critical thinking instruction is predicated on two assumptions

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Critical-thinking instruction is predicated on two assumptions: that

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Critical Thinking Instruction

What is it.

Prominent critical thinking scholars tend to describe it in broad terms, for example, as “a habit of mind,” and a “comprehensive” approach (American Association of Colleges and Universities, 2009).  For this reason, approaches to critical thinking instruction are also often broad. Halpern’s (2014) framework for critical thinking instruction consists of cultivating four elements in learners:

• A critical thinking attitude or habit of intellectual deliberation
• Individual intellectual skills like analysis and inference
• The ability to transfer these skills into new contexts
• The ability to reflect upon and evaluate one’s own thinking.

Critical thinking is goal-directed , so motivation is an essential consideration when teaching for critical thinking.   Motivation can be increased by cultivating learners’ senses of autonomy, competence, and connectedness (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

• Autonomy is an experience of choice or control related to a learning goal. Some cultivate this by letting learners decide from among several different kinds of assignment, “negotiating” part of the syllabus with the class, or using learning contracts to co-generate assignments with learners.
• Relatedness is a sense of belongingness and connectedness to others associated with a learning goal. Some cultivate this by using well-structured group activities and making clear how one would use a given piece of content in one’s future academic or professional career.
• Competence is a sense of mastery of tasks and skills . Some cultivate this by giving regular feedback noting what learners are doing well in addition to corrections. A comprehensive approach is using “transparent” assignment instructions, which include (a) what knowledge and skills learners will gain from the assignment, (b) what steps they have to take, and (c) what criteria will be used to judge their work. (Winkelmes, et al., 2015).

Analysis consists of breaking something complex into its components and identifying the relationships among them.  This is a critical thinking skill relevant in every discipline.

Student-generated concept maps can effectively aid the analysis process and doing them interactively on the board with your class can work well as a mid-term review activity.

Activities like o bservation/inference charts can help learners  slow down the inference process and carefully analyze  which conclusions are supported by which evidence (Nokes, 2008).

Students first list as many inarguable observations as they can on the left, then the inferences about the picture they make, and finally they connect specific observations that support specific inferences.

Giving students practice developing these skills with objects from outside your discipline can help them focus on the activity itself, and worry less about content-specific performance. Some medical schools help doctors-in-training develop their observation and inference skills by taking them to art museums (Josani & Saks, 2013).

“Multiples” can help learners learn flexibly to increase transfer

Transfer of learning is the application of knowledge in a new context (Perkins & Salomon, 2012).  Successful transfer occurs when learners see past the surface features of a new situation to recognize familiar patterns in its deeper structure. The likelihood of successful transfer is reduced, however, if learner knowledge is too tightly-bound to the original context in which it was learned.  To avoid this, build “multiples” into how you teach:

• Show several examples from multiple contexts (e.g., examples of oxidation: rust and fire).
• Have learners use the same concept a few times to solve problems or make decisions from different contexts (i.e., with very different surface features.)
• Have learners categorize material in a few different meaningful ways (e.g., rank ordering more than once, using different criteria).
• Have learners pick a side and debate an issue, then have them switch sides and continue the debate.
• Have learners generate multiple solutions to a problem.

(adapted from Halpern, 2013)

Reflecting upon one’s own thinking helps sharpen it

Considering how we’re thinking about something not only helps organize and solidify our knowledge, but it can also reveal gaps we need to fill and ways we need to think differently. Some educators use assignment and exam “wrappers” to trigger this thinking in learners:  for example, assignment cover sheets prompting learners to reflect upon what they found most difficult or important about the assignment, the strengths and weaknesses of their own work, and so on.

Similarly, “self-explanation” is the process by which learners explain to themselves material they are learning as they learn it, and successful learners have been found to do this more frequently than unsuccessful learners (Chi, et al., 1989).   Prompting learners to explain something to themselves or someone else (for example, in a think-pair-share or two-stage exam) can trigger important meta-cognitive processing that leads to higher quality learning.

Critical thinking skills are best taught explicitly in the context of course material

In a 2008 meta-analysis of 117 studies, Abrami, et al. compared effects of critical thinking skills taught in: (a) skill-based critical thinking courses, (b) content-based courses that explicitly included a critical thinking track, and (c) content-based courses where critical thinking skill-building was implicitly expected along the way. They found that courses in which critical thinking skills were explicitly taught as a separate track within a content course had the largest effect.

Abrami PC, Bernard RM, Borokhovski E, Wadem A, Surkes M A, Tamim R, Zhang D. 2008. Instructional interventions affecting critical thinking skills and dispositions: A stage 1 meta-analysis . Review of Educational Research, 78 :1102–1134.

Chi, M. T. H., Lewis, M. W., Reimann, P., & Glaser, R. (1989). Self-explanations: How learners study and use examples in learning to solve problems . Cognitive Science, 13 , 145-182.

Halpern, D.F. (2014). Thought and knowledge: An introduction to critical thinking (5th Edition) . London: Psychology Press/Routledge.

Josani, S.K. & Saks, N.S. (2013).  Utilizing visual art to enhance the clinical observation skills of medical students . Medical Teacher, 35 , 1327-1331.

Nokes, J.D. (2008). The observation/inference chart: Improving students’ abilities to make inferences while reading nontraditional texts . Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 51 (7), 538-546.

Ryan, L.D & Deci, R.M. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions . Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25 , 54–67.

Winkelmes , , M. Copeland, D.E., Jorgensen, E., Sloat, A., Smedley, A., Pizor, P., Johnson, K., & Jalene, S. (2015). Benefits (some unexpected) of transparently designed assignments . The National Teaching & Learning Forum, 24 (4), 4-9.

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Search catalog, critical thinking and academic research: assumptions.

• Information
• Point of View
• Assumptions
• Implications

Question Assumptions

An assumption is an unexamined belief: what we think without realizing we think it. Our inferences (also called conclusions) are often based on assumptions that we haven't thought about critically. A critical thinker, however, is attentive to these assumptions because they are sometimes incorrect or misguided. Just because we assume something is true doesn't mean it is.

Think carefully about your assumptions when finding and analyzing information but also think carefully about the assumptions of others. Whether you're looking at a website or a scholarly article, you should always consider the author's assumptions. Are the author's conclusions based on assumptions that she or he hasn't thought about logically?

Critical Questions

• What am I taking for granted?
• Am I assuming something I shouldn't?
• How can I determine whether this assumption is accurate?
• What is this author assuming?
• How can I determine if this author's assumptions are accurate?

Consider the following situations, then respond to these questions:

• Do you agree or disagree with the inference/conclusion? Why or why not?
• What assumption(s) may have led to the inference/conclusion?
• What are some alternative ways of thinking about this situation?

Situation #1

Bill needs six scholarly articles for his paper on the psychological effects of domestic violence. He searches Google for "psychological effects of domestic violence," looks through the first few hits, and finds six sources, including some articles on the websites of legitimate organizations. A few of these articles include bibliographies.

• Bill's Inference/Conclusion: I'm going to stop researching because I have my six sources.

Situation #2

Christie is researching representations of gender in popular music. She decides to search Google and, within a few minutes, locates more sources that she could possibly incorporate into her final paper.

• Christie's Inference/Conclusion: I can just use Google for my research.

Situation #3

Jennifer has decided to write her literary analysis paper on drug use in David Foster Wallace's novel, Infinite Jest (1996). She tries a few Google searches for Infinite Jest, drugs, and drug use, but she has trouble finding scholarly sources. She gives up on Google and moves on to EBSCO Academic Search Premier, one of the databases she heard about in a library instruction class. She runs a search for Infinite Jest and drug use, but she still can't find much.

• Jennifer's Inference/Conclusion: I need to change my topic.
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• Critical thinking (CT) is evaluative.  An evaluation is a statement that compares what is the case to a standard about how things should be. CT requires people to make lots of judgments about good and bad, right and wrong, what we should or shouldn’t do. The standard of evaluation used in critical thinking for reasoning is reliability. Good reasoning is reliable, and bad reasoning is unreliable.
• In CT, reasoning implies evaluation, both individual (“You should recycle your aluminum!”) and collective (“We should abolish the death penalty!”). Each statement can be supported by reasons, and the reasons can be evaluated as better or worse.
• In CT, truth is treated as absolute — not partial, changing, or relative to different points of view.
• The ultimate “should” in critical thinking is this: you should not contradict yourself. There are other “should” statements, but they are all based on this idea that self-contradiction is bad. Contradictory statements, by definition, cannot all be true, and based on #3 above that means they can’t be partly true, or true to some people but not others. A statement that is self-contradictory is absolutely, eternally, necessarily and inevitably not true.

If you don’t agree with one or more of the above assumptions, expect some trouble even understanding what is going on when trying to use critical thinking.  The assumptions listed above are offered not to convince you to accept any of these assumptions or to “prove” them in the formal (CT) sense, but just to offer a bit more about what is assumed in this field.

There is also one more assumption to consider, that is people shouldn’t judge other people’s opinions.

Critical thinking requires energetically judging other people’s opinions (along with our own!) – not in isolation, but in relation to each other. That is, CT requires asking if the reason given to support or back up an opinion is a good one. If no good reason can be found to support an opinion, that opinion is treated as unsupported or unproved. Generally, opinions are better if proved, and not as good if unproved.  By extension, there is a preference for reflective opinions arrived at through slow thinking over opinions of the moment which are formed in fast thinking.

Many people put the majority of their critical thinking energy into judging the thinking of those they disagree with. Our hope is that you will have come to understand that thinking carefully about your own beliefs is worth more of your time, and that you will have come to appreciate the vital importance of people who do not share your same ideas to your process of slow thinking.

Critical Thinking in Academic Research Copyright © 2022 by Cindy Gruwell and Robin Ewing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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• What Is Critical Thinking? | Definition & Examples

What Is Critical Thinking? | Definition & Examples

Published on May 30, 2022 by Eoghan Ryan . Revised on May 31, 2023.

Critical thinking is the ability to effectively analyze information and form a judgment .

To think critically, you must be aware of your own biases and assumptions when encountering information, and apply consistent standards when evaluating sources .

Critical thinking skills help you to:

• Identify credible sources
• Evaluate and respond to arguments
• Assess alternative viewpoints
• Test hypotheses against relevant criteria

Table of contents

Why is critical thinking important, critical thinking examples, how to think critically, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about critical thinking.

Critical thinking is important for making judgments about sources of information and forming your own arguments. It emphasizes a rational, objective, and self-aware approach that can help you to identify credible sources and strengthen your conclusions.

Critical thinking is important in all disciplines and throughout all stages of the research process . The types of evidence used in the sciences and in the humanities may differ, but critical thinking skills are relevant to both.

In academic writing , critical thinking can help you to determine whether a source:

• Is free from research bias
• Provides evidence to support its research findings
• Considers alternative viewpoints

Outside of academia, critical thinking goes hand in hand with information literacy to help you form opinions rationally and engage independently and critically with popular media.

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Critical thinking can help you to identify reliable sources of information that you can cite in your research paper . It can also guide your own research methods and inform your own arguments.

Outside of academia, critical thinking can help you to be aware of both your own and others’ biases and assumptions.

Academic examples

However, when you compare the findings of the study with other current research, you determine that the results seem improbable. You analyze the paper again, consulting the sources it cites.

You notice that the research was funded by the pharmaceutical company that created the treatment. Because of this, you view its results skeptically and determine that more independent research is necessary to confirm or refute them. Example: Poor critical thinking in an academic context You’re researching a paper on the impact wireless technology has had on developing countries that previously did not have large-scale communications infrastructure. You read an article that seems to confirm your hypothesis: the impact is mainly positive. Rather than evaluating the research methodology, you accept the findings uncritically.

Nonacademic examples

However, you decide to compare this review article with consumer reviews on a different site. You find that these reviews are not as positive. Some customers have had problems installing the alarm, and some have noted that it activates for no apparent reason.

You revisit the original review article. You notice that the words “sponsored content” appear in small print under the article title. Based on this, you conclude that the review is advertising and is therefore not an unbiased source. Example: Poor critical thinking in a nonacademic context You support a candidate in an upcoming election. You visit an online news site affiliated with their political party and read an article that criticizes their opponent. The article claims that the opponent is inexperienced in politics. You accept this without evidence, because it fits your preconceptions about the opponent.

There is no single way to think critically. How you engage with information will depend on the type of source you’re using and the information you need.

However, you can engage with sources in a systematic and critical way by asking certain questions when you encounter information. Like the CRAAP test , these questions focus on the currency , relevance , authority , accuracy , and purpose of a source of information.

When encountering information, ask:

• Who is the author? Are they an expert in their field?
• What do they say? Is their argument clear? Can you summarize it?
• When did they say this? Is the source current?
• Where is the information published? Is it an academic article? Is it peer-reviewed ?
• Why did the author publish it? What is their motivation?
• How do they make their argument? Is it backed up by evidence? Does it rely on opinion, speculation, or appeals to emotion ? Do they address alternative arguments?

Critical thinking also involves being aware of your own biases, not only those of others. When you make an argument or draw your own conclusions, you can ask similar questions about your own writing:

• Am I only considering evidence that supports my preconceptions?
• Is my argument expressed clearly and backed up with credible sources?
• Would I be convinced by this argument coming from someone else?

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• ChatGPT vs human editor
• ChatGPT citations
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Using ChatGPT for your studies
• What is ChatGPT?
• Chicago style
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Critical thinking refers to the ability to evaluate information and to be aware of biases or assumptions, including your own.

Like information literacy , it involves evaluating arguments, identifying and solving problems in an objective and systematic way, and clearly communicating your ideas.

