Introduction to Critical

Thinking
 Do You Agree With This Statement?

“Some people study all their life and at their

death they have learned everything except
to THINK”
– Francois Domergue

Why?
What is thinking?
 Why does IU have this course?

Tohelp you improve your

Thinking Skills 

HOW TO
THINK!
 Introduction to Critical Thinking
1. What is Thinking? 3. What is
2. Types of Thinking
Critical Thinking?

7. Characteristics of
a Critical Thinker 4. Critical Thinking
Standards

6. Barriers to 5. Benefits of
Critical Thinking Critical Thinking
 What is Thinking?

Why doesn’t SHE like me?

Why doesn’t HE like me?

As you start asking questions and seek answers, you are in fact thinking.
 Types of Thinking
• Analyzing
• Evaluating Problem Solving
• Reasoning Decision Making
New
Ideas

Critical Left Right Creative

Thinking Thinking
What is Critical Thinking?

WARNING: THIS MAN IS NOT

THINKING CRITICALLY!!
 What is Critical Thinking?

 Critical thinking is the general term given to a wide range of

cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed:
to effectively identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments
and truth claims,
to discover and overcome personal prejudices and
biases,
to formulate and present convincing reasons in support
of conclusions; and
to make reasonable, intelligent decisions about what to
believe and what to do.
 (textbook: page 1)
Cognitive, intellectual : thuộc về nhận thức, trí óc. Prejudice: định kiến an unfair and
unreasonable opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge.
Bias: thành kiến often supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way by
allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment
 What is Critical Thinking?
Don’t need to
• Analyzing memorize
• Evaluating Problem Solving definitions! Just
• Reasoning understand and
Decision Making practice the core
critical thinking
skills
emphasized in
this course.

Critical Left Right

Thinking
Critical Thinking Standards (CTS)

The most significant critical (intellectual)

thinking standards:
 Clarity
 Accuracy
 Precision
 Relevance
 Depth
 Breadth
 Logic
 Fairness
 CTS - Clarity
 Could you elaborate further on that
point?
 Could you express that point in another
way?
 Could you give me an illustration?
 Could you give me an example?

Clarity = sự rõ ràng, Elaborate = trau

trong sáng chuốt,nói rõ thêm

Clarity is the gateway standard

 Clarity
 Clarity is a gateway standard. If a statement is
unclear, we cannot determine whether it is accurate
or relevant. In fact we cannot tell anything about it
because we do not yet know what it is saying.
 Clarity in expression is a sign of intelligence
 Exploratory questions related to the Clarity Standard:

 Is my thinking clear?
 Do I need to elaborate my thinking more?
 Do I need to provide an illustration of what I mean?
 Do I need to give an example from everyday life?
 Clarity
“Tóm lại, đây là bài học cho những nhà trí
thức khi nhận định, phát biểu về một tôn giáo
mà cứ ngỡ mình đã nắm vững. Nhất là Phật
giáo, không đơn thuần như những tôn giáo
khác, lại là Phật giáo Bắc truyền quá đa dạng
và dung thông, hàm tàng nhiều triết thuyết vi
diệu.” (Minh Mẫn, PGVN, 05/09/2016)
CTS – Accuracy
 Is that really true?
 How could we check that?
 How could we find out if that is true?

This chicken
weighs over
300 pounds.

A statement can be clear but not accurate

 Accuracy

 - A statement can be clear, but not accurate as in,

“Most cats are over 100lbs in weight.”
 Questions related to evaluating the accuracy of
thinking include:

 Is my thinking accurate?
 How could I check to see if this is true?
 How could I find out if this is correct?
 How can I verify for accuracy?
CTS – Precision (more specific)
 Could you give more details?
 Could you be more specific?

Yao Ming is
TALL!

A statement can be both clear and accurate,

but not precise
 Precision

 Precision - A statement can be both clear and

accurate, but not precise as in, “John is
overweight.” Is he 1lb or 500lbs over weight?
 Questions useful in assessing precision:

 Is my thinking as precise as it needs to be?

