Structured Critical Reasoning | top |
To Identify:
For example " An employee reported to his supervisor that his work team was not functioning well. He spoke generally about friction between members of the team. The supervisor stated that she would look into it. She noted that just prior to the complaint a new member had been added to the team. Her hidden assumption was that because the complaint and the new member's arrival coincided, there must be a connection. She transferred the new member to a different team, and was surprised when the workgroup continued to have friction and communication problems".Step 4. Evaluate all the assumptions and evidence.
Critical Thinking Questions | top |
Six Types of Socratic Questions | Examples of Critical Thinking Questions (CTQs) |
1. Questions about the question or problem statment: The purpose of this question is to find out why the question was asked, who asked it and why the question or problem needs to be solved. |
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2. Questions for clarification: The purpose of this question is to find missing or unclear information in the problem statement question. |
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3. Questions that probe assumptions: The purpose of this question is to find out if there are any misleading or false assumptions. |
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4. Questions that probe reasons and evidence: The purpose of this question is to explore whether facts and observations support an assertion. |
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5. Questions about viewpoints and perspectives: The purpose of this question is to learn how things are viewed or judged and to consider things not only in a relative perspective, but also as a whole. |
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6. Questions that probe implications and consequences: The purpose of this question is to understand the inferences or deductions and the end result if the inferred action is carried out. |
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Critical Thinking Actions | top |
Types of Critical Thinking Actions | Examples of Critical Thinking Actions |
1. Predicting: envisioning a plan and its consequences |
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2. Analyzing: separating or breaking a whole into parts to discover their nature, function and relationships |
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3. Information seeking: searching for evidence, facts, or knowledge by identifying relevant sources |
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4. Applying Standards: judging according to established personal, professional, or social rules or criteria |
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5. Discriminating recognizing differences and similarities among things or situations and distinguishing carefully as to category or rank. |
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6. Transforming Knowledge: changing or converting the condition, nature, form, or function of concepts among contexts. |
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7. Logical Reasoning: drawing inferences or conclusions that are supported by evidence |
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