Critical thinking skills include the ability to:

You can assess information and arguments critically by asking certain questions about the source. You can use the CRAAP test , focusing on the currency , relevance , authority , accuracy , and purpose of a source of information.

Ask questions such as:

• Who is the author? Are they an expert?
• How do they make their argument? Is it backed up by evidence?

A credible source should pass the CRAAP test  and follow these guidelines:

• The information should be up to date and current.
• The author and publication should be a trusted authority on the subject you are researching.
• The sources the author cited should be easy to find, clear, and unbiased.
• For a web source, the URL and layout should signify that it is trustworthy.

Information literacy refers to a broad range of skills, including the ability to find, evaluate, and use sources of information effectively.

Being information literate means that you:

• Know how to find credible sources
• Use relevant sources to inform your research
• Understand what constitutes plagiarism
• Know how to cite your sources correctly

Confirmation bias is the tendency to search, interpret, and recall information in a way that aligns with our pre-existing values, opinions, or beliefs. It refers to the ability to recollect information best when it amplifies what we already believe. Relatedly, we tend to forget information that contradicts our opinions.

Although selective recall is a component of confirmation bias, it should not be confused with recall bias.

On the other hand, recall bias refers to the differences in the ability between study participants to recall past events when self-reporting is used. This difference in accuracy or completeness of recollection is not related to beliefs or opinions. Rather, recall bias relates to other factors, such as the length of the recall period, age, and the characteristics of the disease under investigation.

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Ryan, E. (2023, May 31). What Is Critical Thinking? | Definition & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved June 9, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/critical-thinking/

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Teaching Critical Thinking: A Case for Instruction in Cognitive Biases to Reduce Diagnostic Errors and Improve Patient Safety

Royce, Celeste S. MD; Hayes, Margaret M. MD; Schwartzstein, Richard M. MD

C.S. Royce is instructor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

M.M. Hayes is assistant professor, Department of Medicine, Shapiro Institute for Education and Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

R.M. Schwartzstein is professor, Department of Medicine, Shapiro Institute for Education and Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Funding/Support: None reported.

Other disclosures: None reported.

Ethical approval: Reported as not applicable.

Correspondence should be addressed to Celeste S. Royce, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Ave., Kirstein 3, Boston, MA 02215; telephone: (617) 667-2325; e-mail: [email protected] ; Twitter: @croyce62.

Diagnostic errors contribute to as many as 70% of medical errors. Prevention of diagnostic errors is more complex than building safety checks into health care systems; it requires an understanding of critical thinking, of clinical reasoning, and of the cognitive processes through which diagnoses are made. When a diagnostic error is recognized, it is imperative to identify where and how the mistake in clinical reasoning occurred. Cognitive biases may contribute to errors in clinical reasoning. By understanding how physicians make clinical decisions, and examining how errors due to cognitive biases occur, cognitive bias awareness training and debiasing strategies may be developed to decrease diagnostic errors and patient harm. Studies of the impact of teaching critical thinking skills have mixed results but are limited by methodological problems.

This Perspective explores the role of clinical reasoning and cognitive bias in diagnostic error, as well as the effect of instruction in metacognitive skills on improvement of diagnostic accuracy for both learners and practitioners. Recent literature questioning whether teaching critical thinking skills increases diagnostic accuracy is critically examined, as are studies suggesting that metacognitive practices result in better patient care and outcomes. Instruction in metacognition, reflective practice, and cognitive bias awareness may help learners move toward adaptive expertise and help clinicians improve diagnostic accuracy. The authors argue that explicit instruction in metacognition in medical education, including awareness of cognitive biases, has the potential to reduce diagnostic errors and thus improve patient safety.

Recognition of the role of diagnostic errors in patient morbidity and mortality has recently increased, as highlighted by the 2015 report Improving Diagnosis in Health Care , in which the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine defined diagnostic error as “the failure to establish an accurate and timely explanation of the patient’s health problem(s) or communicate that explanation to the patient.” 1 Despite the attention given to the function of health care systems as a cause of medical error, relatively little has been done to address the cognitive component of diagnostic error, which may contribute to as many as 70% of medical errors. 2–5

Prevention of diagnostic errors is more complex than building safety checks into health care systems; it requires an understanding of the clinical reasoning and cognitive processes through which diagnoses are made. Clinical reasoning —the process of applying cognitive skills, knowledge, and experience to diagnose and treat patients—is inherently difficult to assess, which makes cognitive errors difficult to detect. The steps of clinical reasoning usually occur rapidly, are rarely documented or explained, and may not be apparent even in the mind of the clinician. 6 , 7

When a diagnostic error is recognized, it is imperative to identify where and how the mistake in clinical reasoning occurred. Cognitive biases , or predispositions to respond to data on the basis of prior experience or the exigencies of current conditions, can contribute to diagnostic errors. Although Norman et al 8 recently argued that knowledge deficits are the primary cause for diagnostic errors, there is substantial evidence to suggest that cognitive biases contribute to diagnostic errors. In the majority of real-world malpractice cases attributed to diagnostic error, the errors are not due to ignorance but, rather, to the failure to consider the correct diagnosis. 3 , 9 Gandhi et al 5 found 64% of closed malpractice claims to be due solely to diagnostic error, with 79% of those cases including a “failure of judgment.” The role of cognitive bias in diagnostic error is underappreciated by physicians, who may be unfamiliar with how these assumptions influence their decision making. 6 Case studies of diagnostic delay and misdiagnosis illustrate the central role of cognitive bias in diagnostic failure, showing that errors arising from cognitive bias play a role in over 50% of identified cases of diagnostic error in ambulatory clinics and in up to 83% of cases involving physician-reported diagnostic errors. 9–12 By examining how errors due to cognitive biases occur, strategies may be developed to avoid mistakes and patient harm.

In this Perspective, we explore the role of cognitive bias in diagnostic error. We examine the effect of instruction in critical thinking and metacognitive skills in the development of diagnos tic accuracy for both learners and practitioners. We suggest that developing these skills may help learners and clinicians move toward adaptive expertise and improve diagnostic accuracy. We examine the literature that questions the benefits of teaching clinical reasoning skills to increase diagnostic accuracy, and we identify methodological problems with those studies. Lastly, we examine evidence suggesting that metacognitive practices result in better patient care and outcomes. We argue that explicit instruction by medical educators about metacognition and cognitive biases as components of critical thinking has the potential to help reduce diagnostic errors and thus improve patient safety.

The Diagnostic Process

When considering how to prevent diagnostic errors that are due to cognitive processes, it is important to understand how physicians make clinical decisions. Cognitive psychologists have proposed that problem solving and decision making occur through a dual process model: intuitive, rapid, pattern-based decision making, termed System 1 ; and more analytic, logical reasoning, termed System 2 . 13 , 14 Although many descriptions of dual processing exist in the literature, 15 there is general agreement that System 1 is the use of pattern recognition, rules of thumb, or mental short cuts, known as heuristics, to make quick, almost instantaneous decisions. System 2 is the more analytic approach to problem solving and is typically employed when confronted with an unfamiliar problem, a difficult decision, or contradictory evidence. The dual process theory suggests that the two systems function in sequence: Heuristics are used to immediately solve the problem, and analytic reasoning may (or may not) be employed to alter the original impression. 16

Metacognition —the capacity for self-reflection on the process of thinking and self-regulation in monitoring decision making—can be described as the purposeful engagement of System 2 problem solving through reflection and deliberative examination of one’s own reasoning. Metacognitive strategies often result in activation of System 2 decision making because the process of reflection may prompt a more analytic examination of available data. For example, when you are asked which animal causes the most human death after you view a documentary on shark attacks, your immediate answer, using System 1 processing, is likely to be “sharks.” On reflection (a metacognitive practice), you might engage System 2 processing and arrive at the correct answer, which is the mosquito. 17 Because analytic reasoning requires effort—as well as an understanding of and the ability to engage in hypothetico-deductive and/or inductive reasoning—errors may arise simply due to the expediency of depending on heuristics. As Tversky and Kahneman 18 note, “people rely on a limited number of heuristic principles which reduce … complex tasks of assessing probabilities … to simpler operations” which can “lead to severe and systemic errors.” The biological plausibility of the dual process model has been demonstrated using functional MRI, brain glucose utilization, and studies of patients with neurological lesions. 13 , 16 , 19

The theory of adaptive expertise complements the dual process theory with the idea of expert practice —that is, of balancing efficiency and innovation in clinical problem solving. 20 , 21 In this model, the routine expert is an individual at any level of training who appropriately uses preexisting knowledge to quickly solve routine, familiar, or uncomplicated problems. In contrast, the adaptive expert is able to employ a deep conceptual understanding and engage in reflection to create novel solutions for complicated or unfamiliar problems, thus adding to his or her knowledge base, reasoning capacity, and ability to solve cases not previously encountered. 22 Expert practice requires reflection for growth; without engagement in this metacognitive process, practice improvement is stalled, and the chance of diagnostic errors occurring increases. 23 Adaptive expertise is not a static competency; rather, it develops as the individual’s knowledge and problem-solving skills grow. In this theory, a clinician of any experience level who possesses foundational knowledge may make appropriate diagnoses not only in simple scenarios but also in more complex, uncertain, or unfamiliar cases by employing logic and reasoning. Conversely, an experienced clinician may arrive at an incorrect diagnosis if he or she fails to appreciate the need for reflection or innovation when confronted with a complex problem, a novel presentation, or contradictory data.

The dual process and adaptive expertise models can be used together to explain how routine experts differ from adaptive experts in their approaches to diagnosing a complex problem. Routine experts may rapidly and correctly arrive at a diagnosis, drawing on previous experience and knowledge to employ heuristic illness scripts. They may not recognize the need to use analytic reasoning strategies when faced with an unfamiliar problem or data that do not fit into the solution proposed by the heuristic, or they may use analysis primarily to switch to another previously encountered pattern. This type of dual process approach to diagnosis is predicated on adequate clinical knowledge, experience, the lack of distracting cognitive overload, and the ability to engage in reflection or metacognition when indicated, and it results in the efficiency experienced clinicians bring to clinical decision making. 23 , 24 Adaptive expertise relies on the ability to engage in both types of thinking and adds the step of innovation—that is, designing novel solutions to new or complex problems not encountered previously by drawing creatively on prior experience and knowledge. Adaptive experts, therefore, balance efficiency and innovation in response to changing conditions, using both System 1 and System 2 approaches to problem solving and applying their foundational knowledge and learned experience to formulate novel solutions.

Learners are rarely efficient in their clinical decision making. They may try to employ heuristics in an effort to be efficient, but they may be more prone to errors than experienced clinicians, as their lack of experience provides inadequate knowledge or self-regulation to determine when heuristics fail. However, both novices and experienced clinicians can experience diagnostic error due to cognitive bias. For example, a clinician may conclude that a postoperative patient with dyspnea has a pulmonary embolism by depending on a heuristic (i.e., postoperative patients are at increased risk for thromboembolic disease), resulting in the cognitive bias of premature closure (acceptance of an early impression as the diagnosis without adequate verification or consideration of other explanations)—and a missed diagnosis of pulmonary edema, which would be clear from a more detailed evaluation of the patient. Warning signs of clinical situations in which the interaction between heuristics and cognitive bias may lead to diagnostic error include the failure to generate more than one possible diagnosis or the failure to account for all the data. These “red flags” should prompt the clinician to further analyze the case, a cognitive process that represents metacognition in the moment. Just as the study of basic science prepares medical students for future learning of complex subjects through the development of a framework for clinical knowledge, 25 an awareness of how cognitive biases may interact with heuristics can provide a scaffolding for learning metacognitive reflective strategies and may allow learners to understand both the value and risk inherent in the use of heuristics.

Lastly, decisions about diagnoses are made in the clinical context, using the physician’s understanding of base rates of disease, likelihood ratios, and pretest probabilities. The physician’s personal experiences, in addition to his or her understanding of the sensitivity and specificity of a diagnostic test, contribute to the interpretation of test results and determination of a diagnosis. Without an awareness of potential bias based on anecdotal experience (the “N of one”), even the most experienced physician can make a diagnostic error. In a recent study, Rottman 26 demonstrated that physicians use Bayesian reasoning and are more likely to make a correct diagnosis when their use of probabilistic reasoning is based on their understanding of base rates, likelihood ratios, and test sensitivities (i.e., their knowledge from experience); when given the results of a test and informed of its actual sensitivity, however, they are more likely to suffer from premature closure.

Ultimately, clinical reasoning requires integration of multiple approaches including heuristics, Bayesian principles of clinical epidemiology, inductive reason ing based on thorough understanding of mechanisms of disease, and, as we will discuss below, the ability to reflect on and correct for the effect of cognitive biases ( Figure 1 ).

Evidence for the Role of Cognitive Mistakes in Diagnostic Errors

One of the challenges of examining the role of cognitive processing in diagnostic error is that most cognitive mistakes are made in a subset of cases. These mistakes can arise at multiple steps in the diagnostic process. For example, an unusual presentation of a common illness, the presence of comorbidities, or patient characteristics that change the perceived base rate can lead to incorrect or incomplete diagnoses due to the cognitive biases of anchoring (fixation on specific features of a patient’s initial presentation, failure to adjust with new information), framing (decisions affected by the clinical context in which a problem is considered or by the analysis provided by a prior provider), or ascertainment (thinking shaped by what the physician hopes or expects to find). Cognitive overload may contribute to faulty reasoning strategies.

