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articleYour thinking affects every area of your life. It determines where you dedicate your limited energy and resources. Developing good critical thinking skills is an important part of healthy living. On this page:
What is critical thinking?A practical way to explore critical thinking is through the framework developed by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. Paul and Elder define critical thinking as “that mode of thinking — about any subject, content, or problem — in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.” In other words, a critical thinker applies intellectual standards to the elements of thought. The benefits of good critical thinking skillsYour thinking affects every area of your life. Building high-quality critical thinking skills can benefit you in many ways:
Improve your critical thinking skillsA practical way to explore critical thinking is through the framework developed by Richard Paul and Linda Elder. You can learn more about this framework on the website criticalthinking.org, which has some free material; however, users need to pay a membership fee to access all content. A great resource is their book Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of your Professional and Personal Life. The second edition of this book is available as an eBook through the Concordia libraries. (Hint: Select "view e-book" and then select the option "Not listed? Click here." (the first option) in the "Select your institution" dropdown. Then enter your Concordia e-mail to view the e-book.) In Paul and Elder's framework, building good critical
thinking skills requires applying intellectual standards to the elements (structures) of thought. These are listed below. You can obtain more
detailed information about these in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 of the e-book listed above. Elements of thought
On YouTube, you can watch a
short video that introduces the elements of thought, as well as short videos for each of the elements of thought (purpose, questions,
information, inferences, concepts, assumptions,
implications, point of view). Intellectual standards
Develop these traits to become a better critical thinkerOne way to build critical thinking skills is to apply intellectual standards to the elements (structures) of thought, as described by Paul and Elder. However, they point out that a person must develop intellectual traits that support building critical thinking skills. These traits are summarized below. Learn more about them at criticalthinking.org.
Learn more about critical thinking
Back to top Back to top © Concordia University Concordia University uses technical, analytical, marketing and preference cookies. These are necessary for our site to function properly and to create the best possible online experience. Which terms are components of critical thinking as listed in Paul's critical thinking theory?The Paul and Elder Framework for critical thinking defines three components for a critical thinker: clarity, accuracy, relevance, logic, precision, fairness, depth, breadth, and significance.
What is Paul's critical thinking theory?Critical thinking is that mode of thinking – about any subject, content, or problem — in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.
What are the 3 components of the Paul Elder critical thinking framework?PAUL-ELDER METHOD FOR CRITICAL THIKING
The Paul-Elder Method for Critical Thinking provides a useful framework to help you develop these skills. There are three components to this method: Elements of Reasoning, Standards of Evaluation, and Intellectual Traits.
What are the 4 components of critical thinking?1 Identification of the Argument. Before you evaluate the soundness of an argument, you must first break it apart into its individual components. ... . 2 Clarification. Once you identify the premises, you can begin to examine each of them for validity. ... . 3 Deductive and Inductive Reasoning. ... . 4 Final Evaluation.. |