Thinking & Writing from a Critical Perspective

~ Henry Sidgwick

We think so because other people all think so; or because – or because – after all we do think so; or because we were told so, and think we must think so; or because we once thought so, and think we still think so; or because, having thought so, we think we will think so…

Learning to think for ourselves..

Overview

What is critical thinking? 3 Minute Pause & Read CAMPER – a tool for posing critical

questions to help facilitate critical thinking

Research Cycle – sifting through all the information

Essay Structure

What is Critical Thinking?

Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum defines critical thinking as "examining, questioning, evaluating, and challenging taken-for-granted assumptions about issues and practices" and critical action as "action based on critical thinking" (page 56).

3 Minute Pause & Read

3 minute pause (developed by Ralph Tyler)

How does it work:1. Read for 3 minutes2. Summarize key ideas so far3. Add your own thoughts4. Pose clarifying questions

Add your own thoughts

Prior knowledge connections you can make with the new information

What does this remind you of? What would round out your understanding of

this? What can you add?

Pose Clarifying Questions

Are there things that are still not clear? Are there confusing parts? Are you having trouble making connections? Can you anticipate where this is headed? Can you probe for deeper insights?

~ Malcolm S. Forbes

“Educations purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one”.

CAMPER

This is a tool used to help facilitate critical thinking.

Context used in example (press release) found on the SPARC website

Have a go yourself using the ‘Green Funding’ Press release.

~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the twentieth century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press.

Research Cycle

This tool is important when you want to research a topic (in a structured way)

You need to:- Question- Plan- Gather- Sort, Sift, and Analyse- Evaluate

The evaluation can take place after the critical action has occurred (AS 3.6)

Essay structure

Many different forms/views. Essential elements include:

- Introduction- Body- Conclusion- Reference List

Tips on how to approach the exam PMIS esssay structure.

The end..