In daily practice, most cases are “routine,” with an easily recognizable diagnosis or a classical presentation of a common problem. For these cases, using System 1 decision making is quick, accurate, and appropriate. In analyzing the causes of diagnostic errors, studying how physicians arrive at the diagnosis in classic presentations (even of unusual conditions) is not useful in discriminating between use of heuristics and analytic reasoning, and will not help identify whether a knowledge deficit or a reasoning deficit is the source of an error. Rather, to detect cognitive bias, what must be examined is how physicians arrive at the diagnosis in atypical presentations, where cognitive biases may be unmasked in confronting a difficult diagnosis. 27

For example, in one study residents were asked to evaluate computer-based cases of differing complexity. 28 One of the cases consisted of a classic presentation of carbon monoxide poisoning. This is an example of a diagnosis that senior internal medicine residents are likely to recognize halfway through the case vignette. No amount of analytical reasoning will change a clinician’s mind about this diagnosis, and for experienced clinicians, there is no reason to employ a more analytic approach.

In contrast, when presented with cases with atypical presentations or with conflicting or complex data for which the diagnosis is less certain, experienced physicians may have no better diagnostic accuracy than medical students or residents. Using four cases in which contradictory information was introduced midway through each case, Krupat et al 29 found that diagnostic accuracy was not different among faculty physicians, residents, and medical students. The more experienced physicians tended to persist with their initial impressions despite the additional discordant information. Thus, the decision that sufficient information has been gathered may lead to premature closure and diagnostic error. 26 Unusual presentations, although representing a minority of cases, are the ones that may lead to substantial patient harm. In these cases, physicians would benefit from better awareness of cognitive processing and application of rigorous analytic reasoning.

In patient care, a knowledge deficit is an uncommon cause for misdiagnosis. In an analysis of closed claims data from over 23,000 malpractice cases in Massachusetts, 20% of total cases were attributed to diagnostic errors. 9 In 73% of these diagnostic error cases, there was an identifiable lapse in clinical reasoning. In contrast, only 3% of total cases were attributed to a knowledge deficit; in these cases, the error occurred not because the doctor was unfamiliar with the diagnosis but, rather, because the doctor did not consider the diagnosis. Similar results were found in an analysis of primary care malpractice claims where 72.1% of successful claims were related to diagnostic errors. 3 The errors ultimately attributed to faulty clinical reasoning occurred in the failure to obtain or update a patient and family history, to perform an adequate physical exam, to order appropriate diagnostic tests, and/or to refer patients appropriately. Although taking an incomplete history or performing an inadequate physical exam is not a cognitive mistake, the failure to recognize the need to update the history or pursue further information is a key component of cognitive biases such as premature closure and confirmation bias (looking for confirming evidence to support a hypothesis rather than seeking disconfirming evidence to refute it).

Chart reviews and other quality improve ment initiatives have demonstrated the frequency of diagnostic errors due to cognitive mistakes. An emergency medicine review of the charts of patients presenting with abdominal pain found that 35% had diagnostic errors, with 69% of those errors due to incomplete history taking, incorrect or unindicated testing, or lack of follow-up on abnormal test results. 30 Delayed or missed diagnoses are also common for diagnoses that may have unusual presentations, such as tuberculosis, HIV-associated disease, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. 31 “Secret shopper” programs, which use standardized patients to visit outpatient clinics, have demonstrated a 10% to 15% error rate with common diseases. 31 In the inpatient setting, 83% of diagnostic errors have been found to be preventable, 32 whereas autopsy studies have consistently shown a 10% to 20% rate of missed diagnoses. 33 , 34

Cognitive bias is less well recognized as a root cause of diagnostic error than are failures of health care systems. Physicians openly acknowledge and address medical infrastructure factors, but they may not be comfortable discussing cognitive mistakes, which are often perceived as individual failings. 35 For example, physicians recognize cognitive overload from excessive automated electronic medical record alerts as a cause for delay in diagnosis or care. 36 However, physicians’ familiarity with other forms of cognitive bias and their contribution to diagnostic error may be limited. 35

Studies of real-world cases have demonstrated the effect that cognitive bias can have on decision making, leading to faulty judgment and possible risk or harm to patients. In obstetrics, for example, transient increases in unscheduled cesarean deliveries were attributed to availability bias following catastrophic cases of uterine rupture 37 or neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. 38 A systematic review 39 of the literature on cognitive bias in practicing physicians found that overconfidence, anchoring, availability bias (judging the likelihood of an event based on the ease of mental retrieval), and tolerance of risk were associated with diagnostic inaccuracies or suboptimal management. Chart reviews from the Netherlands found that cases with faulty information processing due to cognitive biases, such as premature closure, confirmation bias, and overconfidence, were more likely to lead to diagnostic error and patient harm than were cases with faulty or incomplete information gathering. 40

Physicians who display more reflective capacity, a form of metacognition, may have better patient outcomes. Yee et al 41 found that obstetricians who scored higher on reflective capacity tests had higher rates of successful attempts of vaginal birth after cesarean delivery. Additionally, Moulton et al 42 found that surgeons attributed procedural errors to a suspension of metacognitive self-monitoring during surgery.

The malpractice and diagnostic error literatures clearly demonstrate a role for improved clinical reasoning and suggest that educational interventions for teaching critical thinking are needed. Such interventions may attempt to improve metacognitive strategies, teach cognitive bias mitigation strategies, or increase awareness of cognitive bias.

Norman et al 8 recently suggested that educational strategies to recognize and address cognitive bias have been unsuccessful so far. Demonstrating efficacy of any educational intervention in terms of patient safety or outcomes is difficult. Blumenthal-Barby and Krieger, 43 in a review of the literature on cognitive bias and heuristics in medical decision making, pointed out that few studies of cognitive bias in learners had ecological validity. Most studies were based on experimental case vignettes rather than clinical decision making, and the cognitive biases studied were limited to a few—framing, omission (the tendency to judge adverse outcomes of actions as worse than adverse outcomes of inaction), relative risk (the tendency to prefer to choose an intervention when given the relative risk rather than the absolute risk), and availability biases. 43 The applicability of many of such studies to clinical reasoning and decision making is questionable. For example, in a study attempting to assess whether reflection improves diagnostic accuracy, Norman et al 28 divided second-year residents into a “speed cohort” and “reflect cohort.” Participants were asked to read a series of computer-based cases and make the diagnosis. The speed cohort was instructed to do this “as quickly as possible,” while the reflect cohort was instructed to be “thorough and reflective.” The authors found no significant difference in the two cohorts’ diagnostic accuracy and concluded that encouraging reflection and increased attention to analytic thinking does not increase diagnostic accuracy. However, the experimental conditions used (computer modules with a timer displaying elapsed duration of the exercise) are not an accurate representation of a busy emergency department, which the authors were trying to replicate. Further, the intervention did not include any explicit instruction on cognitive biases, metacognitive strategies, or other techniques for reflection. Although the average difference in time spent on each case by the cohorts (20 seconds) was statistically significant, this difference is unlikely to be meaningful with respect to the thinking processes employed or to real-world experience. Conversely, others have found that training in reflective practice may improve diagnostic accuracy: In a study of internal medicine residents, Mamede et al 44 demonstrated improved diagnostic accuracy in first- and second-year residents. Instruction in reasoning skills, probabilistic decision making, and Bayesian reasoning may improve diagnostic accuracy by decreasing the effects of cognitive biases—in particular premature closure, neglect of base rates of disease, and inappropriate reliance on heuristics. 45 , 46

Effect of Metacognitive Strategies on Diagnostic Accuracy

When evaluating the available data on the efficacy of teaching metacognitive skills to improve clinical reasoning and avoid diagnostic error, it is important to recognize the level of expertise in the study population. Attempts to teach strategies to raise awareness of cognitive bias in clinical reasoning—sometimes referred to as cognitive forcing strategies , debiasing strategies , or cognitive bias mitigation —have shown conflicting results with different groups. 6 , 47 , 48 Studies involving medical students have demonstrated limited improvement in diagnostic accuracy, which may be due to knowledge deficits inherent in early-stage learners: Debiasing strategies are unlikely to improve diagnostic accuracy or speed in the short term if knowledge deficits exist. 24 , 47 , 48 Furthermore, students may not have enough experience to fall victim to anchoring or availability biases. Therefore, although novice students are not immune to cognitive bias, they may not immediately benefit from instruction in metacognitive techniques or debiasing strategies.

As students advance in their training and transition to residency, they acquire knowledge and experience, and they become more likely to problem solve using pattern recognition and heuristics. However, as trainees acquire experience and develop illness scripts, they also become more prone to making diagnostic errors due to availability bias and anchoring. 44 Findings from efforts to teach metacognitive skills to residents are interesting and consistent with this developmental stage. 28 , 49–53 For example, Monteiro et al 52 found that higher-achieving residents benefited from instructions to “reflect before answering” when answering test questions at all levels of difficulty, whereas lower-achieving residents benefited only when answering easier questions, demonstrating that even a short instruction to reflect on decisions may improve diagnostic accuracy for those with a baseline of knowledge. The inverse relationship that Norman et al 28 found between diagnostic accuracy and time required to diagnose cases suggests that residents either are in the process of developing both knowledge and metacognitive skills or that they are spending more time because they simply do not know the answers.

Educational interventions providing detailed instruction in recognizing common cognitive biases and debiasing strategies have demonstrated both short- and long-term improvements in residents’ critical thinking skills. 49 , 50 A longitudinal curriculum of metacognitive skills and debiasing strategies resulted in increased awareness of common cognitive biases, as well as improved discussions with patients, families, and colleagues. Importantly, this effect persisted at the one-year follow-up. 49 In another study, introduction of cognitive bias awareness into peer review of cases of diagnostic errors resulted in the development and implementation of algorithms and protocols for avoiding affective bias (bias due to an emotional response), use of standardized neurological evaluations, and increased consultations for difficult cases. 35

Metacognition Prompts Clinical Reasoning Strategies

Reliance on System 1 decision making is not the cause for all diagnostic errors; indeed, there is some evidence that more deliberative thinking can also result in errors. 48 However, the inappropriate or unexamined use of heuristics can result in impaired decision making, 54 and as Schulz 55 notes, “when making a decision, making a wrong decision feels the same as making a right decision.” Even physicians who are familiar with the effects of cognitive biases and have an awareness of the pitfalls of dependence on heuristics may not believe themselves to be vulnerable to their influence, and they may only acknowledge a few of many instances of cognitive biases in their own decision making. 56 Learning and practicing strategies to avoid biased thinking—that is, debiasing or cognitive forcing strategies—requires effort and vigilance. 6 These strategies seem to work best when they disrupt the automaticity of clinical reasoning, requiring the clinician to reevaluate his or her initial thought processes through reconsideration of the evidence. 57–59

Reflection on one’s reasoning is of paramount importance. Clinicians can and should be taught to examine heuristics, monitor their own reasoning for mistakes and biases, and self-regulate their thought processes. Cognitive bias awareness strategies, like other critical thinking skills, can be taught to learners in medicine as potential tools to advance patient safety and patient care. Learners can be taught cognitive bias awareness along with other strategies to promote critical thinking, such as the five microskills model known as the “one-minute preceptor,” 60 to help them develop habits of mind and healthy skepticism about their own thought processes. Engaging in simple practices such as calling for a “diagnostic time-out” (an explicit pause to reflect on the thinking process leading to the diagnosis) at patient handoff or when confronted with a complex patient promotes reflection and metacognition for physicians at any level. 60 , 61

Evidence for Better Diagnostic Accuracy and Patient Outcomes

Few studies have looked at the efficacy of cognitive bias awareness training in preventing diagnostic error and patient harm. A recent review of interventions to prevent diagnostic errors found that the vast majority of interventions were not educational: Only 11 of 109 studies included clinician education, and few reported any patient outcomes. 62

Longitudinal and integrated curricula are effective at improving awareness of cognitive biases and use of reflective practice. 49 , 63 Introduction of an integrated cognitive bias awareness curriculum for residents and practicing physicians at Maine Medical Center led to an increase in the reporting of diagnostic errors, as well as protocols to standardize patient care. 64 At the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, partici pants in a longitudinal program designed to increase awareness of the role of cognitive bias in diagnostic error were able to identify the roles of different cognitive biases in diagnostic errors and to generate strategies to avoid similar errors in the future. 65 , 66 These studies suggest that continuing education in cognitive biases and metacognition may improve patient outcomes.

Future Directions and Conclusions

As medical education shifts from a focus on content transfer to the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills, educators must push learners to develop and practice the skills needed to reason from foundational principles and concepts to explain the history, physical examination, and laboratory data for a given patient. 67 , 68 As students enter clinical clerkships and progress to residency programs, faculty must continue to reinforce these skills; when not practiced regularly, inductive reasoning and metacognitive skills atrophy. Faculty development efforts should emphasize techniques that incorporate critical thinking skills instruction without adding time in already-crowded GME curricula. 69 Over time, efforts to teach reflective practice and cognitive bias awareness strategies may lead to better diagnostic habits and ultimately to improved patient safety. 63 Teaching analytic approaches such as Bayesian reasoning, improving physicians’ understanding of probabilistic decision making with likelihood ratios, and increasing appreciation of diagnostic test specificity and sensitivity may also help to decrease diagnostic errors made because of cognitive mistakes. 26 , 45 To help learners achieve adaptive expertise, educators must help them recognize the appropriate use and challenges of both heuristics and analytic reasoning, adapt their approach to diagnosis to the clinical scenario, and become comfortable with regular encounters with uncertainty. 24

Workplace interventions may assist practicing clinicians in their efforts to avoid diagnostic errors. Global changes in medical practice have led to a clinical environment in which feedback on diagnostic accuracy is difficult to obtain, denying physicians the opportunity to learn from mistakes. 33 , 34 Electronic medical records have the potential to facilitate feedback on diagnostic accuracy. 31 Health care systems, government regulatory bodies, malpractice insurance companies, and third-party payers are likely to invest in programs to teach debiasing strategies and other approaches for improved diagnostic accuracy, including the development of clinical decision support tools. 1 , 3 , 49 , 70 Computer-based training systems for assessment of clinical reasoning have been employed successfully to improve diagnostic accuracy. 71

Further, a change in the culture of medicine regarding diagnostic error is needed. As a profession, physicians have become more comfortable with identifying and addressing health care systems factors that lead to medical error. 35 Diagnostic error is perceived as more difficult to address and prevent. Physicians are reluctant to acknowledge their own diagnostic errors, especially when mistakes are often seen as personal failings and professional lapses. 64 Small changes in both culture and communication may help establish a safer environment for admitting uncertainty in diagnoses and acknowledging errors. A simple change in name, as suggested by Singh, from “diagnostic errors” to “missed opportunities in diagnosis” may help destigmatize and depersonalize these errors. 72 Techniques to promote a culture of safe and open communication should be employed, such as routinely incorporating a diagnostic time-out for difficult cases or at patient handoffs. 60 , 61 , 73 Morbidity and mortality conferences should return to the original intent: identifying and learning from diagnostic errors, focusing on an exploration of reasoning rather than taking a punitive or judgmental approach to assigning blame.

