What is a critical thinker and why/how become one?
Purpose of a university education
- Does university education exist
- As an intellectual center of scholarly thought?
- As a vocational center of employability?
- We can shift mindset by understanding and embracing the role of university as
nurturing, developing and producing critical thinkers
- Critical thinking is the bridge which joins the two pillars of scholarly though and
employability
University Level Education
Primary Education
- Read, write, calculate
Secondary education
- Understand and interpret others’ contributions: consume knowledge
Tertiary education
- Use past knowledge with new arguments or research: create knowledge
What is Critical Thinking?
A cognitive process of actively and carefully evaluating the reasoning and evidence behind
knowledge and arguments and developing defensible knowledge and arguments ourselves
Approaches to knowledge
early stage
- assume that correct knowledge exists even if we don't yet possess it. characterized by
continuous search
intermediate stage
- except that knowledge is disputed and there are multiple answers but it is not possible
to distinguish between them. characterized by giving up
high stage
- except that knowledge is disputed and multiple answers exist with different attributes
which can be evaluated. characterized by making judgments via critical thinking
Purpose of a university education
- Does university education exist
- As an intellectual center of scholarly thought?
- As a vocational center of employability?
- We can shift mindset by understanding and embracing the role of university as
nurturing, developing and producing critical thinkers
- Critical thinking is the bridge which joins the two pillars of scholarly though and
employability
University Level Education
Primary Education
- Read, write, calculate
Secondary education
- Understand and interpret others’ contributions: consume knowledge
Tertiary education
- Use past knowledge with new arguments or research: create knowledge
What is Critical Thinking?
A cognitive process of actively and carefully evaluating the reasoning and evidence behind
knowledge and arguments and developing defensible knowledge and arguments ourselves
Approaches to knowledge
early stage
- assume that correct knowledge exists even if we don't yet possess it. characterized by
continuous search
intermediate stage
- except that knowledge is disputed and there are multiple answers but it is not possible
to distinguish between them. characterized by giving up
high stage
- except that knowledge is disputed and multiple answers exist with different attributes
which can be evaluated. characterized by making judgments via critical thinking
