Chapter 1. What is Critical Thinking?
Learning Objectives
- Understand the power of questioning
- Understand what it means to be critical
- Understand the ways critical thinking is different from our mundane everyday thinking
- Appreciate the fundamental vulnerabilities of our everyday (untrained) thinking
- Recognise our broad (moral and social) obligation to be critical thinkers
- Recognise the central role of critical thinking to social and occupational success
- Understand the two steps to broad improving critical thinking: (1) examination and understanding, and (2) practice and application.
New Concepts to Master
- Socratic questioning
- Critical thinking versus everyday thinking
- Creative thinking
- Thinking as mental behaviour
- Living examined lives
- Concepts as tools/lenses.
- Post-truth era
- Fourth industrial revolution
- Attention economy
Chapter 1 Orientation
Let’s sketch out a road map for this chapter’s journey. In this first chapter, I have tried to focus on anticipating – and answering – questions that a curious (maybe even cynical) student might have as they begin this text. Some of these questions might seem very elementary, but progressing through these from the beginning will make sure we are all starting out on the same page. This might all feel like ‘cheerleading’ on my part on behalf of critical thinking, and that’s simply because it is. If I can convince you to take this content seriously and learn as much from it as you possibly can, you’ll benefit greatly.
Our first question will try and pin down what it is we’re looking at in this book.
Question 1: What is critical thinking?
Our second major question will address the issue of motivation and ask why we should even bother with learning and developing critical thinking.
Question 2: Why learn and practice critical thinking?
Our next question focuses on the broader context and the relevance of critical thinking in modern life, as well as the ever-changing workforce.
Question 3: Who should study critical thinking?
Our final question gets down to the practicalities.
Question 4: How do we improve our critical thinking?
This chapter’s content will also contain two side-tours into related topics. We will look at questions themselves and how they can be used to accelerate your learning and develop critical thinking skills. We will also look at the connection between creativity and critical thinking.
The Art and Power of Questioning
We will begin with one of our two side-tours for this chapter: the art and power of questioning. There are many reasons to focus on questions, but for your most immediate purposes, they’re going to be a huge ally for you during your university studies. For your success at university, questioning is both essential and constructive, and in fact, you might not accumulate much more after your first weeks of study than a long laundry list of questions. This is what we’d expect, so don’t stress about it. Answers will come in time, though you should ensure