2. PRESENTATION OVERVIEW
Introduction
Introductory activity – “Ice Breaker”
Defining Critical Thinking
Video clip: Critical Thinking
Understanding the characteristics of Critical Thinking
Value of Critical Thinking
Defining Critical Thinking Skills
Critical Thinking Process
Guidelines on how to improve your Critical Thinking Skills
3. INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY
1. How do you put a giraffe into your refrigerator?
2. How do you put an elephant into your refrigerator?
3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All
the animals attend - except one. Which animal does
not attend?
4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by
crocodiles and you do not have a boat. How do you
manage it?
4. CORRECT ANSWERS
Question 1: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe,
and close the door.
This question tests whether you tend to do simple
things in an overly complicated way.
Question 2: Did you say, Open the refrigerator, put in
the elephant, and close the refrigerator? Wrong
answer. Correct answer: Open the refrigerator, take
out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door.
This tests your ability to think through the
repercussions of your previous actions.
5. CORRECT ANSWERS
Question 3: The elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator.
You just put him in there.
This tests your memory.
Okay, even if you did not answer the first three questions
correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true
abilities.
Question 4: You jump into the river and swim across. Have you
not been listening? All the crocodiles are attending the animal
conference.
This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.
6. CONSOLATION PRIZE
According to Anderson
Consulting Worldwide, around
90% of the professionals tested got
all questions wrong.
7. CRITICAL THINKING – LEARNT LESSONS
Tendency not to do simple things in an overly
complicated way (FOCUS and SIMPLICITY)
Think through the repercussions of your previous actions
(ANALYSIS and REFLECTION)
Ability to remember (MEMORIZATION and RECALL)
Learn quickly from your mistakes (AVID and ACTIVE
LEARNER)
8. DEFINING CRITICAL THINKING
Critical thinking is a type of thinking that questions
assumptions
It is a way of deciding whether a claim is always true,
sometimes true, partly true, or false
Critical thinking is an important component of
most professions e.g. Office Management
“Reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what
to believe or do“
9. DEFINING CRITICAL THINKING
“The intellectually disciplined process of actively and
skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing,
synthesizing, and/or evaluating information
gathered from, or generated by, observation,
experience, reflection, reasoning, or
communication, as a guide to belief and action"
10. ARE YOU AN EFFECTIVE CRITICAL
THINKER?
GIVE YOURSELF A RATING ON A SCALE OF 1-5 FOR EACH OF THE
ABOVE CHARACTERISTICS
Irrespective of the sphere of thought, "a well-cultivated critical thinker“ exhibits the
following characteristics:
Raises important questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely
Gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively
Comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria
and standards
Thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing,
as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences
Communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems,
without being unduly influenced by others' thinking on the topic
11. VALUE OF CRITICAL THINKING
Critical thinking:
Clarifies goals
Examines assumptions
Discerns hidden values
Evaluates evidence
Accomplishes actions
Assesses conclusions
13. VALUE OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
For a Office Manager:
Problem-solving
Decision-making
Evaluating proposals
Organizing events and processes
Prioritizing
Communication
Resolving conflict and disputes
Information processing
14. CRITICAL THINKING PROCESS
Critical thinking calls for the ability to:
Recognize problems, to find workable means for meeting
those problems
Understand the importance of prioritization and order of
precedence in problem solving
Gather and marshal pertinent (relevant) information
Recognize unstated assumptions and values
Comprehend and use language with accuracy, clarity,
and discernment
Interpret data, to appraise evidence and evaluate
arguments
15. CRITICAL THINKING PROCESS
Critical thinking calls for the ability to:
Recognize the existence (or non-existence) of logical
relationships between propositions
Draw warranted conclusions and generalizations
Put to test the conclusions and generalizations at which
one arrives
Reconstruct one's patterns of beliefs on the basis of
wider experience
Render accurate judgments about specific things and
qualities in everyday life
16. GUIDELINES ON HOW TO IMPROVE
YOUR CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
Remove all bias when thinking critically.
You must learn to play devil's advocate with yourself in order to get the truest possible solution.
Use your critical-thinking abilities for smaller problems, and then gradually move to bigger
problems.
Play critical-thinking games, such as Sudoku or chess.
Try having amicable debates with friends or family. Take the position to which you would normally
be opposed in order to really exercise your critical-thinking abilities.
“Curiosity killed the cat”
Buddhist mind-set
Utilize group-based problem solving techniques
“Outside of the box” thinking
Thinking creatively – whole brain thinking – integrate left and right brain hemispheres