thinkPhD

Critical Thinking: Building the Basics October 27, 2007

Posted by thinkphd in : Miscellaneous , trackback

At the used book store I picked up Critical Thinking: Building the Basics by Donald E.P. Smith, Glenn E. Knudsvig, and Timothy L. Walter (1998)….FREE.

It seems there is not much demand for books of this type, especially since it is now in the 2nd edition. However, this little pocket-sized book is a good review of critical thinking strategies. It has question-and-answer sections in each chapter and an excerpt from Introduction to Psychology by James Kalat, which gives an overview of thought process and stages of intellectual development.

I will be teaching a critical thinking course in a few weeks and I am reading this little text to get my mind circled back around to the thought processes of thinking. Most students have never considered that there is a process to our thinking. Critical thinking also teaches students how to write with clarity and accuracy. I use critical thinking as I write papers and again as I review and proofread them. I used to think that the faster I wrote the better I wrote, but that is all forgotten. Now, I “craft” each sentence and question myself as to what the sentence and its paragraph are actually saying. Is it accurate? Logical? Critical?

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