Physicians should embrace the idea of uncertainty as a mark of a sophisticated approach to clinical medicine, rather than as an admission of ignorance or incompetence. 74 Enlisting other health care professionals, patients, and families as meaningful partners in the diagnostic process is also potentially powerful for detection and prevention of diagnostic errors. 70 Lastly, relabeling “differential diagnosis” as “diagnostic hypotheses,” as an expression of uncertainty and fallibility, would encourage testing and potentially changing one’s conclusions as a clinical scenario unfolds. 75

Culture change is difficult. The effort in medical education to teach critical thinking skills and metacognitive strategies explicitly to promote a culture of patient safety is still in its early stages and has not yet conclusively demonstrated improved patient outcomes. Just as standardization of medical education as a science-based discipline helped bring unimagined improvements to medicine in the 20th century, the increased focus on the development of critical thinking skills may reap similar benefits in this century. Education is one pillar of the patient safety movement. Medical educators must continue to work to incorporate critical thinking skills training throughout the medical education continuum.

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Integrating direct and inquiry-based instruction in the teaching of critical thinking: an intervention study

• Published: 16 May 2013
• Volume 42 , pages 251–269, ( 2014 )

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• Kelly Y. L. Ku 1 ,
• Irene T. Ho 2 ,
• Kit-Tai Hau 3 &
• Eva C. M. Lai 4  

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Critical thinking is a unifying goal of modern education. While past research has mostly examined the efficacy of a single instructional approach to teaching critical thinking, recent literature has begun discussing mixed teaching approaches. The present study examines three modes of instruction, featuring the direct instruction approach and the inquiry-based approach in different sequences and proportions, in enhancing Chinese secondary student’s critical thinking performance. A total of 651 Grade 12 students participated in an 18-hour intervention with pre- and post-intervention measures on critical thinking performance and critical thinking dispositions. Specifically, critical thinking assessments utilizing different response format were used. Those who received training showed greater improvement on at least one of the critical thinking assessments compared to those who received no training. Participants’ performances with regards to different critical thinking assessments are discussed. Benefits of adopting more than one instructional approach to teaching critical thinking are highlighted.

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Acknowledgments

The support by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (CUHK4713/06H) is gratefully acknowledged.

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Kelly Y. L. Ku

Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Irene T. Ho

Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Kit-Tai Hau

Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

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Course content of Chinese version of Halpern’s ( 2007 ) critical thinking teaching package

The critical thinking teaching package (Ku et al. 2011 ), adopted from Halpern ( 2007 ), consists of four modules: (1) argument analysis, (2) Evaluating causal claim, (3) understanding mental models, and (4) decision-making skills.

See Table  4 .

Example of scenario provided for group discussion/debate and class activities

Sample scenario: the fate of the island.

You live in a backward and remote island nation. For the past a 100 years or so, people on the island are self-sustained, living on farming and herding. Neighbouring the small island is a big, prosperous and advanced nation. Recently, using their instruments, specialists in that nation detected that within 3 weeks, the small island will be hit by intense earthquakes. The quakes could last months, generating a tsunami that will drown the entire island.

When the neighboring nation received the news, they sent a warning to your island. They urged you and your people to leave immediately. The nation also agreed to temporarily accommodate the island’s inhabitants. Your livestock, however, were forbidden to enter. The island government accepted this arrangement and asked its people to take shelter in the neighboring nation for at least a few months. This was met with strong objection from the local people on the island. They claim for hundreds of years people here had used animal behavior and weather changes to predict earthquakes, which had always been accurate. They predicted no earthquakes in the region around the island any time soon. They also considered the technology in the neighboring nation unreliable. Moreover, if they left behind all livestock and farmland for months, everything would have died before the people could come back. The next year’s provisions will be all but gone.

Scenario discussion

The discussion should guide students to make a rational and informed decision on whether a full evacuation of the island’s inhabitants is necessary.

Extended thinking

Guiding students to utilize decision-making skills to become a smart consumer of medical services.

Transfer and application

Guiding class to apply the techniques acquired from this scenario to discuss:

“How is people’s understanding of health affected by economic, social and other factors?”

“In what ways is people’s understanding of public health affected by health information, social expectations, personal values and beliefs in different cultures?”

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Ku, K.Y.L., Ho, I.T., Hau, KT. et al. Integrating direct and inquiry-based instruction in the teaching of critical thinking: an intervention study. Instr Sci 42 , 251–269 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-013-9279-0

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Received : 26 August 2012

Accepted : 29 April 2013

Published : 16 May 2013

Issue Date : March 2014

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-013-9279-0

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Identify Assumptions: Steps to Question Underlying Beliefs in Decision-Making

Assumptions are the foundation upon which we base our decisions, thoughts, and actions, often without conscious awareness. These implicit beliefs or suppositions have a substantial impact on how we interpret the world and act within it.

While they are necessary for navigating through complex scenarios, unchecked assumptions can lead to significant errors in judgement and understanding.

Identifying assumptions is thus a crucial skill that requires both attention and critical thinking, enabling individuals to dissect their reasoning processes and the premises upon which they rely.

In various domains such as decision-making, project management, and research, the practice of recognizing and scrutinizing assumptions can illuminate potential biases and gaps in logic.

It often involves a diligent review of the current knowledge base, followed by a systematic approach to test and validate the underlying presumptions.

As such, this careful interrogation of assumptions can pave the way for more informed decisions and groundbreaking discoveries.

Key Takeaways

Understanding assumptions.

Assumptions are the unspoken bedrock of beliefs and propositions that shape the way individuals perceive the world and inform their decision-making process. These underpinnings, often accepted as truth, play a critical role in forming perspective and dictate the importance placed on certain topics or actions.

Types of Assumptions

Importance of identifying assumptions.

Uncovering assumptions is paramount because they can skew perception and lead to misguided conclusions.

Challenging Assumptions

By reassessing assumptions, individuals and teams can mitigate risks in project management, foster innovative solutions in design thinking , and enhance personal growth.

Assumptions in Decision-Making

Role in planning and strategy.

It’s vital to recognize that these are not certainties but educated guesses designed to provide a foundation for planning .

A technique often used is a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), requiring a clear separation of factual data from assumptions to guide strategic direction clearly.

Impact on Leadership and Outcomes

Such cognizance is linked to leadership effectiveness and the quality of decisions that ultimately shape organizational success or failure.

Assumptions Template for Effective Choices

Assumptions in research and innovation.

Assumptions are pivotal forces in driving the strategies and outcomes in research, innovation, and new business development. They predefine the framework within which creativity flourishes and product design acquires its shape.

Influence on New Business Development

New business development hinges on a series of critical assumptions about market needs, customer behavior, and the anticipated impact of new offerings.

Driving Forces Behind Creativity and Change

They are often the invisible driving forces that compel individuals to seek out novel solutions and foster an environment conducive to innovation .

Engineering Assumptions in Product Design

Testing and validating assumptions.

Before launching a product or implementing a strategy, assumptions must be rigorously tested and validated. This ensures that decisions are made on the basis of sound data and realistic expectations, mitigating the risks inherent in untested beliefs.

Methods for Assessing Hypotheses

Each type represents a facet of the product that can be addressed through tailored experiments and tests aimed at revealing their accuracy.

Utilizing Feedback and Databases for Refinement

Learning from failure and success.

Understanding the limitations of an approach is as informative as the success.

Assumptions in Project Management

In project management, assumptions significantly influence the planning and execution phases. They guide decision-making and strategizing throughout the life cycle of a project.

Defining Objectives and Key Results

Dealing with constraints and project progress.

A project’s progress can be significantly affected by how these constraints are understood and what assumptions are made about them.

Adapting to Variables and Conditions

When these assumptions are incorrect or change, it can introduce risks that necessitate immediate adaptation, exemplifying the dynamic nature of managing projects amidst uncertainty.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are common examples of assumptions made in psychological research, how do assumptions affect the outcomes of critical thinking processes, what methods are employed to identify assumptions in empirical research.

Empirical research often employs strategies such as scrutinizing cause-and-effect relationships and questioning the validity of operational definitions to identify assumptions.

In the context of econometrics, how are identifying assumptions integral to model specification?

Why is it crucial to distinguish assumptions when conducting any form of empirical analysis, what are the consequences of not accurately identifying assumptions in academic research.

Failure to accurately identify assumptions in academic research can lead to flawed methodologies, misinterpretation of results, and incorrect conclusions.

This may ultimately diminish the study’s reliability and impact its success .

You may also like

Rote learning vs critical thinking, decision making levels: understanding the hierarchy in organizations, what is logical thinking, critical thinking and anxiety, leave a comment cancel reply, download this free ebook.

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Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a widely accepted educational goal. Its definition is contested, but the competing definitions can be understood as differing conceptions of the same basic concept: careful thinking directed to a goal. Conceptions differ with respect to the scope of such thinking, the type of goal, the criteria and norms for thinking carefully, and the thinking components on which they focus. Its adoption as an educational goal has been recommended on the basis of respect for students’ autonomy and preparing students for success in life and for democratic citizenship. “Critical thinkers” have the dispositions and abilities that lead them to think critically when appropriate. The abilities can be identified directly; the dispositions indirectly, by considering what factors contribute to or impede exercise of the abilities. Standardized tests have been developed to assess the degree to which a person possesses such dispositions and abilities. Educational intervention has been shown experimentally to improve them, particularly when it includes dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring. Controversies have arisen over the generalizability of critical thinking across domains, over alleged bias in critical thinking theories and instruction, and over the relationship of critical thinking to other types of thinking.

2.1 Dewey’s Three Main Examples

2.2 dewey’s other examples, 2.3 further examples, 2.4 non-examples, 3. the definition of critical thinking, 4. its value, 5. the process of thinking critically, 6. components of the process, 7. contributory dispositions and abilities, 8.1 initiating dispositions, 8.2 internal dispositions, 9. critical thinking abilities, 10. required knowledge, 11. educational methods, 12.1 the generalizability of critical thinking, 12.2 bias in critical thinking theory and pedagogy, 12.3 relationship of critical thinking to other types of thinking, other internet resources, related entries.

Use of the term ‘critical thinking’ to describe an educational goal goes back to the American philosopher John Dewey (1910), who more commonly called it ‘reflective thinking’. He defined it as

active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends. (Dewey 1910: 6; 1933: 9)

and identified a habit of such consideration with a scientific attitude of mind. His lengthy quotations of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and John Stuart Mill indicate that he was not the first person to propose development of a scientific attitude of mind as an educational goal.

In the 1930s, many of the schools that participated in the Eight-Year Study of the Progressive Education Association (Aikin 1942) adopted critical thinking as an educational goal, for whose achievement the study’s Evaluation Staff developed tests (Smith, Tyler, & Evaluation Staff 1942). Glaser (1941) showed experimentally that it was possible to improve the critical thinking of high school students. Bloom’s influential taxonomy of cognitive educational objectives (Bloom et al. 1956) incorporated critical thinking abilities. Ennis (1962) proposed 12 aspects of critical thinking as a basis for research on the teaching and evaluation of critical thinking ability.

Since 1980, an annual international conference in California on critical thinking and educational reform has attracted tens of thousands of educators from all levels of education and from many parts of the world. Also since 1980, the state university system in California has required all undergraduate students to take a critical thinking course. Since 1983, the Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking has sponsored sessions in conjunction with the divisional meetings of the American Philosophical Association (APA). In 1987, the APA’s Committee on Pre-College Philosophy commissioned a consensus statement on critical thinking for purposes of educational assessment and instruction (Facione 1990a). Researchers have developed standardized tests of critical thinking abilities and dispositions; for details, see the Supplement on Assessment . Educational jurisdictions around the world now include critical thinking in guidelines for curriculum and assessment.

For details on this history, see the Supplement on History .

2. Examples and Non-Examples

Before considering the definition of critical thinking, it will be helpful to have in mind some examples of critical thinking, as well as some examples of kinds of thinking that would apparently not count as critical thinking.

Dewey (1910: 68–71; 1933: 91–94) takes as paradigms of reflective thinking three class papers of students in which they describe their thinking. The examples range from the everyday to the scientific.

