Critical Thinking: What Can It Be? [microform] : Resource Publication, Series 1 No. 1 / Matthew Lipman
- Bib ID:
- 5552795
- Format:
- Book and Microform
- Author:
- Lipman, Matthew
- Online Version:
- https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED352326
Broken link? let us search Trove , the Wayback Machine , or Google for you.
- Description:
-
- [Washington, D.C.] : Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse, 1988
- 15 p.
- Summary:
-
Critical thinking is a cultivation of that strand of traditional education which stresses the cultivation of wisdom and its application to both practice and life. To strengthen critical thinking in schools and colleges, it is necessary to know its defining features, its characteristic outcomes, and its underlying conditions. The outcomes of critical thinking are judgments; and the nature of judgment is such that critical thinking may be defined as skillful, responsible thinking that facilitates good judgment because (1) it relies upon criteria; (2) it is self-correcting, and (3) it is sensitive to context. The very meaning of "criterion" is "a rule or principle utilized in the making of judgments." Judgment, in turn, is a skill; therefore critical thinking is skillful thinking, and skills can only be defined through criteria by which performance can be evaluated. So critical thinking is thinking that both employs criteria and can be assessed by appeal to criteria. Important criteria are reliability, strength, relevance, coherence, and consistency. Critical thinking is self-corrective, promoting a community of inquiry in the classroom by requiring students to discover weaknesses in their own thinking and to rectify faults in their procedures. Finally, thinking that is sensitive to context involves recognition of: exceptional or irregular circumstances and conditions; special limitations, contingencies, or constraints; overall configurations; the possibility that evidence is atypical; and the possibility that some meanings do not translate from one context or domain to another. Exemplary instances of critical thinking can be found in the best practice of law and medicine. The relevance of critical thinking to the enhancement of K-12 and college education is related to the shift from learning to thinking as the focus of education and to the goal of helping students develop the reasoning skills that will enable them to exercise good judgment. (IAH)
- Notes:
-
- ERIC Note: For other documents in this series, see SP 034 130-138.
- May also be available online. Address as at 14/8/18: https://eric.ed.gov/
- Reproduction:
- Microfiche. [Washington D.C.]: ERIC Clearinghouse microfiches : positive.
- Subject:
- Other authors/contributors:
- Montclair State Coll., Upper Montclair, NJ. Inst. for Critical Thinking
- Available From:
- ERIC
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
You may copy under some circumstances, for example you may copy a portion for research or study. Order a copy through Copies Direct to the extent allowed under fair dealing. Contact us for further information about copying.
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 1988
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
Request this item
Request this item to view in the Library’s reading room.
Feedback
Similar items
- Celebrating Diversity [microform] : A Global Approach to Literature and World Culture. Proceedings of the Conference (Montclair, New Jersey, March 10, 1989)
- Integrating Thinking Skills into the Schools. Resource Publication, Series 1 No. 3 [microform] / Mark Weinstein
- Critical Thinking [microform] : Implications for Teaching and Teachers. Proceedings of a Conference (Upper Montclair, New Jersey, 1991) / Wendy Oxman, Ed
- Disciplinary "Secrets" and the Apprentice Writer [microform] : The Lessons for Critical Thinking. Resource Publication, Series 1 No. 6 / Gregory G. Colomb
- Two Conflicting Theories of Knowledge, Learning, and Literacy [microform] : The Didactic and the Critical. Resource Publication, Series 1 No. 2 / Richard Paul