Critical Thinking | Critical Thinking Skills
You are a genius, and to fully express your genius you need to develop your critical thinking skills and to be able to understand those who adhere to critical thinking as their modus operandi. If you have already read my creativity ideas and free articles on unleashing your inner genius, you'll recognise that in many instances I am pretty loose and free in my thinking style, in contrast to the tenets of critical thinking.
I do agree that it's very important to develop your critical thinking skills. If you don't, you might as well go round with a big sign over your head that says: SUCKER! You'll get duped at every turn. However, it appears to be very easy for some who claim to be critical thinkers to devolve into narrow mindedness, cynicism and stilted thinking.
Embrace the practical benefits and wisdom of critical thinking. However, retain the ability to be open-minded, imaginative and willing to suspend belief for those moments of magic and the miraculous - that you might enjoy, explore, and understand them better.
Your mind is an adventure. Sometimes, to get the most excitement and fun from the adventure, you have to be willing to play the fool and step naievely off the cliff into the unknown. Call it "Gullible's Travels".
Critical thinking is guarded thinking. It is sceptical, it doubts, it questions, it looks for facts and logic. It seeks to protect itself against misinformation, sentimentality and emotionalism.
The brain is often regarded as a reality organising machine. In its natural, basic state, it is there to respond to reality, to deal with the facts of nature, to sort them and to come to understand those facts.
The mind and thoughts might be regarded as a non-reality machine because the mind can project, imagine, and invent all sorts of scenarios, times and events that aren't real. Many people suffer because of their thinking. They experience a dichotomy in their understanding of the real world and the distorted perception of the real world that exists in their minds.
Critical thinking helps you to make solid links to the "real world" by dealing in facts and thinking consciously.
This page covers the various resources available on the web for understanding critical thinking and critical thinking skills. Use the links immediately below to navigate to the area of critical thinking that you are most interested in.
If you find any other critical thinking websites, please feel free to contact us and tell us about them! If you want to get the full lowdown on creativity, genius and super brainpower why don't you check out my thinking like a genius articles? They give you the edge!
-
Critical Thinking - sites devoted to critical thinking!
-
Critical Thinking skills - understand and develop your critical thinking skills!
Critical Thinking - What is critical thinking? - Top
Critical Thinking - An Introduction - Chapter 1 of Alex Fisher's book (in PDF format - you'll need Adobe Reader) asks What is critical thinking and how to improve it? It's a superb introduction to the critical thinking (also known as reflective thinking and critico-creative thinking) and I recommend you read it.. Go Now!
Walker TRC - Critical Thinking- Great page from University of Tennessee that answers the question, "What is critical thinking?" with several definitions of what critical thinking means and the characteristics that define it. Goes on to explore teaching critical thinking. Go Now!
Critical Thinking Foundation - This is actually a consortium of organisations dedicated to critical thinking. Use this website as a hub, a portal, to all things related to critical thinking. Publishers of numerous "mini-guides" to critical thinking for all ages as well as some "proper" books! Go now!
Illinois Critical Thinking Project - Not a lot of available info at this critical thinking site when I last looked. However promise of more to come, so have a look now. Go Now!
Critical Thinking on the Web - Tim van Gelder's superb critical thinking resource pages. Go Now!
Critical Thinking Field Guide - Professor James Lett offers 6 thinking tools of evidential reasoning (critical thinking) for which he has coined the anacronym: FiLCHeRS. "Apply these six critical thinking rules to the evidence offered for any claim," he says, "and no one will ever be able to sneak up on you and steal your belief. You'll be filch-proof." Go Now!
Philadelphia Association For Critical Thinking - the critical thinking site with the best anacronym -- PhACT -- attempts to debunk ("deal only with the PhACTs") such issues as UFOs, psychic phenomena and other fun stuff. Go Now!
Institute for Critical Thinking - currently only the critical thinking forum is live, however critical thinking debates, classroom CT syllabi, examination lab, Inquiry articles and a "critical thinking helpdesk" are said to be in development! Go Now!
Critical Thinking Articles - big long list of links to Critical Thinking articles from Indiana University! Go Now!
Critical Thinking Definitions - list of definitions of Critical Thinking from different experts. Good resource! Go Now!
Critical Thinking Skills - Top
Insight Assessment - Critical thinking skills assessment services and tests developed by Dr Peter Facione. Great site that includes many critical thinking skills tips, downloads and rubrics. Go Now!
Reason!Able - Cool software to help organise your thoughts and develop your critical thinking skills! Download a free trial version to test it out. Go Now!
Mission: Critical - is an interactive tutorial for critical thinking, in which you are introduced to basic concepts through sets of instructions and exercises. It has had a lot of positive feedback as a service, though I think it needs redesigning as a site (eek! just a thought!)... Go now!
Critical Thinking Skills - A list of 35 critical thinking skills for you to develop in your spare time for fun and profit ;-). Go Now!
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving Skills - The ISLMC critical thinking page has general information, lesson plans and bibliographies to help educators interested in higher order thinking skills. Go Now!
Critical Thinking Books and Software - Books & software for teachers, parents and homeschoolers to teach critical thinking skills backed up with guarantee of higher grades and test scores! Go Now!
Edward de Bono - Prolific author and thinker Edward de Bono is one of the world's foremost authorities on critical thinking, lateral thinking and creativity. Discover his training and certification courses here. Go Now!
What can Sherlock Holmes teach you about critical thinking? Find out...