What is critical thinking? Critical thinking seems to be one of those terms that we use regularly without always being 100% confident about what it means. Part of the challenge is that there is not one agreed-upon definition.
One of the most-cited definitions of critical thinking was developed during a 1990 research study, known as The Delphi Report, led by Dr. Peter A. Facione. The 46 U.S. and Canadian professional critical-thinking educators involved in the study defined critical thinking as “purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based.”
It’s no wonder we get a little lost trying to pin down the definition. Put more concisely, critical thinking is just “careful thinking directed to a goal.”
It’s not about teaching people what to think, but about how to think.
Why does critical thinking matter?
Critical thinking has long been a buzz phrase in education, often cited as one of the most important 21st century skills. But according to Associate Professor Rob Jenkins of Georgia State, critical thinking is about more than academic success and future employability.
Critical thinking is about preserving our collective capacity for deep thought:
“. . .[W]e live in a society that increasingly makes it easy for people to get through the day without having to think very much,” Jenkins points out. “We have microwaveable food, entertainment at our fingertips, and GPS to get us where we need to go . . . Ideally, such time-saving devices free up our brains for other, more important pursuits. But the practical effect is that we’ve become accustomed to setting our brains on autopilot.”
It’s not a coincidence that the absence of critical thinking is the premise for many of the most-well known dystopian novels of the 20th century. In Fahrenheit 451, for example, books are forbidden, sought out, and systematically burned; in 1984, “thought crime,” the mere consideration of dissenting opinions, is a punishable offense; and in Brave New World, individuality and the need for decision-making is eliminated using a tightly-controlled system of social conditioning.
Critical thinking is the antidote to this conditioning — the opposite of our brains being on autopilot.
Take the wheel.
Critical thinking is a skill, and just like playing an instrument or learning a new language, it is a skill that can be taught and practiced. But honing our critical thinking skills requires our full attention.
Critical thinking is a complex idea. One of the challenges of conceptualizing how to develop and cultivate our critical thinking is that it encompasses a number of different cognitive skills. So instead of trying to tackle the big idea, break it down.
The Delphi Report breaks down critical thinking into the following six categories:
- Interpretation
- Analysis
- Evaluation
- Inference
- Explanation
- Self-regulation
We all use each of these skills on a daily basis — in our relationships, our jobs, daily decisions, and in school. But, in order for students to become expert critical thinkers, they need more opportunities to put these skills into practice and in multiple contexts.
“Becoming a critical thinker involves not just knowing the nuts and bolts of subjects like logic and argumentation,” explains Jonathan Haber, a critical thinking expert and author of Critical Thinking and The Critical Voter, “but also putting that knowledge to use regularly.”
The following list of questions, published by Insight Assessment, organizes questions according to the cognitive skills they illustrate. All these questions can be used while reading the news, having conversations with friends, and teaching in our classrooms to help fire up our critical thinking skills:
Questions to Fire Up Critical Thinking Skills
| Interpretation | What does this mean? What’s happening? How should we understand that (e.g., what he or she just said)? What is the best way to characterize/categorize/classify this? In this context, what was intended by saying/doing that? How can we make sense out of this (experience, feeling, or statement)? |
| Analysis | Please tell us again your reasons for making that claim. What is your conclusion? What is it that you are claiming? Why do you think that? What are the arguments pro and con? What assumptions must we make to accept that conclusion? What is your basis for saying that? |
| Inference | Given what we know so far, what conclusions can we draw? Given what we know so far, what can we rule out? What does this evidence imply? If we abandoned/accepted that assumption, how would things change? What additional information do we need to resolve this question? If we believed these things, what would they imply for us going forward? What are the consequences of doing things that way? What are some alternatives we haven’t yet explored? Let’s consider each option and see where it takes us. Are there any undesirable consequences that we can and should foresee? |
| Evaluation | How credible is that claim? Why do we think we can trust what this person claims? How strong are those arguments? Do we have our facts right? How confident can we be in our conclusion, given what we now know? |
| Self Regulation | Our position on this issue is still too vague; can we be more precise? How good was our methodology, and how well did we follow it? Is there a way we can reconcile these two apparently conflicting conclusions? How good is our evidence? OK, before we commit, what are we missing? I’m finding some of our definition |
Though these questions are a great place to start, critical thinking is about more than asking the right questions. Both Jonathan Haber and Peter Facione both stress the importance of having “ a critical spirit,” a kind of “a probing inquisitiveness . . . and a hunger or eagerness for reliable information.”
In short, attitude matters.
Critical thinking is not the same as being critical. It is not about dissecting arguments for the sake of being right. When we use our cognitive skills as tools to confirm what we already believe, we cease to demonstrate the habits of a critical thinker. Instead, a “critical spirit” strives to practice curiosity, tenacity, intellectual courage, and perhaps most importantly, humility and open-mindedness (Haber 135).
Understandably, these habits of mind can feel more abstract and harder to teach. How does one cultivate a way of being in the world?
Build a culture of critical thinking.
Management consultant and writer, Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Drucker argued that no matter what your strategy is, without the appropriate culture to support it, your project is bound to fail.
The same is true in teaching critical thinking. It’s not enough to teach the subject. We must also build a culture that values and promotes critical thinking.
To become skilled critical thinkers, students need to be immersed in a culture in which they regularly see critical thinking in action, where they can observe people embodying intellectual courage and open-mindedness, a culture where questions are valued and encouraged.
There are a million tiny ways that we can begin to shape a culture of critical thinking in our schools, homes, and communities. We can:
- Ask questions.
- Encourage curiosity.
- Talk to students about what we’re reading, watching, and listening to.
- Discuss problems without clear solutions.
- Express doubt.
- Change our mind.
- Model our own thought process.
- Seek out dissenting viewpoints.
- Say “I don’t know.”
Culture shifts do not happen overnight, but with our collective effort, the outcome of this “critical-thinking project” could be a society made up of “autonomous individual actors capable of thinking systematically and independently” (Haber 106).
Lauren Oliver, author of the Delirium series, said in an interview that “dystopian futures are [often] a reflection of current fears.” Teaching critical thinking is our defense against the possibility of a dystopian future in which, as Aldous Huxley imagined, we all “believe things because [we have] been conditioned to believe them” — a world on autopilot.
Instead, let’s build a society in which we believe things because we have considered them carefully — questioned, investigated, reasoned, and discussed — before coming to a logical conclusion. That’s a world worth working for.
