Critical Thinking

Communication Skills
Critical Thinking is
 Reasonable, reflective, responsible,
and skillful thinking focused on
deciding what to believe or do.
 Correct thinking in the pursuit of
relevant or reliable knowledge.
A learned ability used to
 Think for one’s self
 Make responsible and reliable
decisions
 Ask questions
 Pose new answers to challenge status
quo
 Investigate problems
Critical thinkers and society
 Followers of authority vs. critical
thinkers
 Intolerant attitude
‘Critical’: common connotation
 Analytical thinking
 Synthesis, evaluation, and
reconstruction in addition to analysis
A Critical Thinker
 uses evidence skillfully and
impartially
 organizes thoughts and articulates
them concisely and coherently
 suspends judgment in the absence of
sufficient evidence to support a
decision
 
Contd…
 understands the difference between
reasoning and rationalizing
 attempts to anticipate the probable
consequences of alternative actions
 understands the idea of degrees of
belief
Contd…
 applies problem-solving techniques in
domains other than those in which
learned
 can strip a verbal argument of
irrelevancies and phrase it in its
essential terms
Contd…
 is sensitive to the difference between the
validity of a belief and the intensity with
which it is held
 is aware of the fact that one's
understanding is always limited, often
much more so than would be apparent to
one with a non-inquiring attitude
Contd…
 recognizes the fallibility of one's own
opinions
 the probability of bias in those
opinions
 the danger of weighting evidence
according to personal preferences
Requirements for Critical Thinking
 Interpretation
 Analysis
 Evaluation
 Inference
 Explanation
 Self-regulation
Assignment 1
 Besides the Declaration of Independence
and the Bible, King cites "the American
dream" as a source for his own dream.
What is the American dream? Discuss this
concept with friends and family members
and then write a composite definition for
this commonly used term.
 Near the end of his speech, King names
many different states. Why do you think he
did this?
Listening Skills
“We were given two ears but only one
mouth.

This is because God knew that

listening was twice as hard as
talking.”
Communication myth
 Listening and hearing are the same.
Are you one of them?
 Good listeners listen with their faces.
 Good listeners maintain eye-contact.
 Good listeners react to the speaker.
Real listening: an active process
 Hearing
 Understanding
 Judging