Transit : “The other day, when I was down town on 16th Street, a clock caught my eye. I saw that the hands pointed to 12:20. This suggested that I had an engagement at 124th Street, at one o’clock. I reasoned that as it had taken me an hour to come down on a surface car, I should probably be twenty minutes late if I returned the same way. I might save twenty minutes by a subway express. But was there a station near? If not, I might lose more than twenty minutes in looking for one. Then I thought of the elevated, and I saw there was such a line within two blocks. But where was the station? If it were several blocks above or below the street I was on, I should lose time instead of gaining it. My mind went back to the subway express as quicker than the elevated; furthermore, I remembered that it went nearer than the elevated to the part of 124th Street I wished to reach, so that time would be saved at the end of the journey. I concluded in favor of the subway, and reached my destination by one o’clock.” (Dewey 1910: 68–69; 1933: 91–92)

Ferryboat : “Projecting nearly horizontally from the upper deck of the ferryboat on which I daily cross the river is a long white pole, having a gilded ball at its tip. It suggested a flagpole when I first saw it; its color, shape, and gilded ball agreed with this idea, and these reasons seemed to justify me in this belief. But soon difficulties presented themselves. The pole was nearly horizontal, an unusual position for a flagpole; in the next place, there was no pulley, ring, or cord by which to attach a flag; finally, there were elsewhere on the boat two vertical staffs from which flags were occasionally flown. It seemed probable that the pole was not there for flag-flying.

“I then tried to imagine all possible purposes of the pole, and to consider for which of these it was best suited: (a) Possibly it was an ornament. But as all the ferryboats and even the tugboats carried poles, this hypothesis was rejected. (b) Possibly it was the terminal of a wireless telegraph. But the same considerations made this improbable. Besides, the more natural place for such a terminal would be the highest part of the boat, on top of the pilot house. (c) Its purpose might be to point out the direction in which the boat is moving.

“In support of this conclusion, I discovered that the pole was lower than the pilot house, so that the steersman could easily see it. Moreover, the tip was enough higher than the base, so that, from the pilot’s position, it must appear to project far out in front of the boat. Moreover, the pilot being near the front of the boat, he would need some such guide as to its direction. Tugboats would also need poles for such a purpose. This hypothesis was so much more probable than the others that I accepted it. I formed the conclusion that the pole was set up for the purpose of showing the pilot the direction in which the boat pointed, to enable him to steer correctly.” (Dewey 1910: 69–70; 1933: 92–93)

Bubbles : “In washing tumblers in hot soapsuds and placing them mouth downward on a plate, bubbles appeared on the outside of the mouth of the tumblers and then went inside. Why? The presence of bubbles suggests air, which I note must come from inside the tumbler. I see that the soapy water on the plate prevents escape of the air save as it may be caught in bubbles. But why should air leave the tumbler? There was no substance entering to force it out. It must have expanded. It expands by increase of heat, or by decrease of pressure, or both. Could the air have become heated after the tumbler was taken from the hot suds? Clearly not the air that was already entangled in the water. If heated air was the cause, cold air must have entered in transferring the tumblers from the suds to the plate. I test to see if this supposition is true by taking several more tumblers out. Some I shake so as to make sure of entrapping cold air in them. Some I take out holding mouth downward in order to prevent cold air from entering. Bubbles appear on the outside of every one of the former and on none of the latter. I must be right in my inference. Air from the outside must have been expanded by the heat of the tumbler, which explains the appearance of the bubbles on the outside. But why do they then go inside? Cold contracts. The tumbler cooled and also the air inside it. Tension was removed, and hence bubbles appeared inside. To be sure of this, I test by placing a cup of ice on the tumbler while the bubbles are still forming outside. They soon reverse” (Dewey 1910: 70–71; 1933: 93–94).

Dewey (1910, 1933) sprinkles his book with other examples of critical thinking. We will refer to the following.

Weather : A man on a walk notices that it has suddenly become cool, thinks that it is probably going to rain, looks up and sees a dark cloud obscuring the sun, and quickens his steps (1910: 6–10; 1933: 9–13).

Disorder : A man finds his rooms on his return to them in disorder with his belongings thrown about, thinks at first of burglary as an explanation, then thinks of mischievous children as being an alternative explanation, then looks to see whether valuables are missing, and discovers that they are (1910: 82–83; 1933: 166–168).

Typhoid : A physician diagnosing a patient whose conspicuous symptoms suggest typhoid avoids drawing a conclusion until more data are gathered by questioning the patient and by making tests (1910: 85–86; 1933: 170).

Blur : A moving blur catches our eye in the distance, we ask ourselves whether it is a cloud of whirling dust or a tree moving its branches or a man signaling to us, we think of other traits that should be found on each of those possibilities, and we look and see if those traits are found (1910: 102, 108; 1933: 121, 133).

Suction pump : In thinking about the suction pump, the scientist first notes that it will draw water only to a maximum height of 33 feet at sea level and to a lesser maximum height at higher elevations, selects for attention the differing atmospheric pressure at these elevations, sets up experiments in which the air is removed from a vessel containing water (when suction no longer works) and in which the weight of air at various levels is calculated, compares the results of reasoning about the height to which a given weight of air will allow a suction pump to raise water with the observed maximum height at different elevations, and finally assimilates the suction pump to such apparently different phenomena as the siphon and the rising of a balloon (1910: 150–153; 1933: 195–198).

Diamond : A passenger in a car driving in a diamond lane reserved for vehicles with at least one passenger notices that the diamond marks on the pavement are far apart in some places and close together in others. Why? The driver suggests that the reason may be that the diamond marks are not needed where there is a solid double line separating the diamond lane from the adjoining lane, but are needed when there is a dotted single line permitting crossing into the diamond lane. Further observation confirms that the diamonds are close together when a dotted line separates the diamond lane from its neighbour, but otherwise far apart.

Rash : A woman suddenly develops a very itchy red rash on her throat and upper chest. She recently noticed a mark on the back of her right hand, but was not sure whether the mark was a rash or a scrape. She lies down in bed and thinks about what might be causing the rash and what to do about it. About two weeks before, she began taking blood pressure medication that contained a sulfa drug, and the pharmacist had warned her, in view of a previous allergic reaction to a medication containing a sulfa drug, to be on the alert for an allergic reaction; however, she had been taking the medication for two weeks with no such effect. The day before, she began using a new cream on her neck and upper chest; against the new cream as the cause was mark on the back of her hand, which had not been exposed to the cream. She began taking probiotics about a month before. She also recently started new eye drops, but she supposed that manufacturers of eye drops would be careful not to include allergy-causing components in the medication. The rash might be a heat rash, since she recently was sweating profusely from her upper body. Since she is about to go away on a short vacation, where she would not have access to her usual physician, she decides to keep taking the probiotics and using the new eye drops but to discontinue the blood pressure medication and to switch back to the old cream for her neck and upper chest. She forms a plan to consult her regular physician on her return about the blood pressure medication.

Candidate : Although Dewey included no examples of thinking directed at appraising the arguments of others, such thinking has come to be considered a kind of critical thinking. We find an example of such thinking in the performance task on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+), which its sponsoring organization describes as

a performance-based assessment that provides a measure of an institution’s contribution to the development of critical-thinking and written communication skills of its students. (Council for Aid to Education 2017)

A sample task posted on its website requires the test-taker to write a report for public distribution evaluating a fictional candidate’s policy proposals and their supporting arguments, using supplied background documents, with a recommendation on whether to endorse the candidate.

Immediate acceptance of an idea that suggests itself as a solution to a problem (e.g., a possible explanation of an event or phenomenon, an action that seems likely to produce a desired result) is “uncritical thinking, the minimum of reflection” (Dewey 1910: 13). On-going suspension of judgment in the light of doubt about a possible solution is not critical thinking (Dewey 1910: 108). Critique driven by a dogmatically held political or religious ideology is not critical thinking; thus Paulo Freire (1968 [1970]) is using the term (e.g., at 1970: 71, 81, 100, 146) in a more politically freighted sense that includes not only reflection but also revolutionary action against oppression. Derivation of a conclusion from given data using an algorithm is not critical thinking.

What is critical thinking? There are many definitions. Ennis (2016) lists 14 philosophically oriented scholarly definitions and three dictionary definitions. Following Rawls (1971), who distinguished his conception of justice from a utilitarian conception but regarded them as rival conceptions of the same concept, Ennis maintains that the 17 definitions are different conceptions of the same concept. Rawls articulated the shared concept of justice as

a characteristic set of principles for assigning basic rights and duties and for determining… the proper distribution of the benefits and burdens of social cooperation. (Rawls 1971: 5)

Bailin et al. (1999b) claim that, if one considers what sorts of thinking an educator would take not to be critical thinking and what sorts to be critical thinking, one can conclude that educators typically understand critical thinking to have at least three features.

• It is done for the purpose of making up one’s mind about what to believe or do.
• The person engaging in the thinking is trying to fulfill standards of adequacy and accuracy appropriate to the thinking.
• The thinking fulfills the relevant standards to some threshold level.

One could sum up the core concept that involves these three features by saying that critical thinking is careful goal-directed thinking. This core concept seems to apply to all the examples of critical thinking described in the previous section. As for the non-examples, their exclusion depends on construing careful thinking as excluding jumping immediately to conclusions, suspending judgment no matter how strong the evidence, reasoning from an unquestioned ideological or religious perspective, and routinely using an algorithm to answer a question.

If the core of critical thinking is careful goal-directed thinking, conceptions of it can vary according to its presumed scope, its presumed goal, one’s criteria and threshold for being careful, and the thinking component on which one focuses. As to its scope, some conceptions (e.g., Dewey 1910, 1933) restrict it to constructive thinking on the basis of one’s own observations and experiments, others (e.g., Ennis 1962; Fisher & Scriven 1997; Johnson 1992) to appraisal of the products of such thinking. Ennis (1991) and Bailin et al. (1999b) take it to cover both construction and appraisal. As to its goal, some conceptions restrict it to forming a judgment (Dewey 1910, 1933; Lipman 1987; Facione 1990a). Others allow for actions as well as beliefs as the end point of a process of critical thinking (Ennis 1991; Bailin et al. 1999b). As to the criteria and threshold for being careful, definitions vary in the term used to indicate that critical thinking satisfies certain norms: “intellectually disciplined” (Scriven & Paul 1987), “reasonable” (Ennis 1991), “skillful” (Lipman 1987), “skilled” (Fisher & Scriven 1997), “careful” (Bailin & Battersby 2009). Some definitions specify these norms, referring variously to “consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends” (Dewey 1910, 1933); “the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning” (Glaser 1941); “conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication” (Scriven & Paul 1987); the requirement that “it is sensitive to context, relies on criteria, and is self-correcting” (Lipman 1987); “evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations” (Facione 1990a); and “plus-minus considerations of the product in terms of appropriate standards (or criteria)” (Johnson 1992). Stanovich and Stanovich (2010) propose to ground the concept of critical thinking in the concept of rationality, which they understand as combining epistemic rationality (fitting one’s beliefs to the world) and instrumental rationality (optimizing goal fulfillment); a critical thinker, in their view, is someone with “a propensity to override suboptimal responses from the autonomous mind” (2010: 227). These variant specifications of norms for critical thinking are not necessarily incompatible with one another, and in any case presuppose the core notion of thinking carefully. As to the thinking component singled out, some definitions focus on suspension of judgment during the thinking (Dewey 1910; McPeck 1981), others on inquiry while judgment is suspended (Bailin & Battersby 2009, 2021), others on the resulting judgment (Facione 1990a), and still others on responsiveness to reasons (Siegel 1988). Kuhn (2019) takes critical thinking to be more a dialogic practice of advancing and responding to arguments than an individual ability.

In educational contexts, a definition of critical thinking is a “programmatic definition” (Scheffler 1960: 19). It expresses a practical program for achieving an educational goal. For this purpose, a one-sentence formulaic definition is much less useful than articulation of a critical thinking process, with criteria and standards for the kinds of thinking that the process may involve. The real educational goal is recognition, adoption and implementation by students of those criteria and standards. That adoption and implementation in turn consists in acquiring the knowledge, abilities and dispositions of a critical thinker.

Conceptions of critical thinking generally do not include moral integrity as part of the concept. Dewey, for example, took critical thinking to be the ultimate intellectual goal of education, but distinguished it from the development of social cooperation among school children, which he took to be the central moral goal. Ennis (1996, 2011) added to his previous list of critical thinking dispositions a group of dispositions to care about the dignity and worth of every person, which he described as a “correlative” (1996) disposition without which critical thinking would be less valuable and perhaps harmful. An educational program that aimed at developing critical thinking but not the correlative disposition to care about the dignity and worth of every person, he asserted, “would be deficient and perhaps dangerous” (Ennis 1996: 172).

Dewey thought that education for reflective thinking would be of value to both the individual and society; recognition in educational practice of the kinship to the scientific attitude of children’s native curiosity, fertile imagination and love of experimental inquiry “would make for individual happiness and the reduction of social waste” (Dewey 1910: iii). Schools participating in the Eight-Year Study took development of the habit of reflective thinking and skill in solving problems as a means to leading young people to understand, appreciate and live the democratic way of life characteristic of the United States (Aikin 1942: 17–18, 81). Harvey Siegel (1988: 55–61) has offered four considerations in support of adopting critical thinking as an educational ideal. (1) Respect for persons requires that schools and teachers honour students’ demands for reasons and explanations, deal with students honestly, and recognize the need to confront students’ independent judgment; these requirements concern the manner in which teachers treat students. (2) Education has the task of preparing children to be successful adults, a task that requires development of their self-sufficiency. (3) Education should initiate children into the rational traditions in such fields as history, science and mathematics. (4) Education should prepare children to become democratic citizens, which requires reasoned procedures and critical talents and attitudes. To supplement these considerations, Siegel (1988: 62–90) responds to two objections: the ideology objection that adoption of any educational ideal requires a prior ideological commitment and the indoctrination objection that cultivation of critical thinking cannot escape being a form of indoctrination.

