Transcript Can You Trust Your Perceptions?

GXEX1406
Thinking and Communication Skills
Introduction to
Critical Thinking
What is critical thinking?
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Cognitive skills and intellectual
dispositions needed to effectively:
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Identify, analyze and evaluate arguments and
truth claims
Discover and overcome personal prejudices
and biases
Formulate and present convincing reasons in
support of conclusions
To make reasonable, intelligent decisions
about what to believe and what is true
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
What does not thinking
critically look like?
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Blindly reproducing old learned reactions
Blindly accepting face value all justifications of
organizations & political leaders
Blindly believe TV commercials
Blindly trust political commercials
Blindly accept and say that if the textbook says it,
it must be so
Blindly accept and say that if the organization
does it, it must be right
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
What does Critical Thinking
Look Like?
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Contextual sensitivity - being sensitive to
stereotypes about people of particular group &
accept others at face value unconditionally
Perspective thinking - trying to get into other
person's head, or walk in other’s shoes to see the
world way that person sees it
Tolerance for ambiguity - ability to accept multiple
interpretations of same situation
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
What are the Major Concepts in
Critical Thinking?
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Perception
Assumptions
Emotion
Language
Argument
Fallacy
Logic
Problem Solving
You will learn all
these major
concepts throughout
the course
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Something else is needed
 More
to Critical Thinking than
just cognitive skills
 Human beings are more than
just thinking machines
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Need “the Critical Spirit”
(affective dispositions)
A
probing inquisitiveness
 A keenness of mind
 A zealous dedication to
reason
 A hunger or eagerness for
reliable information
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Critical thinkers strive for
these intellectual standards
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Clarity
Precision
Accuracy
Relevance
Consistency
Logical correctness
Completeness
Fairness
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Why is Critical Thinking of Value?
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You can answer—why of value to you?
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What’s value of cognitive skills?
What’s value of the critical spirit?
Would these mean more success at what
you do?
Would it mean better grades for students?
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Grades – Yes!
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1,100 college students
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Significant correlation between CT scores &
college GPA
Critical Thinking skills can be learned
Significant correlation between Critical
Thinking and Reading Comprehension
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Main Purpose of College
Experience
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Achievement of liberal (liberated)
education. It’s about
 Learning to learn
 Learning to think for one’s self
 Leads away from naïve acceptance of
authority
 Leads above self-defeating relativism
 Beyond ambiguous contextualism
Culminates in principled, reflective
judgment
GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
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So..the benefits of critical
thinking
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In the classroom….
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In the workplace….
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Understand materials you are studying
Critically evaluate what you are learning
Develop your own arguments on particular issues
Problem-solving
Analyze information, draw appropriate conclusions
In Life…
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Avoid making foolish decisions
Help to free us from unexamined assumptions, dogmas &
prejudices
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
If critical thinking is so
important, why is that
uncritical thinking is so
common?
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Barriers to critical thinking
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Lack of relevant background information
Poor reading skills
Bias
Prejudice
Superstition
Peer pressure
Face-saving
Resistance to change
Selective perception
Rationalization
Scapegoating
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Cont…. (barriers to critical thinking) –
THE MAJOR HINRANCES
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Egocentrism (self-centred thinking)
Sociocentrism (group-centred thinking)
Stereotyping
Unwarranted assumptions
Wishful thinking
All these play a powerful role in hindering critical
thinking
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
EGOCENTRISM – the tendency to view one’s own interests,
ideas and values as superior to everyone’s else
SELF-INTERESTED
THINKING – tendency
to accept and defend
beliefs that harmonize
one’s own self-interest
SELF-SERVING
BIAS – tendency to
overrate oneself
Are you overconfident in your
belief?
Activity 1: Make a low and high guess such that you are
90 percent sure the correct answer falls between the
two. Your challenge is to be neither too narrow (I.e
overconfident) nor too wide (underconfident)
1. The number of Malaysia’s Internet users
(90% confidence range)
LOW - ?
HIGH - ?
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Sociocentrism: group-centred
thinking
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Group bias – the tendency to see one’s own
group as being inherently better than others
Herd instinct (conformism) – the tendency to
follow the crowd
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Unwarranted Assumptions &
Stereotyping
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Assumption – something taken for granted,
something we believe to be true without any
proof or conclusive evidence
Unwarranted assumption – something taken
for granted without good reason
Stereotyping – making a hasty generalization
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Wishful thinking
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Believing something not because you had
good evidence for it but simply because you
wished it were true.
Believing something because it makes one
feel good, not because there is good rational
grounds for thinking it is true.
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Activity 2 Refer to the handout. Read the
story and answer the
questions that follow:
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Answer the following
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Which one did you choose? Why?
As you read, you probably imagined what the
characters looked like. From the image you had
of them, describe the following characters in a
few sentences:
The Captain
Dr Brown
Marie Brown
Lieutenant Ashley Morganstern
Letty
Eagle-Eye Sam
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What is the relationship between Dr Brown and
Marie Brown?
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Get into your group. Discuss
the followings
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Compare your responses to Questions 1 & 3? Is
there any consensus in the group?
Look at your portrait of Dr Brown. How many
assumptions did you make about the doctor’s
gender, age, appearance, and profession? What
evidence in the story supports your image of the
doctor?
Look at your portraits of the other characters. What
similarities do you find among your group members?
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking
Critical thinkers exhibit a number of traits
that distinguish them from uncritical thinkers
Read Bassham’s Critical thinking – Chapter
1
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GXEX 1406 Thinking and Communication Skills- Week 1 Introduction to Critical Thinking