Critical Thinking
An education’s central mission
The Big Question
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Everywhere we look, someone is making
some claim or other about our behavior
and experience, trying to make money
and influence us.
How can we tell the difference between
what is legitimate and beneficial and what
is merely puffed-up advertising or just
plain wrong?
Critical Thinking
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Making crucial decisions on carefully
accumulated evidence and well supported
reasons
Not because of emotion or misplaced
belief on isolated occurrences
Hallmarks of Critical Thinking
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Ask questions – even about things others
take for granted.
Much is undiscovered, uncertain, unsolved
We must first ask the questions before we
can find the answers
Examine evidence
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Look carefully to assess a claim’s
foundation
Based upon mere opinion?
A few intriguing but isolated occurrences
Careful observation?
Sweeping analyses of relationships?
Experimentation subjected to peer review?
Look behind assumptions
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Do we start our inquiry already leaning to
a particular outcome?
Bias – an assumption or belief that
unfairly influences our appraisal of the
evidence
We attack a position before considering it
objectively because we just know that it
is wrong
Many biases are hidden or subtle.
APPLICATION
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Ground zero Mosque
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Repressed Memories
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Evolution vs. Independent Design