Despite the diversity of our 11 examples, one can recognize a common pattern. Dewey analyzed it as consisting of five phases:

• suggestions , in which the mind leaps forward to a possible solution;
• an intellectualization of the difficulty or perplexity into a problem to be solved, a question for which the answer must be sought;
• the use of one suggestion after another as a leading idea, or hypothesis , to initiate and guide observation and other operations in collection of factual material;
• the mental elaboration of the idea or supposition as an idea or supposition ( reasoning , in the sense on which reasoning is a part, not the whole, of inference); and
• testing the hypothesis by overt or imaginative action. (Dewey 1933: 106–107; italics in original)

The process of reflective thinking consisting of these phases would be preceded by a perplexed, troubled or confused situation and followed by a cleared-up, unified, resolved situation (Dewey 1933: 106). The term ‘phases’ replaced the term ‘steps’ (Dewey 1910: 72), thus removing the earlier suggestion of an invariant sequence. Variants of the above analysis appeared in (Dewey 1916: 177) and (Dewey 1938: 101–119).

The variant formulations indicate the difficulty of giving a single logical analysis of such a varied process. The process of critical thinking may have a spiral pattern, with the problem being redefined in the light of obstacles to solving it as originally formulated. For example, the person in Transit might have concluded that getting to the appointment at the scheduled time was impossible and have reformulated the problem as that of rescheduling the appointment for a mutually convenient time. Further, defining a problem does not always follow after or lead immediately to an idea of a suggested solution. Nor should it do so, as Dewey himself recognized in describing the physician in Typhoid as avoiding any strong preference for this or that conclusion before getting further information (Dewey 1910: 85; 1933: 170). People with a hypothesis in mind, even one to which they have a very weak commitment, have a so-called “confirmation bias” (Nickerson 1998): they are likely to pay attention to evidence that confirms the hypothesis and to ignore evidence that counts against it or for some competing hypothesis. Detectives, intelligence agencies, and investigators of airplane accidents are well advised to gather relevant evidence systematically and to postpone even tentative adoption of an explanatory hypothesis until the collected evidence rules out with the appropriate degree of certainty all but one explanation. Dewey’s analysis of the critical thinking process can be faulted as well for requiring acceptance or rejection of a possible solution to a defined problem, with no allowance for deciding in the light of the available evidence to suspend judgment. Further, given the great variety of kinds of problems for which reflection is appropriate, there is likely to be variation in its component events. Perhaps the best way to conceptualize the critical thinking process is as a checklist whose component events can occur in a variety of orders, selectively, and more than once. These component events might include (1) noticing a difficulty, (2) defining the problem, (3) dividing the problem into manageable sub-problems, (4) formulating a variety of possible solutions to the problem or sub-problem, (5) determining what evidence is relevant to deciding among possible solutions to the problem or sub-problem, (6) devising a plan of systematic observation or experiment that will uncover the relevant evidence, (7) carrying out the plan of systematic observation or experimentation, (8) noting the results of the systematic observation or experiment, (9) gathering relevant testimony and information from others, (10) judging the credibility of testimony and information gathered from others, (11) drawing conclusions from gathered evidence and accepted testimony, and (12) accepting a solution that the evidence adequately supports (cf. Hitchcock 2017: 485).

Checklist conceptions of the process of critical thinking are open to the objection that they are too mechanical and procedural to fit the multi-dimensional and emotionally charged issues for which critical thinking is urgently needed (Paul 1984). For such issues, a more dialectical process is advocated, in which competing relevant world views are identified, their implications explored, and some sort of creative synthesis attempted.

If one considers the critical thinking process illustrated by the 11 examples, one can identify distinct kinds of mental acts and mental states that form part of it. To distinguish, label and briefly characterize these components is a useful preliminary to identifying abilities, skills, dispositions, attitudes, habits and the like that contribute causally to thinking critically. Identifying such abilities and habits is in turn a useful preliminary to setting educational goals. Setting the goals is in its turn a useful preliminary to designing strategies for helping learners to achieve the goals and to designing ways of measuring the extent to which learners have done so. Such measures provide both feedback to learners on their achievement and a basis for experimental research on the effectiveness of various strategies for educating people to think critically. Let us begin, then, by distinguishing the kinds of mental acts and mental events that can occur in a critical thinking process.

• Observing : One notices something in one’s immediate environment (sudden cooling of temperature in Weather , bubbles forming outside a glass and then going inside in Bubbles , a moving blur in the distance in Blur , a rash in Rash ). Or one notes the results of an experiment or systematic observation (valuables missing in Disorder , no suction without air pressure in Suction pump )
• Feeling : One feels puzzled or uncertain about something (how to get to an appointment on time in Transit , why the diamonds vary in spacing in Diamond ). One wants to resolve this perplexity. One feels satisfaction once one has worked out an answer (to take the subway express in Transit , diamonds closer when needed as a warning in Diamond ).
• Wondering : One formulates a question to be addressed (why bubbles form outside a tumbler taken from hot water in Bubbles , how suction pumps work in Suction pump , what caused the rash in Rash ).
• Imagining : One thinks of possible answers (bus or subway or elevated in Transit , flagpole or ornament or wireless communication aid or direction indicator in Ferryboat , allergic reaction or heat rash in Rash ).
• Inferring : One works out what would be the case if a possible answer were assumed (valuables missing if there has been a burglary in Disorder , earlier start to the rash if it is an allergic reaction to a sulfa drug in Rash ). Or one draws a conclusion once sufficient relevant evidence is gathered (take the subway in Transit , burglary in Disorder , discontinue blood pressure medication and new cream in Rash ).
• Knowledge : One uses stored knowledge of the subject-matter to generate possible answers or to infer what would be expected on the assumption of a particular answer (knowledge of a city’s public transit system in Transit , of the requirements for a flagpole in Ferryboat , of Boyle’s law in Bubbles , of allergic reactions in Rash ).
• Experimenting : One designs and carries out an experiment or a systematic observation to find out whether the results deduced from a possible answer will occur (looking at the location of the flagpole in relation to the pilot’s position in Ferryboat , putting an ice cube on top of a tumbler taken from hot water in Bubbles , measuring the height to which a suction pump will draw water at different elevations in Suction pump , noticing the spacing of diamonds when movement to or from a diamond lane is allowed in Diamond ).
• Consulting : One finds a source of information, gets the information from the source, and makes a judgment on whether to accept it. None of our 11 examples include searching for sources of information. In this respect they are unrepresentative, since most people nowadays have almost instant access to information relevant to answering any question, including many of those illustrated by the examples. However, Candidate includes the activities of extracting information from sources and evaluating its credibility.
• Identifying and analyzing arguments : One notices an argument and works out its structure and content as a preliminary to evaluating its strength. This activity is central to Candidate . It is an important part of a critical thinking process in which one surveys arguments for various positions on an issue.
• Judging : One makes a judgment on the basis of accumulated evidence and reasoning, such as the judgment in Ferryboat that the purpose of the pole is to provide direction to the pilot.
• Deciding : One makes a decision on what to do or on what policy to adopt, as in the decision in Transit to take the subway.

By definition, a person who does something voluntarily is both willing and able to do that thing at that time. Both the willingness and the ability contribute causally to the person’s action, in the sense that the voluntary action would not occur if either (or both) of these were lacking. For example, suppose that one is standing with one’s arms at one’s sides and one voluntarily lifts one’s right arm to an extended horizontal position. One would not do so if one were unable to lift one’s arm, if for example one’s right side was paralyzed as the result of a stroke. Nor would one do so if one were unwilling to lift one’s arm, if for example one were participating in a street demonstration at which a white supremacist was urging the crowd to lift their right arm in a Nazi salute and one were unwilling to express support in this way for the racist Nazi ideology. The same analysis applies to a voluntary mental process of thinking critically. It requires both willingness and ability to think critically, including willingness and ability to perform each of the mental acts that compose the process and to coordinate those acts in a sequence that is directed at resolving the initiating perplexity.

Consider willingness first. We can identify causal contributors to willingness to think critically by considering factors that would cause a person who was able to think critically about an issue nevertheless not to do so (Hamby 2014). For each factor, the opposite condition thus contributes causally to willingness to think critically on a particular occasion. For example, people who habitually jump to conclusions without considering alternatives will not think critically about issues that arise, even if they have the required abilities. The contrary condition of willingness to suspend judgment is thus a causal contributor to thinking critically.

Now consider ability. In contrast to the ability to move one’s arm, which can be completely absent because a stroke has left the arm paralyzed, the ability to think critically is a developed ability, whose absence is not a complete absence of ability to think but absence of ability to think well. We can identify the ability to think well directly, in terms of the norms and standards for good thinking. In general, to be able do well the thinking activities that can be components of a critical thinking process, one needs to know the concepts and principles that characterize their good performance, to recognize in particular cases that the concepts and principles apply, and to apply them. The knowledge, recognition and application may be procedural rather than declarative. It may be domain-specific rather than widely applicable, and in either case may need subject-matter knowledge, sometimes of a deep kind.

Reflections of the sort illustrated by the previous two paragraphs have led scholars to identify the knowledge, abilities and dispositions of a “critical thinker”, i.e., someone who thinks critically whenever it is appropriate to do so. We turn now to these three types of causal contributors to thinking critically. We start with dispositions, since arguably these are the most powerful contributors to being a critical thinker, can be fostered at an early stage of a child’s development, and are susceptible to general improvement (Glaser 1941: 175)

8. Critical Thinking Dispositions

Educational researchers use the term ‘dispositions’ broadly for the habits of mind and attitudes that contribute causally to being a critical thinker. Some writers (e.g., Paul & Elder 2006; Hamby 2014; Bailin & Battersby 2016a) propose to use the term ‘virtues’ for this dimension of a critical thinker. The virtues in question, although they are virtues of character, concern the person’s ways of thinking rather than the person’s ways of behaving towards others. They are not moral virtues but intellectual virtues, of the sort articulated by Zagzebski (1996) and discussed by Turri, Alfano, and Greco (2017).

On a realistic conception, thinking dispositions or intellectual virtues are real properties of thinkers. They are general tendencies, propensities, or inclinations to think in particular ways in particular circumstances, and can be genuinely explanatory (Siegel 1999). Sceptics argue that there is no evidence for a specific mental basis for the habits of mind that contribute to thinking critically, and that it is pedagogically misleading to posit such a basis (Bailin et al. 1999a). Whatever their status, critical thinking dispositions need motivation for their initial formation in a child—motivation that may be external or internal. As children develop, the force of habit will gradually become important in sustaining the disposition (Nieto & Valenzuela 2012). Mere force of habit, however, is unlikely to sustain critical thinking dispositions. Critical thinkers must value and enjoy using their knowledge and abilities to think things through for themselves. They must be committed to, and lovers of, inquiry.

A person may have a critical thinking disposition with respect to only some kinds of issues. For example, one could be open-minded about scientific issues but not about religious issues. Similarly, one could be confident in one’s ability to reason about the theological implications of the existence of evil in the world but not in one’s ability to reason about the best design for a guided ballistic missile.

Facione (1990a: 25) divides “affective dispositions” of critical thinking into approaches to life and living in general and approaches to specific issues, questions or problems. Adapting this distinction, one can usefully divide critical thinking dispositions into initiating dispositions (those that contribute causally to starting to think critically about an issue) and internal dispositions (those that contribute causally to doing a good job of thinking critically once one has started). The two categories are not mutually exclusive. For example, open-mindedness, in the sense of willingness to consider alternative points of view to one’s own, is both an initiating and an internal disposition.

Using the strategy of considering factors that would block people with the ability to think critically from doing so, we can identify as initiating dispositions for thinking critically attentiveness, a habit of inquiry, self-confidence, courage, open-mindedness, willingness to suspend judgment, trust in reason, wanting evidence for one’s beliefs, and seeking the truth. We consider briefly what each of these dispositions amounts to, in each case citing sources that acknowledge them.