 Do I need to be more specific?
 Do I need to give more detail?
 Do I need to be more exact?
 Precision- example

Ca sĩ Việt Nam nổi tiếng, Mỹ Linh, gây tranh cãi trên

mạng xã hội hôm 25/8 vì phát ngôn "muốn rẻ thì
đừng đòi hỏi thực phẩm sạch”.
Nhiều người trên Facebook cho rằng cô có ý khinh
thường người nghèo và người nông dân.

Rẻ (cheap) = not precise (how much is cheap? 20.000

VND/kg or 200 VND/kg?)
Thực phẩm sạch = what? Meat, fish or vegetables?
Sạch = how clean it is? GAP (well-controlled)? Organic?
CTS – Relevance
 How is that connected to the question?
 How does that bear on the issue?

I studied hard all

semester, therefore I
should get A+.

A statement can be clear, accurate, and precise,

but not relevant to the question at issue.
 Relevance
 A statement can be clear, accurate, and precise, but
not be relevant to the issue.
 Questioning the relevance:

 Is my thinking relevant to the issue?

 How does that relate to the question at hand?
 How does this information bear upon the problem I
am concerned with?
 How does this information help me deal effectively
with the issue?

He is handsome. Therefore, he will pass the Cal 1 test.

CTS – Depth
 How does your answer address the
complexities in the question?
 How are you taking into account the
problems in the question?
 Is that dealing with the most significant
factors?

A statement can be clear, accurate,

precise, and relevant, but superficial.
 Depth (sâu sắc, có chiều sâu)
 A statement can be clear, accurate, precise,
and relevant, yet superficial.
 Questions useful for evaluating depth of our
critical thinking:

 What factors make up this difficult problem?

 What are the complexities of this issue?
 What are the difficulties I need to deal with?
 Is my thinking taking into account the different
perspectives I need to consider?
 CTS – Breadth (rộng, bao quát)

 Do we need to consider another point of view?

 Is there another way to look at this question?
 What would this look like from a conservative
standpoint?
 What would this look like from the point of view
of...? You got 0 marks for
Headache!
!! “Participation”, because you
didn’t participate in the
class discussion at all.

A line of reasoning may be clear, accurate,

precise, relevant, and deep, but lack breadth.
 Breadth

 The ability to recognize all sides of an issue.

 Questions useful for examining breadth:

 Am I looking at this issue in a narrow minded way?

 Do I need to look at this from another perspective?
 Do I need to consider another point of view?
 Do I need to look at this situation in other ways?
 Logic

 When we think, we bring a variety of thoughts together

in some order. When the combination of thoughts is
mutually supporting and makes sense in combination,
the thinking is “logical.”
 The logic of our critical thinking can be measured by the
following questions:

 Does my thinking make sense as a whole?

 Does my conclusion follow from evidence, or is there a
more logical conclusion?
 Is my thinking focused on what is most significant?
 CTS – Logic

 Does this really make sense?

 Does that follow from what you said?
 How does that follow?
 But before you implied this and now you are
saying that; how can both be true?

Superman sees through anything.

Superman sees through walls.
Superman sees through You.

When the combination of thoughts are

mutually supporting and make sense in combination,
the thinking is "logical.“
 CTS – Logic

“Tôi vẫn cô đơn, em dù đẹp như mộng mơ”

Something wrong here???
Should it be :
“Tôi vẫn cô đơn, tôi dù đẹp như mộng mơ?”
 CTS – Fairness

Critical thinking demands that our thinking be fair.

 Open-minded

 Impartial = fair (công bằng)

 Free of distorting biases and preconceptions

Fair-mindedness is an essential Distort:

xuyên tạc
attribute of a Critical Thinker.
Consistency (nhất quán)

 A person holds inconsistent beliefs, at least

one of those beliefs must be false.
 2 kinds of inconsistency:
- Logical inconsistency: involves saying or
believing inconsistent things (i.e. things that
cannot both or all be true) about a particular
matter.
- Practical inconsistency: saying one thing
and doing another
Consistency

 Example:

 MM: Key, Yogi, what do you say we eat at

Toots’ tonight?
 Yogi: That place is old news. Nobody goes
there anymore. It’s too crowded.
 Good Thinking is…

