Critical thinking

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Critical thinking problem solving
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Objectives

• Discuss the meaning of mind, thinking, knowledge
• Consider aspects of critical thinking
• Consider some views of problems and problem
  solving

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Mindtools critical thinking

• Implies views about
• Nature of mind
• Nature of thinking
• Nature of knowing

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Folk theory of mind - as container

• Commonsense psychology
• Behaviour is determined by beliefs and desires
• Mind contains immaterial objects
• Ideas, memories, facts, plans, goals, principles
• Commonsense epistemology
• Objects in the mind relate to external world of
  things and actions
• Correct relationship knowledge
• Incorrect relationship false beliefs
• Education mind in the knowledge
  agehttp//www.observetory.com/carlbereiter/

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Beyond mind as container

• Mind as container works well for
• Facts declarative knowledge
• Rules procedural knowledge
• Challenged by what cannot be understood as an
  object in an individual mind
• Understanding intuition
• Number sense
• Creation of knowledge objects
• Education needs a new theory of mind
• Education mind in the knowledge
  agehttp//www.observetory.com/carlbereiter/

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Gardners multiple intelligences

• Logico-mathematical
• Linguistic
• Musical
• Spatial
• Bodily-kinesthetic
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Naturalist

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Critical thinking - traditional models

• Challenge to reproductive learning
• Reflective thinking about what to believe or do
• Understanding judging
• 3 dimensions
• Logical judging relationships of meanings
• Critical knowing criteria for judgement
• Pragmatic context and utility

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Critical thinking - current models

• Beyond the purely rational
• Avoiding vulcanization
• Supplement logic
• Imagination, insight intuition
• Key features
• Nonalgorithmic, complex, multiple solutions
• Nuanced judgment interpretation
• Multiple criteria, self-rgulation
• Imposing meaning, effortful

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Bereiters aspects of knowledgability

• Statable knowledge
• Implicit understanding
• Episodic knowledge
• Impressionistic knowledge
• Skill
• Regulative knowledge
• Education mind in the knowledge
  agehttp//www.observetory.com/carlbereiter/

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Model of complex thinking
Content/Basic thinkingProblem solving,
designing, decision making
Complex thinking processesgoal directed
integration of accepted, reorganized generated
knowledge
Critical thinkingEvaluating, analyzing,
connecting
Creative thinkingSynthesizing, imagining,
elaborating
Iowa Dept. of Education
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Critical thinking

• Evaluating
• Making judgments against standards
• Determining criteria
• Analyzing
• Separating the whole into parts
• Understanding relationships
• Connecting
• Determining or imposing relationships

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Creative thinking

• Synthesizing
• Thinking analogically
• Summarizing
• Hypothesizing planning
• Imagining
• Visualizing expressing
• Speculating, predicting intuiting
• Elaborating
• Building on an idea
• Adding personal meaning

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Complex thinking skills

• Problem solving
• Sensing defining the problem
• Proposing and selecting solutions
• Designing
• Formulating goals, devising products
• Evaluating revising
• Decision making
• Identifying issues alternatives
• Selecting and evaluating alternatives

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Nature of problems

• 2 critical attributes
• A problem is a situative unknown
• A situation in which something is unknown
• Difference between a goal state and a current
  state
• Finding the unknown has value
• Social, cultural or intellectual
• Somebody believes it is worth finding the unknown
• Jonassen, D. 2000. Toward a meta-theory of
  problem solvinghttp//tiger.coe.missouri.edu/jon
  assen/

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Problem solving

• 2 critical attributes
• Mental representation of a situation in the world
• Problem space
• Individual or social activity
• Manipulation of the problem space
• Conscious activity
• Model building, hypothesis generation, testing,
  etc.
• Jonassen, D. 2000. Toward a meta-theory of
  problem solvinghttp//tiger.coe.missouri.edu/jon
  assen/

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Problem solving skills
Problem solving skill
Problem variations
Individual differences
Representation

Structure Complexity Situatedness
Context Cues/clues Modality
Domain knowledge Structural knowledge Procedural
knowledge Cognitive style Confidence Motivation
Jonassen, D. 2000. Toward a meta-theory of
problem solvinghttp//tiger.coe.missouri.edu/jon
assen/
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Factors in problem variation
Simple/discrete
Domain-specific(situated)
Ill-structured
Well-structured
Domain-general(abstract)
Complex/meta-problem
Jonassen, D. 2000. Toward a meta-theory of
problem solvinghttp//tiger.coe.missouri.edu/jon
assen/
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Typology of problems

• Logical problems
• Algorithmic problems
• Story problems
• Rule-using problems
• Decision-making problems
• Troubleshooting problems

• Diagnosis-solution problems
• Tactical/strategic performance
• Situated cases/policy problems
• Design problems
• Dilemmas

Jonassen, D. 2000. Toward a meta-theory of
problem solvinghttp//tiger.coe.missouri.edu/jon
assen/