Teaching Critical Thinking Skills To Adults

Socrates asked people questions to reveal their irrational thinking or lack of reliable knowledge.

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rationality, rational thinking, reasoning, knowledge, intelligence and also a moral component such as reflective thinking.

Critical thinkers therefore need to have reached a level of maturity in their development, possess a certain attitude as well as a set of taught skills. Glaser proposed that the ability to think critically involves three elements: Educational programs aimed at developing critical thinking in children and adult learners, individually or in group problem solving and decision making contexts, continue to address these same three central elements.

"A logistic approach to critical thinking conveys the message to students that thinking is legitimate only when it conforms to the procedures of informal (and, to a lesser extent, formal) logic and that the good thinker necessarily aims for styles of examination and appraisal that are analytical, abstract, universal, and objective." As the ‘second wave’ took hold, scholars began to take a more inclusive view of what constituted as critical thinking.

Rationality and logic are still widely accepted in many circles as the primary examples of critical thinking. Walters (Re-thinking Reason, 1994) argues that rationality demands more than just logical or traditional methods of problem solving and analysis or what he calls the "calculus of justification" but also considers "cognitive acts such as imagination, conceptual creativity, intuition and insight" (p. These "functions" are focused on discovery, on more abstract processes instead of linear, rules-based approaches to problem-solving.

He established the importance of asking deep questions that probe profoundly into thinking before we accept ideas as worthy of belief.

He established the importance of seeking evidence, closely examining reasoning and assumptions, analyzing basic concepts, and tracing out implications not only of what is said but of what is done as well.Traditionally, critical thinking has been variously defined as follows: Contemporary critical thinking scholars have expanded these traditional definitions to include qualities, concepts, and processes such as creativity, imagination, discovery, reflection, empathy, connecting knowing, feminist theory, subjectivity, ambiguity, and inconclusiveness.Some definitions of critical thinking exclude these subjective practices.The subject is complex, and several different definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, unbiased analysis, or evaluation of factual evidence.Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking.Critical thinking employs not only logic but broad intellectual criteria such as clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance, and fairness.The habits of mind that characterize a person strongly disposed toward critical thinking include a desire to follow reason and evidence wherever they may lead, a systematic approach to problem solving, inquisitiveness, even-handedness, and confidence in reasoning.He established the method of questioning beliefs, closely inspecting assumptions and relying on evidence and sound rationale.Plato recorded Socrates' teachings and carried on the tradition of critical thinking. Beyer (1995), critical thinking means making clear, reasoned judgments.This model of thinking has become so entrenched in conventional academic wisdom that many educators accept it as canon".The adoption of these principals parallels themselves with the increasing reliance on a quantitative understanding of the world.