CLEAR……….....rather than........UNCLEAR
ACCURATE…....rather than…….INACCURATE
PRECISE……....rather than…….VAGUE
RELEVANT…….rather than…….IRELEVANT
CONSISTENT….rather than……INCONSISTENT
LOGICAL……….rather than……ILLOGICAL
COMPLETE……rather than……INCOMPLETE
FAIR…………….rather than…....BIASED
 Benefits of Critical Thinking

Examples:

 Academic Performance
 understand the arguments and beliefs of others
 Critically evaluating those arguments and beliefs
 Develop and defend one's own well-supported
arguments and beliefs.
 Workplace
 Helps us to reflect and get a deeper understanding
of our own and others’ decisions
 Encourage open-mindedness to change
 Aid us in being more analytical in solving problems
 Benefits of Critical Thinking

 Daily life
 Helps us to avoid making foolish personal
decisions.
 Promotes an informed and concerned citizenry
capable of making good decisions on important
social, political and economic issues.
 Aids in the development of autonomous thinkers
capable of examining their assumptions, dogmas:
giáo điều, and prejudices.
 Barriers to Critical Thinking

If Critical Thinking is so important, why is it

that uncritical thinking is so common?

Why is that so many people including many

highly educated and intelligent people find
critical thinking so difficult?
Barriers to critical thinking
 Lack of relevant background information
 Poor reading skills
 Bias:thành kiến
 Prejudice: định kiến
 Superstition: mê tín
 Peer pressure: áp lực nhóm
 Face-saving: sĩ diện
 Resistance to change
 Selective perception
 Rationalization: duy lý
 Scapegoating:đổ thừa
 Barriers to Critical Thinking
Five Powerful Barriers to Critical Thinking:
Self-centered thinking
 self-interested thinking
Egocentrism  self-serving bias

Group-centered thinking
 Group bias
Sociocentrism
 Conformism (tâm lý bầy đàn)

Beliefs that are presumed to be true

Unwarranted without adequate evidence or justification
Assumptions  Assumption (giả định)

Stereotyping (rập khuôn)

Wishful
Thinking Believing that something is true because
one wishes it were true.
Relativistic The truth is “just a matter of opinion”
Thinking  Relativism (chủ nghĩa tương đối)

 Subjectivism (chủ quan chủ nghĩa)

 Cultural relativism (tương đối văn hoá)
 Barriers to Critical Thinking
EGOCENTRISM – the tendency to view
one’s own interests, ideas and values as
superior to everyone’s else

SELF-INTERESTED THINKING – SELF-SERVING

tendency to accept and defend beliefs BIAS – tendency to
that harmonize one’s own self-interest overrate oneself
Tendency: khuynh hướng
 Self-interested thinking

• Almost no one is immune to self-interested thinking.

• Most doctors support legislation making it more
difficult for them to be sued for malpractice; most
lawyers do not.
• Most factory workers support laws requiring advance
notice of plant closings; most factory owners do not.
• From a psychological standpoint, however, it is likely
that self-interest plays at least some role in shaping
the respective attitudes and beliefs.
 Self-serving bias

• Self-serving bias is the tendency to overrate

oneself—to see oneself as better in some respect
than one actually is.
• We have all known braggarts (kẻ khoác lác)or know-
it-alls who claim to be more talented or
knowledgeable than they really are.
• If you are like most people, you probably think of
yourself as being an unusually self-aware person. If
so, then you too are probably suffering from self-
serving bias.
• Ex: Drunkers always said: “I am never drunk.”
 Barriers to Critical Thinking

Sociocentrism: group-centred thinking

 Group bias – the tendency to see one’s own

group as being inherently better than others
(ex: fellow-countrymen club, association)
 Herd instinct (conformism) – the tendency
to follow the crowd (tâm lý bầy đàn, a dua)
Barriers to Critical Thinking

Unwarranted Assumptions & Stereotyping

 Assumption – something taken for granted,

something we believe to be true without any
proof or conclusive evidence
 Unwarranted assumption – something taken
for granted without good reason
 Most common form is stereotyping (rập
khuôn, quơ đũa cả nắm)– making a hasty
generalization : “All Muslim are terrorist.”
Unwarranted Assumptions & Stereotyping
 Barriers to Critical Thinking

Wishful thinking (mơ tưởng)

 Believing something not because you had

good evidence for it but simply because you
wished it were true.
 Believing something because it makes one
feel good, not because there is good rational
grounds for thinking it is true.
 Barriers to Critical Thinking

Relativistic thinking
 Relativism is the view that truth is a matter of
opinion.
 There are two popular forms of relativism:
subjectivism and cultural relativism.
 Subjectivism is the view that truth is a matter of
individual opinion. (Mày khổ là do mày, đời chẳng có
gì đúng, sai, tốt, xấu cả, lăn tăn làm gì!)
 Cultural relativism is the view that truth is a
matter of social or cultural opinion.
 The most common form of relativism is moral
relativism.
 Barriers to Critical Thinking

 Relativistic thinking - moral relativism.

