Critical Thinking

What is critical thinking?

Being critical involves 'looking at ideas, theories and evidence with a questioning attitude rather than taking them at face value. It means analysing things in detail (breaking down and examining concepts and ideas) and evaluating (finding strengths, weaknesses, connections and patterns). Then from this analysis and evaluation, deciding what you think about an issue, how important or relevant it is, and why' (Godfrey 2018).

Critical thinkers don't just accept information. They make informed decisions about the information that they have been given (Cottrell 2008).

If you think critically when reading it can help you form reasoned judgements about what you have just read (Cottrell cited in University of Plymouth 2008). When writing critical thinkers don't just describe (this is kept to a minimum to provide context and background information), they analyse and evaluate, synthesising the information from their sources to show their own understanding of the topic and to back up the points they want to make in their writing.

There is so much information about critical thinking available and it can feel a little bit overwhelming and confusing. Here are some ideas to help you get started with this process. 

• Be curious and ask lots of questions. 
• Don't just accept that information is always right!  Again think about some questions you want answering. You may ask, Why do they think this? What evidence do they offer me to back it up? How plausible is it? How reliable are they as an author on this topic?
• Examine and explore different viewpoints, ideas, issues and theories about your topic. When you do, think about where you might have heard this information before.
• Does everyone agree or disagrees? What are your thoughts after analysing and evaluating this information?
•  How important/relevant/significant is this information/issue/theory/idea (in your opinion) and why? Have you changed your standpoint now you have read this information? Why?
• When you write don't just restate and describe what you have been reading, analyse and evaluate. Make informed judgements when writing based on good evidence and be prepared to explain it. 

It is also helpful to know the meaning of some of the words around critical thinking such as evaluation, analysis and synthesis. (Look at the section on Higher Order Thinking Skills).

Bloom's taxonomy of thinking and learning illustrates forms of thinking, in ascending order of complexity, from lower-order thinking skills (LOTS) to higher-order thinking skills (HOTS). It begins with remembering and ends with creating.

You can see that knowledge about a subject alone, like having access to a range of information, or ‘facts’, is at the simplest or lowest level. So using only, or mostly, descriptive language in your writing, to communicate what you know about a topic is not likely to generate many marks.

Higher and more complex levels include the ability to analyse, synthesise and evaluate information by comparing and contrasting different points of view, sets of information or experiences. This might involve recognising patterns of behaviour, for example, and using them to make predictions.

By engaging with your sources, and the evidence that emerges, you are demonstrating that you have done some deep learning. This is what your markers are looking for in your writing. To do this, it is essential to read a range of quality academic sources when researching.

Godfrey, J.2018 Writing for University. Hampshire. Macmillian International.

Cottrell, S. 2008. The Study Skills Handbook. 3rd edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

University of Plymouth. 2008. Critical thinking. Available at:https://archive.learnhigher.ac.uk/resources/files/Critical%20thinking/8%20Critical%20Thinking.pdf