Quick Write

How have your beliefs and ideas been shaped from birth?

What is Critical Thinking?

Quality of Thinking, Quality of Life

30 Days to Better Thinking and Better Living Through Critical Thinking

Critical thinking, in a rich sense of the term, is self-guided disciplined thought that attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fairminded way.

From our textbook.

Critical comes from the Greek word krinein, meaning “to separate, to choose”; above all, it implies conscious inquiry (4).

Conscious also means to be awake or aware. This suggests that by examining our reasoning, we can understand the basis of our judgments and decisions – ultimately, so that we can make better ones.

According to Google:

Critical Thinking – the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.

Critical Thinking

According to our textbook, to think critically, you must question not only the beliefs and assumptions of others, but also one’s own beliefs and assumptions (5).

  • Identify important problems.
  • Explore relevant issues.
  • Evaluate available evidence.
  • Consider the implications of the decisions.

Critical thinking is NOT collecting information to support established conclusion.

  • Survey, considering as many perspectives as possible.
  • Analyze, identifying and then separating out the parts of the problem.
  • Evaluate, judging the merit of various ideas, claims, and evidence.

Why is it important?

Texas GOP wants to get rid of critical thinking. 

Critical thinking requires us to support our position and also see the other side. The heart of critical thinking is a willingness to face objections to one’s own beliefs, to adopt a skeptical attitude not only toward views opposed to our own but also toward our own common sense – that is, toward views that seem to us as obviously right (Barnet et al. 12)

Generating Ideas: Writing as a Way of Thinking

Writing helps writers to think. Prewriting, Brainstorming, clustering, lists,

Confronting Unfamiliar Issues

Since college can not prepare you for every possible issue you will face, it seeks to equip you with tools, methods, and habits of mind that enable you to confront arguments about any potential issue.

Identifying and Examining Assumptions

Assumptions may be explicit or implicit, stated or unstated.

Implicit Assumption: one that is not stated and often taken for granted.

Explicit Assumption: a clearly stated assumption.

1st Amendment

The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution

The 1st Amendment

Annotated Bibliography

An annotated bib is a works cited or references page with additional information added to each citation. You begin with the correct reference citation for your sources. For this assignment we will have at least five sources.

Here is a good explanation of citations in MLA.

Explanation and example of an Annotated Bibliography from Cornell

Example 2 Annotated Bibliography from Purdue OWL

Here is the format:

Author(s). “Article Title.” Source, vol. #, no. #, season year, pp. xx-xx. Database, URL.

Example:

Kong, Les. “Business Sources for Education Majors.” Education Graduate Students Journal, vol. 75, no. 4, 2014, pp. 12-19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/52506788.

To each entry you will add the annotation, the paragraph or two that explains the source, why you are using it, and its reliability.

Each professor you will have in the future may have specific guidelines for what to include in an annotated bibliographic entry. Always follow their instructions.

For this assignment, you should include:

  1. Summary of Source, 2-4 sentences
  2. How you are using it in your report, 1-3 sentences
  3. Reliability of source, 1-3 sentences

In total, you should have a short paragraph, 4-10 sentences, explaining the three points above.

It will look like this:

Krikorian, Mark. “Two Immigration Priorities.”National Review, Dec, 2016, pp. 18-20, SIRS Issues Researcher, www.sks.sirs.com.

This article goes into detail on some of the other less talked about factors of the changes in how we deal with illegal immigrants under our new president and his policies. The author is the director of the Center for Immigration Studies so I assume he is a credible expert in immigration. I will use this source to get more specific in my critique of the border wall proposal.

or this

Krikorian, Mark. “Two Immigration Priorities.” National Review, Dec, 2016, pp. 18-20, SIRS Issues Researcher, www.sks.sirs.com. This article goes into detail on some of the other less talked about factors of the changes in how we deal with illegal immigrants under our new president and his policies. The author is the director of the Center for Immigration Studies so I assume he is a credible expert in immigration. I will use this source to get more specific in my critique of the border wall proposal.

Journal 3: Jonathan Haidt: Can a Divided America Heal?

20 Minutes. Jon Haidt is a Social Psychologist. Write down anything you think is important or that stands out to you. Write down any words you don’t know so we can make a list for everyone.

So the first thing that you have to always keep in mind when you’re thinking about politics is that we’re tribal. We evolved for tribalism. One of the simplest and greatest insights into human social nature is the Bedouin proverb:
“Me against my brother; me and my brother against our cousin; me and my brother and cousins against the stranger.”

Summarize

Write for a few minutes on the point that stood out to you. What did the author say?  Try to withhold your opinion in the summary portion. You will respond next.

Responding

I agree with X because …

I disagree with X because …

Why is it important to talk with people with different views?

Homework

Annotated Bib 1 with 5 sources and annotations