 Moral subjectivism is the view that what is
morally right and good for A (individual), is
whatever A believes is morally right and good.
 Cultural moral relativism is the view that what
is morally right and good for A (an individual),
is whatever A’s society or culture believes is
morally right and good.
 Barriers to Critical Thinking

Several serious problems with cultural moral

relativism
1. Relativism makes it impossible for us to criticize
other cultures’ customs and values, even those
that intuitively seem to us to be terribly wrong.
2. Relativism makes it impossible for us to criticize
our own societies’ customs and values.
3. Relativism rules out the idea of moral progress.
For example: thói quen ăn thịt chó, lễ hội Ném
Thượng
 Barriers to Critical Thinking

 Several serious problems with cultural moral

relativism
4. Relativism can lead to conflicting moral duties:
- When a relativist is a member of society that
holds belief that conflict with moral relativism
(case 2 and 3)
- When a relativist belongs to two or more
cultures and those cultures hold mutually
inconsistent moral belief (case 3).
 Barriers to Critical Thinking

Cướp lộc hội đền Gióng là 'cướp có văn hóa'

03/03/2015 19:11 GMT+7
- Nhiều người nghĩ là cướp giật, nhưng
không phải, nó cũng giống tục cướp vợ của
người H'Mông. Đây là "cướp" có văn hóa,
"cướp" trong tục lệ - Phó Ban Tuyên giáo
Thành ủy HN lý giải.
 Barriers to Critical Thinking

Lễ hội chém lợn ở Ném Thượng – Bắc Ninh

Is it too barbarian? How do you think?
 Mini Quiz – Question 1

In a 1989 international study of 13-year-olds, Koreans

finished first in mathematics and Americans finished last.
Yet when asked whether they thought they were "good
at mathematics," only 23 percent of Koreans said "yes,"
compared to 68 percent of Americans.

Which critical thinking barrier do the American students

exhibit:

A) Self-interested thinking
B) Group bias
C) Self-serving bias
D) Conformism
 Mini Quiz – Question 2

An: My friend Diep is a 1st year student at IU. He is

cool, loves hanging out, and has a very laid-back
personality.

Lan: I bet he’s from the south of Vietnam.

Which critical thinking barrier does Lan exhibit?

A) Self-interested thinking
B) Stereotyping
C) Group bias
D) Conformism
laid-back: thoải mái
 Mini Quiz – Question 3
Suzie: I can't believe I got a B- on this marketing paper. My friend Sarah
turned in this same paper in a different marketing class last semester,
and she got an A.

Ali : Don't you realize it's wrong to plagiarize someone else's work?

Suzie: That's your opinion. What's wrong for one person isn't necessarily
wrong for another, and I say there's nothing wrong with plagiarism-
as long as you don't get caught.

Which critical thinking barrier does Suzie exhibit?

A) Stereotyping
B) Self-interested thinking
C) Wishful thinking
D) Relativistic thinking
 Why standards of critical thinking
are important to overcome the
barriers of critical thinking?
 Characteristics of a Critical Thinker

Are you OPEN MINDED about other people’s view?

Are you HONEST to yourself (or others) when you are wrong?

Do you have the COURAGE and PASSION to take initiative

and confront problems and meet challenges?

Are you AWARE of your own biases and preconceptions?

Do you WELCOME CRITICISM from other people?

Do you have INDEPENDENT opinions and are not afraid to

disagree?
 Reference

 http://www.criticalthinking.org
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNCOO
UK-bMQ
 http://www.criticalthinking.org/CTmodel/CT
Model1.cfm

http://www.teachertube.com/v.php?viewkey=
8caaadb505ab52c68278