Critical Thinking

critical thinking: 1) Disciplined, self-directed thinking which exemplifies the perfections of thinking appropriate to a particular mode or domain of thinking. 2) Thinking that displays mastery of intellectual skills and abilities. 3) The art of thinking about your thinking while you are thinking in order to make your thinking better: more clear, more accurate, or more defensible. Critical thinking can be distinguished into two forms: "selfish" or "sophistic", on the one hand, and "fairminded", on the other. In thinking critically we use our command of the elements of thinking to adjust our thinking successfully to the logical demands of a type or mode of thinking. See critical person, critical society, critical reading, critical listening, critical writing, perfections of thought, elements of thought, domains of thought, intellectual virtues.

Students must be active learners in the learning process, not passive recipients of information. They should identify and solve unstructured problems that require use of multiple information sources. Learning by doing should be emphasized. Working in groups should be encouraged. Creative use of technology is essential.

Accounting classes should not only focus on accounting knowledge. Teaching methods that expand and reinforce basic communication, intellectual, and interpersonal skills should be used.

Teaching students so they develop a useable knowledge base requires four strategies. We must teach students how to

learn meaningfully; they must attain fluency in the subject. Students must be at least bilingual in that they can explain business concepts in at least two of the three business languages; words, pictures, or mathematics. Meaningfulness is the ability to accurately explain complex concepts in one's own words or symbols.

economize and generalize knowledge. Integrating frameworks economize knowledge. An effective framework succinctly represents knowledge much as one picture represents 10,000 words. However, teaching them to memorize our frameworks won't work. Faculty must teach their students how to build their own economizing structures.

generalize knowledge. Many students are still concrete learners. They must be taught to go beyond the concrete, tangible, and visual. They must be taught to think abstractly.

find underlying first principles in what they have learned. Helping students to discover the underlying structure or first principles, not merely memorizing it, helps students to generalize their knowledge.

Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum

Critical Thinking Links

Links to "Critical Thinking"

Critical Thinking Standards

Critical Thinking Slide Show

21st Century Problem Solving

Mind Tools - Problem Solving and Analytical Techniques

The Future Problem Solving Program

ProblemSolving

Introduction to Problem Solving

Tournament Of Minds: An Australia wide problem solving program for students K-10 Contents

Critical Thinking Books and Software...for better academic performance
Critical Thinking Primary & Secondary Information

Critical Thinking Resources

Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking in an Online World

Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking

The Critical Thinking Community

Master Teacher Program: On Critical Thinking

Resources for Teaching Reasoning and Critical Thinking

Inspiration Visual Thinking

What If WebQuest

Study Guides and Strategies

Thought Process and Learning Activities Chart
Thought Process	Behavior Indicators	Learning Activities
Knowledge	List, Define	Multiple Choice, True False
Understanding	Summarize, Describe, Explain	Class Discussion, Own Words
Application/Analysis	Use Methods in New SItuation	Case Studies, Role-Playing
Synthesis	Design, Create, Compose	Case Studies, Term Paper, Project
Evaluation/Judgment	Decide, Select, Criticize	Case Studies, Project

The Critical Thinking Community explain that the Socratic questioner should:

Critical Thinking

Thought Process and Learning Activities Chart