• Attentiveness : One will not think critically if one fails to recognize an issue that needs to be thought through. For example, the pedestrian in Weather would not have looked up if he had not noticed that the air was suddenly cooler. To be a critical thinker, then, one needs to be habitually attentive to one’s surroundings, noticing not only what one senses but also sources of perplexity in messages received and in one’s own beliefs and attitudes (Facione 1990a: 25; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001).
• Habit of inquiry : Inquiry is effortful, and one needs an internal push to engage in it. For example, the student in Bubbles could easily have stopped at idle wondering about the cause of the bubbles rather than reasoning to a hypothesis, then designing and executing an experiment to test it. Thus willingness to think critically needs mental energy and initiative. What can supply that energy? Love of inquiry, or perhaps just a habit of inquiry. Hamby (2015) has argued that willingness to inquire is the central critical thinking virtue, one that encompasses all the others. It is recognized as a critical thinking disposition by Dewey (1910: 29; 1933: 35), Glaser (1941: 5), Ennis (1987: 12; 1991: 8), Facione (1990a: 25), Bailin et al. (1999b: 294), Halpern (1998: 452), and Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo (2001).
• Self-confidence : Lack of confidence in one’s abilities can block critical thinking. For example, if the woman in Rash lacked confidence in her ability to figure things out for herself, she might just have assumed that the rash on her chest was the allergic reaction to her medication against which the pharmacist had warned her. Thus willingness to think critically requires confidence in one’s ability to inquire (Facione 1990a: 25; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001).
• Courage : Fear of thinking for oneself can stop one from doing it. Thus willingness to think critically requires intellectual courage (Paul & Elder 2006: 16).
• Open-mindedness : A dogmatic attitude will impede thinking critically. For example, a person who adheres rigidly to a “pro-choice” position on the issue of the legal status of induced abortion is likely to be unwilling to consider seriously the issue of when in its development an unborn child acquires a moral right to life. Thus willingness to think critically requires open-mindedness, in the sense of a willingness to examine questions to which one already accepts an answer but which further evidence or reasoning might cause one to answer differently (Dewey 1933; Facione 1990a; Ennis 1991; Bailin et al. 1999b; Halpern 1998, Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001). Paul (1981) emphasizes open-mindedness about alternative world-views, and recommends a dialectical approach to integrating such views as central to what he calls “strong sense” critical thinking. In three studies, Haran, Ritov, & Mellers (2013) found that actively open-minded thinking, including “the tendency to weigh new evidence against a favored belief, to spend sufficient time on a problem before giving up, and to consider carefully the opinions of others in forming one’s own”, led study participants to acquire information and thus to make accurate estimations.
• Willingness to suspend judgment : Premature closure on an initial solution will block critical thinking. Thus willingness to think critically requires a willingness to suspend judgment while alternatives are explored (Facione 1990a; Ennis 1991; Halpern 1998).
• Trust in reason : Since distrust in the processes of reasoned inquiry will dissuade one from engaging in it, trust in them is an initiating critical thinking disposition (Facione 1990a, 25; Bailin et al. 1999b: 294; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001; Paul & Elder 2006). In reaction to an allegedly exclusive emphasis on reason in critical thinking theory and pedagogy, Thayer-Bacon (2000) argues that intuition, imagination, and emotion have important roles to play in an adequate conception of critical thinking that she calls “constructive thinking”. From her point of view, critical thinking requires trust not only in reason but also in intuition, imagination, and emotion.
• Seeking the truth : If one does not care about the truth but is content to stick with one’s initial bias on an issue, then one will not think critically about it. Seeking the truth is thus an initiating critical thinking disposition (Bailin et al. 1999b: 294; Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo 2001). A disposition to seek the truth is implicit in more specific critical thinking dispositions, such as trying to be well-informed, considering seriously points of view other than one’s own, looking for alternatives, suspending judgment when the evidence is insufficient, and adopting a position when the evidence supporting it is sufficient.

Some of the initiating dispositions, such as open-mindedness and willingness to suspend judgment, are also internal critical thinking dispositions, in the sense of mental habits or attitudes that contribute causally to doing a good job of critical thinking once one starts the process. But there are many other internal critical thinking dispositions. Some of them are parasitic on one’s conception of good thinking. For example, it is constitutive of good thinking about an issue to formulate the issue clearly and to maintain focus on it. For this purpose, one needs not only the corresponding ability but also the corresponding disposition. Ennis (1991: 8) describes it as the disposition “to determine and maintain focus on the conclusion or question”, Facione (1990a: 25) as “clarity in stating the question or concern”. Other internal dispositions are motivators to continue or adjust the critical thinking process, such as willingness to persist in a complex task and willingness to abandon nonproductive strategies in an attempt to self-correct (Halpern 1998: 452). For a list of identified internal critical thinking dispositions, see the Supplement on Internal Critical Thinking Dispositions .

Some theorists postulate skills, i.e., acquired abilities, as operative in critical thinking. It is not obvious, however, that a good mental act is the exercise of a generic acquired skill. Inferring an expected time of arrival, as in Transit , has some generic components but also uses non-generic subject-matter knowledge. Bailin et al. (1999a) argue against viewing critical thinking skills as generic and discrete, on the ground that skilled performance at a critical thinking task cannot be separated from knowledge of concepts and from domain-specific principles of good thinking. Talk of skills, they concede, is unproblematic if it means merely that a person with critical thinking skills is capable of intelligent performance.

Despite such scepticism, theorists of critical thinking have listed as general contributors to critical thinking what they variously call abilities (Glaser 1941; Ennis 1962, 1991), skills (Facione 1990a; Halpern 1998) or competencies (Fisher & Scriven 1997). Amalgamating these lists would produce a confusing and chaotic cornucopia of more than 50 possible educational objectives, with only partial overlap among them. It makes sense instead to try to understand the reasons for the multiplicity and diversity, and to make a selection according to one’s own reasons for singling out abilities to be developed in a critical thinking curriculum. Two reasons for diversity among lists of critical thinking abilities are the underlying conception of critical thinking and the envisaged educational level. Appraisal-only conceptions, for example, involve a different suite of abilities than constructive-only conceptions. Some lists, such as those in (Glaser 1941), are put forward as educational objectives for secondary school students, whereas others are proposed as objectives for college students (e.g., Facione 1990a).

The abilities described in the remaining paragraphs of this section emerge from reflection on the general abilities needed to do well the thinking activities identified in section 6 as components of the critical thinking process described in section 5 . The derivation of each collection of abilities is accompanied by citation of sources that list such abilities and of standardized tests that claim to test them.

Observational abilities : Careful and accurate observation sometimes requires specialist expertise and practice, as in the case of observing birds and observing accident scenes. However, there are general abilities of noticing what one’s senses are picking up from one’s environment and of being able to articulate clearly and accurately to oneself and others what one has observed. It helps in exercising them to be able to recognize and take into account factors that make one’s observation less trustworthy, such as prior framing of the situation, inadequate time, deficient senses, poor observation conditions, and the like. It helps as well to be skilled at taking steps to make one’s observation more trustworthy, such as moving closer to get a better look, measuring something three times and taking the average, and checking what one thinks one is observing with someone else who is in a good position to observe it. It also helps to be skilled at recognizing respects in which one’s report of one’s observation involves inference rather than direct observation, so that one can then consider whether the inference is justified. These abilities come into play as well when one thinks about whether and with what degree of confidence to accept an observation report, for example in the study of history or in a criminal investigation or in assessing news reports. Observational abilities show up in some lists of critical thinking abilities (Ennis 1962: 90; Facione 1990a: 16; Ennis 1991: 9). There are items testing a person’s ability to judge the credibility of observation reports in the Cornell Critical Thinking Tests, Levels X and Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005). Norris and King (1983, 1985, 1990a, 1990b) is a test of ability to appraise observation reports.

Emotional abilities : The emotions that drive a critical thinking process are perplexity or puzzlement, a wish to resolve it, and satisfaction at achieving the desired resolution. Children experience these emotions at an early age, without being trained to do so. Education that takes critical thinking as a goal needs only to channel these emotions and to make sure not to stifle them. Collaborative critical thinking benefits from ability to recognize one’s own and others’ emotional commitments and reactions.

Questioning abilities : A critical thinking process needs transformation of an inchoate sense of perplexity into a clear question. Formulating a question well requires not building in questionable assumptions, not prejudging the issue, and using language that in context is unambiguous and precise enough (Ennis 1962: 97; 1991: 9).

Imaginative abilities : Thinking directed at finding the correct causal explanation of a general phenomenon or particular event requires an ability to imagine possible explanations. Thinking about what policy or plan of action to adopt requires generation of options and consideration of possible consequences of each option. Domain knowledge is required for such creative activity, but a general ability to imagine alternatives is helpful and can be nurtured so as to become easier, quicker, more extensive, and deeper (Dewey 1910: 34–39; 1933: 40–47). Facione (1990a) and Halpern (1998) include the ability to imagine alternatives as a critical thinking ability.

Inferential abilities : The ability to draw conclusions from given information, and to recognize with what degree of certainty one’s own or others’ conclusions follow, is universally recognized as a general critical thinking ability. All 11 examples in section 2 of this article include inferences, some from hypotheses or options (as in Transit , Ferryboat and Disorder ), others from something observed (as in Weather and Rash ). None of these inferences is formally valid. Rather, they are licensed by general, sometimes qualified substantive rules of inference (Toulmin 1958) that rest on domain knowledge—that a bus trip takes about the same time in each direction, that the terminal of a wireless telegraph would be located on the highest possible place, that sudden cooling is often followed by rain, that an allergic reaction to a sulfa drug generally shows up soon after one starts taking it. It is a matter of controversy to what extent the specialized ability to deduce conclusions from premisses using formal rules of inference is needed for critical thinking. Dewey (1933) locates logical forms in setting out the products of reflection rather than in the process of reflection. Ennis (1981a), on the other hand, maintains that a liberally-educated person should have the following abilities: to translate natural-language statements into statements using the standard logical operators, to use appropriately the language of necessary and sufficient conditions, to deal with argument forms and arguments containing symbols, to determine whether in virtue of an argument’s form its conclusion follows necessarily from its premisses, to reason with logically complex propositions, and to apply the rules and procedures of deductive logic. Inferential abilities are recognized as critical thinking abilities by Glaser (1941: 6), Facione (1990a: 9), Ennis (1991: 9), Fisher & Scriven (1997: 99, 111), and Halpern (1998: 452). Items testing inferential abilities constitute two of the five subtests of the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (Watson & Glaser 1980a, 1980b, 1994), two of the four sections in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005), three of the seven sections in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005), 11 of the 34 items on Forms A and B of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Facione 1990b, 1992), and a high but variable proportion of the 25 selected-response questions in the Collegiate Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017).

Experimenting abilities : Knowing how to design and execute an experiment is important not just in scientific research but also in everyday life, as in Rash . Dewey devoted a whole chapter of his How We Think (1910: 145–156; 1933: 190–202) to the superiority of experimentation over observation in advancing knowledge. Experimenting abilities come into play at one remove in appraising reports of scientific studies. Skill in designing and executing experiments includes the acknowledged abilities to appraise evidence (Glaser 1941: 6), to carry out experiments and to apply appropriate statistical inference techniques (Facione 1990a: 9), to judge inductions to an explanatory hypothesis (Ennis 1991: 9), and to recognize the need for an adequately large sample size (Halpern 1998). The Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005) includes four items (out of 52) on experimental design. The Collegiate Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017) makes room for appraisal of study design in both its performance task and its selected-response questions.

Consulting abilities : Skill at consulting sources of information comes into play when one seeks information to help resolve a problem, as in Candidate . Ability to find and appraise information includes ability to gather and marshal pertinent information (Glaser 1941: 6), to judge whether a statement made by an alleged authority is acceptable (Ennis 1962: 84), to plan a search for desired information (Facione 1990a: 9), and to judge the credibility of a source (Ennis 1991: 9). Ability to judge the credibility of statements is tested by 24 items (out of 76) in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005) and by four items (out of 52) in the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z (Ennis & Millman 1971; Ennis, Millman, & Tomko 1985, 2005). The College Learning Assessment’s performance task requires evaluation of whether information in documents is credible or unreliable (Council for Aid to Education 2017).

Argument analysis abilities : The ability to identify and analyze arguments contributes to the process of surveying arguments on an issue in order to form one’s own reasoned judgment, as in Candidate . The ability to detect and analyze arguments is recognized as a critical thinking skill by Facione (1990a: 7–8), Ennis (1991: 9) and Halpern (1998). Five items (out of 34) on the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (Facione 1990b, 1992) test skill at argument analysis. The College Learning Assessment (Council for Aid to Education 2017) incorporates argument analysis in its selected-response tests of critical reading and evaluation and of critiquing an argument.

Judging skills and deciding skills : Skill at judging and deciding is skill at recognizing what judgment or decision the available evidence and argument supports, and with what degree of confidence. It is thus a component of the inferential skills already discussed.

Lists and tests of critical thinking abilities often include two more abilities: identifying assumptions and constructing and evaluating definitions.

In addition to dispositions and abilities, critical thinking needs knowledge: of critical thinking concepts, of critical thinking principles, and of the subject-matter of the thinking.

We can derive a short list of concepts whose understanding contributes to critical thinking from the critical thinking abilities described in the preceding section. Observational abilities require an understanding of the difference between observation and inference. Questioning abilities require an understanding of the concepts of ambiguity and vagueness. Inferential abilities require an understanding of the difference between conclusive and defeasible inference (traditionally, between deduction and induction), as well as of the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions. Experimenting abilities require an understanding of the concepts of hypothesis, null hypothesis, assumption and prediction, as well as of the concept of statistical significance and of its difference from importance. They also require an understanding of the difference between an experiment and an observational study, and in particular of the difference between a randomized controlled trial, a prospective correlational study and a retrospective (case-control) study. Argument analysis abilities require an understanding of the concepts of argument, premiss, assumption, conclusion and counter-consideration. Additional critical thinking concepts are proposed by Bailin et al. (1999b: 293), Fisher & Scriven (1997: 105–106), Black (2012), and Blair (2021).

According to Glaser (1941: 25), ability to think critically requires knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning. If we review the list of abilities in the preceding section, however, we can see that some of them can be acquired and exercised merely through practice, possibly guided in an educational setting, followed by feedback. Searching intelligently for a causal explanation of some phenomenon or event requires that one consider a full range of possible causal contributors, but it seems more important that one implements this principle in one’s practice than that one is able to articulate it. What is important is “operational knowledge” of the standards and principles of good thinking (Bailin et al. 1999b: 291–293). But the development of such critical thinking abilities as designing an experiment or constructing an operational definition can benefit from learning their underlying theory. Further, explicit knowledge of quirks of human thinking seems useful as a cautionary guide. Human memory is not just fallible about details, as people learn from their own experiences of misremembering, but is so malleable that a detailed, clear and vivid recollection of an event can be a total fabrication (Loftus 2017). People seek or interpret evidence in ways that are partial to their existing beliefs and expectations, often unconscious of their “confirmation bias” (Nickerson 1998). Not only are people subject to this and other cognitive biases (Kahneman 2011), of which they are typically unaware, but it may be counter-productive for one to make oneself aware of them and try consciously to counteract them or to counteract social biases such as racial or sexual stereotypes (Kenyon & Beaulac 2014). It is helpful to be aware of these facts and of the superior effectiveness of blocking the operation of biases—for example, by making an immediate record of one’s observations, refraining from forming a preliminary explanatory hypothesis, blind refereeing, double-blind randomized trials, and blind grading of students’ work. It is also helpful to be aware of the prevalence of “noise” (unwanted unsystematic variability of judgments), of how to detect noise (through a noise audit), and of how to reduce noise: make accuracy the goal, think statistically, break a process of arriving at a judgment into independent tasks, resist premature intuitions, in a group get independent judgments first, favour comparative judgments and scales (Kahneman, Sibony, & Sunstein 2021). It is helpful as well to be aware of the concept of “bounded rationality” in decision-making and of the related distinction between “satisficing” and optimizing (Simon 1956; Gigerenzer 2001).

