introducing different tracks in different points by varying your word choice a little bit and trying to add variety and some interest into your presentation.

Critical thinking always helps. Images always help depending on different types of assumptions you're making about your audience. it's always easier for people to get a concept or point in an image. Most people really do prefer a lot of facts, references and citations. They prefer that you are able to back up everything you're saying with the references of all the materials that you’ve been using.