Fahim Haider Jafari

PhD
Learning Objectives
 Describe what is critical thinking
 Describe what is lateral thinking
 Use critical and lateral thinking in professional life
Thinking
 Thinking is the highest mental activity
present in man
 All human achievements and progress are
simply the products of thought
 The evolution of culture, art, literature,
science and technology are all the results
of thinking
Critical Thinking
 Critical thinking is primarily concerned with judging
the true value of statements and seeking errors
 It refers to a higher-order of thinking that questions
assumptions
 It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or
sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true
and partly false
 It is an important component of most professions
 It is a part of the education process and is increasingly
significant as students university to graduate
education
Lateral Thinking
 It is solving problems through
an indirect and creative approach,
using reasoning that is not
immediately obvious and involving
ideas that may not be obtainable by
using only traditional step-by-
step logic
Lateral Thinking
 Thought and action are inseparable - they are actually
the two sides of the same coin
 All our deliberate action starts from our deliberate
thinking
 For a man to do something, he should first see it in
his mind's eye -- he should imagine it, think about it
first, before he can do it
 All creations-- whether artistic, literal or scientific --
first occur in the creator's mind before it is actually
given life in the real world
Uses
 A reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what
to believe or do
 Thinking about 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
 The process of purposeful, self-regulatory judgment, which
uses reasoned consideration to evidence, context,
conceptualizations, methods, and criteria
Meaning
 Critical thinking clarifies goals
 Examines assumptions
 Discerns hidden values
 Evaluates evidence
 Accomplishes actions
 Assesses conclusions
 A way of taking up the problems of life
Skills
 The list of core critical thinking skills includes :
 Observation
 Interpretation
 Analysis
 Inference
 Evaluation
 Explanation
 Meta-cognition
Skills
 Critical thinking gives due consideration to:
 Evidence through observation
 Context
 Relevant criteria for making the judgment well
 Applicable methods or techniques for forming the
judgment
 Applicable theoretical constructs for understanding
the problem and the question at hand
Skills
 In addition to possessing strong critical-thinking skills, one must
be disposed to engage problems and decisions using those skills
 Critical thinking employs not only logic but broad intellectual
criteria:
 Clarity
 Credibility
 Accuracy
 Precision
 Relevance
 Depth
 Breadth
 Significance
 Fairness