Critical thinking about an issue requires substantive knowledge of the domain to which the issue belongs. Critical thinking abilities are not a magic elixir that can be applied to any issue whatever by somebody who has no knowledge of the facts relevant to exploring that issue. For example, the student in Bubbles needed to know that gases do not penetrate solid objects like a glass, that air expands when heated, that the volume of an enclosed gas varies directly with its temperature and inversely with its pressure, and that hot objects will spontaneously cool down to the ambient temperature of their surroundings unless kept hot by insulation or a source of heat. Critical thinkers thus need a rich fund of subject-matter knowledge relevant to the variety of situations they encounter. This fact is recognized in the inclusion among critical thinking dispositions of a concern to become and remain generally well informed.

Experimental educational interventions, with control groups, have shown that education can improve critical thinking skills and dispositions, as measured by standardized tests. For information about these tests, see the Supplement on Assessment .

What educational methods are most effective at developing the dispositions, abilities and knowledge of a critical thinker? In a comprehensive meta-analysis of experimental and quasi-experimental studies of strategies for teaching students to think critically, Abrami et al. (2015) found that dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring each increased the effectiveness of the educational intervention, and that they were most effective when combined. They also found that in these studies a combination of separate instruction in critical thinking with subject-matter instruction in which students are encouraged to think critically was more effective than either by itself. However, the difference was not statistically significant; that is, it might have arisen by chance.

Most of these studies lack the longitudinal follow-up required to determine whether the observed differential improvements in critical thinking abilities or dispositions continue over time, for example until high school or college graduation. For details on studies of methods of developing critical thinking skills and dispositions, see the Supplement on Educational Methods .

12. Controversies

Scholars have denied the generalizability of critical thinking abilities across subject domains, have alleged bias in critical thinking theory and pedagogy, and have investigated the relationship of critical thinking to other kinds of thinking.

McPeck (1981) attacked the thinking skills movement of the 1970s, including the critical thinking movement. He argued that there are no general thinking skills, since thinking is always thinking about some subject-matter. It is futile, he claimed, for schools and colleges to teach thinking as if it were a separate subject. Rather, teachers should lead their pupils to become autonomous thinkers by teaching school subjects in a way that brings out their cognitive structure and that encourages and rewards discussion and argument. As some of his critics (e.g., Paul 1985; Siegel 1985) pointed out, McPeck’s central argument needs elaboration, since it has obvious counter-examples in writing and speaking, for which (up to a certain level of complexity) there are teachable general abilities even though they are always about some subject-matter. To make his argument convincing, McPeck needs to explain how thinking differs from writing and speaking in a way that does not permit useful abstraction of its components from the subject-matters with which it deals. He has not done so. Nevertheless, his position that the dispositions and abilities of a critical thinker are best developed in the context of subject-matter instruction is shared by many theorists of critical thinking, including Dewey (1910, 1933), Glaser (1941), Passmore (1980), Weinstein (1990), Bailin et al. (1999b), and Willingham (2019).

McPeck’s challenge prompted reflection on the extent to which critical thinking is subject-specific. McPeck argued for a strong subject-specificity thesis, according to which it is a conceptual truth that all critical thinking abilities are specific to a subject. (He did not however extend his subject-specificity thesis to critical thinking dispositions. In particular, he took the disposition to suspend judgment in situations of cognitive dissonance to be a general disposition.) Conceptual subject-specificity is subject to obvious counter-examples, such as the general ability to recognize confusion of necessary and sufficient conditions. A more modest thesis, also endorsed by McPeck, is epistemological subject-specificity, according to which the norms of good thinking vary from one field to another. Epistemological subject-specificity clearly holds to a certain extent; for example, the principles in accordance with which one solves a differential equation are quite different from the principles in accordance with which one determines whether a painting is a genuine Picasso. But the thesis suffers, as Ennis (1989) points out, from vagueness of the concept of a field or subject and from the obvious existence of inter-field principles, however broadly the concept of a field is construed. For example, the principles of hypothetico-deductive reasoning hold for all the varied fields in which such reasoning occurs. A third kind of subject-specificity is empirical subject-specificity, according to which as a matter of empirically observable fact a person with the abilities and dispositions of a critical thinker in one area of investigation will not necessarily have them in another area of investigation.

The thesis of empirical subject-specificity raises the general problem of transfer. If critical thinking abilities and dispositions have to be developed independently in each school subject, how are they of any use in dealing with the problems of everyday life and the political and social issues of contemporary society, most of which do not fit into the framework of a traditional school subject? Proponents of empirical subject-specificity tend to argue that transfer is more likely to occur if there is critical thinking instruction in a variety of domains, with explicit attention to dispositions and abilities that cut across domains. But evidence for this claim is scanty. There is a need for well-designed empirical studies that investigate the conditions that make transfer more likely.

It is common ground in debates about the generality or subject-specificity of critical thinking dispositions and abilities that critical thinking about any topic requires background knowledge about the topic. For example, the most sophisticated understanding of the principles of hypothetico-deductive reasoning is of no help unless accompanied by some knowledge of what might be plausible explanations of some phenomenon under investigation.

Critics have objected to bias in the theory, pedagogy and practice of critical thinking. Commentators (e.g., Alston 1995; Ennis 1998) have noted that anyone who takes a position has a bias in the neutral sense of being inclined in one direction rather than others. The critics, however, are objecting to bias in the pejorative sense of an unjustified favoring of certain ways of knowing over others, frequently alleging that the unjustly favoured ways are those of a dominant sex or culture (Bailin 1995). These ways favour:

• reinforcement of egocentric and sociocentric biases over dialectical engagement with opposing world-views (Paul 1981, 1984; Warren 1998)
• distancing from the object of inquiry over closeness to it (Martin 1992; Thayer-Bacon 1992)
• indifference to the situation of others over care for them (Martin 1992)
• orientation to thought over orientation to action (Martin 1992)
• being reasonable over caring to understand people’s ideas (Thayer-Bacon 1993)
• being neutral and objective over being embodied and situated (Thayer-Bacon 1995a)
• doubting over believing (Thayer-Bacon 1995b)
• reason over emotion, imagination and intuition (Thayer-Bacon 2000)
• solitary thinking over collaborative thinking (Thayer-Bacon 2000)
• written and spoken assignments over other forms of expression (Alston 2001)
• attention to written and spoken communications over attention to human problems (Alston 2001)
• winning debates in the public sphere over making and understanding meaning (Alston 2001)

A common thread in this smorgasbord of accusations is dissatisfaction with focusing on the logical analysis and evaluation of reasoning and arguments. While these authors acknowledge that such analysis and evaluation is part of critical thinking and should be part of its conceptualization and pedagogy, they insist that it is only a part. Paul (1981), for example, bemoans the tendency of atomistic teaching of methods of analyzing and evaluating arguments to turn students into more able sophists, adept at finding fault with positions and arguments with which they disagree but even more entrenched in the egocentric and sociocentric biases with which they began. Martin (1992) and Thayer-Bacon (1992) cite with approval the self-reported intimacy with their subject-matter of leading researchers in biology and medicine, an intimacy that conflicts with the distancing allegedly recommended in standard conceptions and pedagogy of critical thinking. Thayer-Bacon (2000) contrasts the embodied and socially embedded learning of her elementary school students in a Montessori school, who used their imagination, intuition and emotions as well as their reason, with conceptions of critical thinking as

thinking that is used to critique arguments, offer justifications, and make judgments about what are the good reasons, or the right answers. (Thayer-Bacon 2000: 127–128)

Alston (2001) reports that her students in a women’s studies class were able to see the flaws in the Cinderella myth that pervades much romantic fiction but in their own romantic relationships still acted as if all failures were the woman’s fault and still accepted the notions of love at first sight and living happily ever after. Students, she writes, should

be able to connect their intellectual critique to a more affective, somatic, and ethical account of making risky choices that have sexist, racist, classist, familial, sexual, or other consequences for themselves and those both near and far… critical thinking that reads arguments, texts, or practices merely on the surface without connections to feeling/desiring/doing or action lacks an ethical depth that should infuse the difference between mere cognitive activity and something we want to call critical thinking. (Alston 2001: 34)

Some critics portray such biases as unfair to women. Thayer-Bacon (1992), for example, has charged modern critical thinking theory with being sexist, on the ground that it separates the self from the object and causes one to lose touch with one’s inner voice, and thus stigmatizes women, who (she asserts) link self to object and listen to their inner voice. Her charge does not imply that women as a group are on average less able than men to analyze and evaluate arguments. Facione (1990c) found no difference by sex in performance on his California Critical Thinking Skills Test. Kuhn (1991: 280–281) found no difference by sex in either the disposition or the competence to engage in argumentative thinking.

The critics propose a variety of remedies for the biases that they allege. In general, they do not propose to eliminate or downplay critical thinking as an educational goal. Rather, they propose to conceptualize critical thinking differently and to change its pedagogy accordingly. Their pedagogical proposals arise logically from their objections. They can be summarized as follows:

• Focus on argument networks with dialectical exchanges reflecting contesting points of view rather than on atomic arguments, so as to develop “strong sense” critical thinking that transcends egocentric and sociocentric biases (Paul 1981, 1984).
• Foster closeness to the subject-matter and feeling connected to others in order to inform a humane democracy (Martin 1992).
• Develop “constructive thinking” as a social activity in a community of physically embodied and socially embedded inquirers with personal voices who value not only reason but also imagination, intuition and emotion (Thayer-Bacon 2000).
• In developing critical thinking in school subjects, treat as important neither skills nor dispositions but opening worlds of meaning (Alston 2001).
• Attend to the development of critical thinking dispositions as well as skills, and adopt the “critical pedagogy” practised and advocated by Freire (1968 [1970]) and hooks (1994) (Dalgleish, Girard, & Davies 2017).

A common thread in these proposals is treatment of critical thinking as a social, interactive, personally engaged activity like that of a quilting bee or a barn-raising (Thayer-Bacon 2000) rather than as an individual, solitary, distanced activity symbolized by Rodin’s The Thinker . One can get a vivid description of education with the former type of goal from the writings of bell hooks (1994, 2010). Critical thinking for her is open-minded dialectical exchange across opposing standpoints and from multiple perspectives, a conception similar to Paul’s “strong sense” critical thinking (Paul 1981). She abandons the structure of domination in the traditional classroom. In an introductory course on black women writers, for example, she assigns students to write an autobiographical paragraph about an early racial memory, then to read it aloud as the others listen, thus affirming the uniqueness and value of each voice and creating a communal awareness of the diversity of the group’s experiences (hooks 1994: 84). Her “engaged pedagogy” is thus similar to the “freedom under guidance” implemented in John Dewey’s Laboratory School of Chicago in the late 1890s and early 1900s. It incorporates the dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring that Abrami (2015) found to be most effective in improving critical thinking skills and dispositions.

What is the relationship of critical thinking to problem solving, decision-making, higher-order thinking, creative thinking, and other recognized types of thinking? One’s answer to this question obviously depends on how one defines the terms used in the question. If critical thinking is conceived broadly to cover any careful thinking about any topic for any purpose, then problem solving and decision making will be kinds of critical thinking, if they are done carefully. Historically, ‘critical thinking’ and ‘problem solving’ were two names for the same thing. If critical thinking is conceived more narrowly as consisting solely of appraisal of intellectual products, then it will be disjoint with problem solving and decision making, which are constructive.

Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives used the phrase “intellectual abilities and skills” for what had been labeled “critical thinking” by some, “reflective thinking” by Dewey and others, and “problem solving” by still others (Bloom et al. 1956: 38). Thus, the so-called “higher-order thinking skills” at the taxonomy’s top levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation are just critical thinking skills, although they do not come with general criteria for their assessment (Ennis 1981b). The revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson et al. 2001) likewise treats critical thinking as cutting across those types of cognitive process that involve more than remembering (Anderson et al. 2001: 269–270). For details, see the Supplement on History .

As to creative thinking, it overlaps with critical thinking (Bailin 1987, 1988). Thinking about the explanation of some phenomenon or event, as in Ferryboat , requires creative imagination in constructing plausible explanatory hypotheses. Likewise, thinking about a policy question, as in Candidate , requires creativity in coming up with options. Conversely, creativity in any field needs to be balanced by critical appraisal of the draft painting or novel or mathematical theory.

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How to cite this entry . Preview the PDF version of this entry at the Friends of the SEP Society . Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry at the Internet Philosophy Ontology Project (InPhO). Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database.

• Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking (AILACT)
• Critical Thinking Across the European Higher Education Curricula (CRITHINKEDU)
• Critical Thinking Definition, Instruction, and Assessment: A Rigorous Approach
• Critical Thinking Research (RAIL)
• Foundation for Critical Thinking
• Insight Assessment
• Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21)
• The Critical Thinking Consortium
• The Nature of Critical Thinking: An Outline of Critical Thinking Dispositions and Abilities , by Robert H. Ennis

abilities | bias, implicit | children, philosophy for | civic education | decision-making capacity | Dewey, John | dispositions | education, philosophy of | epistemology: virtue | logic: informal

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