Ethan Chazin presents critical thinki

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2. Special Thanks

3. In the next 3 hours…

4. This Morning’s Agenda
 What Is It?
 Characteristics of Critical
Thinkers
 Characteristics of Non-Critical
Thinkers
 Famous Quotes
 How to Think Critically


5. What Is Critical Thinking?

6. What Is It?

7. What Is It?
“Critical thinking is the identification and
evaluation of evidence to guide decision
making. A critical thinker uses broad
in-depth analysis of evidence to make
decisions and communicate her/
his beliefs clearly and accurately.”
The Critical
Thinking Co.

8. What Is It?

9. “Life is a tragedy for those
who feel, and a comedy for
those who think."
Jean de
la Bruyere

10. “Thought is great and swift
and free, the light of the world,
and the chief glory of man.”
Principles of Social Reconstruction.
Bertrand
Russell

11. “Many people would die
sooner than think; in fact,
they do.”
Bertrand
Russell

12. “Most people don't take the time
to think. I made an international
reputation for myself by deciding
to think twice a week."
George Bernard Shaw

13. “Think, think, think. It will
hurt like hell at first, but you'll
get used to it."
Barbara Castle

14. “just the facts, ma’am."

15. “Always question
authority.“
Why?

16. Critical Thinking Is NOT
Clinical Reasoning

17. It’s NOT Clinical Reasoning
www.chinesenursing.org/openAccess/sn331/html/doc/cyber-
M1_students.pdf

18. It’s NOT Clinical Reasoning

19. It’s NOT Clinical Reasoning

20. Hierarchy of Knowledge
Bloom’s Taxonomy, 1956
• Knowledge: What is
the most common
cause of...?
• Understand: If you
see this, what must
you consider…?
• Application: In this
patient, what is
causing…?
• Analysis, synthesis,
evaluation: critical
thinking?

21. The KSA Model
• Are there specific:
–

22. TT Chazin Group Knowledge
he Chazin Group
he
• Content learned in a conceptual framework:
– How do the facts fit together?
– What are the underlying mechanisms?
– What do you do when the patterns break down?
• Judge the credibility of the sources:
– From primary sources (Google it…)
– Primary sources:
• Study design
• Appropriate population
• Statistics
• Secondary sources:
– Textbooks
– Review articles
• Evidence-based medicine

23. TT Chazin Group Knowledge
he Chazin Group
he
• Bias and cognitive dispositions to
respond:
– Availability bias - probability assigned based on
ease of recall of specific examples; and
– Confirmation bias - selectively accepting or
ignoring data.

24. TT Chazin Group
he Chazin Group
he Skills
• Formulate hypotheses
• Make logical connections between ideas
• Utilize of data
• Identify assumptions

25. TT Chazin Group
he Chazin Group
he Attitude
• Have an open mind - willingness to
consider alternative explanations
• Be aware of your own cognitive
processes: what type of reasoning was I
using? (meta-cognition)
• Reflection - how did we go wrong? Where
did we make a mistake?

26. Importance to Medicine
“…few physicians spend much time thinking
about such a fundamental medical activity
as thinking. Logic is as important to
physicians as water is to fish. It surrounds
us all and we swim in it every day."
Suzanne Fletcher
Professor of Ambulatory Care & Prevention
Harvard Medical School &
Harvard Pilgrim Medical Care

27. Characteristics of Critical
Thinkers

28. TT What Group
he Chazin Makes
he Chazin Group a Critical Thinker?
• Analysis: Critical thinking can be defined as an
Analysis
approach to ideas from the standpoint of
deliberate consideration. (from VirutalSalt.com)
• Attention: Pay attention to the claims made all
Attention
around you.
• Awareness: have the ability to look around
Awareness
and consider all the thoughts provided, rather
than remaining fixed on your own limited
views.
• Independent Judgment: the ability to form
Judgment
independent judgments, based on good
evidence.

29. TT What Group
he Chazin Makes
he Chazin Group a Critical Thinker?
• Critical thinkers are by nature SKEPTICAL.
They approach text with the same skepticism
and suspicion as spoken comments.
• Critical thinkers are ACTIVE, not passive. They
ask questions & analyze. They consciously
apply tactics and strategies to uncover
meanings and confirm understanding.
• Critical thinkers don’t take an egotistical view of
the world. They’re OPEN to new ideas/
perspectives. They’re willing to challenge their
beliefs and consider competing evidence.

30. Characteristics of
Non-Critical Thinkers

31. TTPassive (Non-Critical)
he Chazin Group
he Chazin Group Thinkers
• Take a SIMPLISTIC view of the world.
• They see things in black and white, as
either-or, rather than recognizing a
variety of possible understanding.
• They see questions as YES/NO with no
subtleties.
• They fail to see linkages & complexities.
• They fail to recognize related items.

32. A Comparison
www.chinesenursing.org/openAccess/sn331/html/doc/cyber-
M1_students.pdf

33. “Shades of grey wherever I go.
The more I find out, the less
That I know.
Black and white is how it
should be.
But shades of grey are the
Colors I see.”
Billy Joel

35. How to Think CRITICALLY

36. Find
TT Chazin Group
he Chazin Group
he Assumptions
• Inferences Versus Assumptions:
– INFERENCE: A conclusion you come to, based
on something else that is true/you believe to be
true. (Ex. There will be layoffs in my dept.
because there were layoffs in another dept.)
– ASSUMPTION: Part of your belief system.
Something you don't question. Your mind takes
for granted that your assumption is true.
(Doctors think they know EVERYTHING.)
– Your beliefs (assumptions) cause you to come
to conclusions (inferences). Your inferences
then cause you to act accordingly.

37. Find
TT Chazin Group
he Chazin Group
he Assumptions
•Question your assumptions as a path to
substantiating them.
•Most statements or assertions are based
on assumptions.
•Sometimes assumptions are implicit, so
they’re much harder to find.

38. TT Chazin GroupEvidence,
he Trends,
he Chazin Group Exceptions
• There are many different ways to measure
variables, so absolute figures may not be that
relevant.
• In science, it is the EXCEPTION that disproves
the RULE.
• The Scottish philosopher David Hulme noted:
"A wise man proportions his belief to the
evidence.”

39. Be Skeptical
TT Chazin Group
he Chazin Group
he of Surveys
• Always ask: “Who is funding the project”
because EVERONE has an AGENDA.
• How are the questions worded/posed?
• How are those being questioned selected and
the context in which the questions are put to
them?
• How is the statistical analysis carried out and
the statistics interpreted?
• How are the findings presented/reported (or
misreported?)

40. he Look for
TT Chazin Group
he Chazin Group CAUSE & EFFECT
• Correlation does not necessarily mean
causation .
• Because two variables often occur together,
doesn’t mean that one actually causes the
other.
• The concept of causation is extremely complex.

41. TT Chazin Group Defer
he DON’T
he Chazin Group to Authority
• Albert Einstein once remarked: "Foolish faith
in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
• Study the evidence and make an independent
judgment, based on the balance of the
available evidence.
• Confirm the credibility of sources and
credentials of “experts.”

42. Beware
TT Chazin Group
he Chazin Group
he of GROUP Think
• The Emperor’s new clothes.
• You can be seduced by this esp. if you are a
member of a close-knit group of people where
there is a strong sense of loyalty to the group.
• The Independent Evaluation Office of the IMF
identified groupthink as a major factor in its
official report on why the IMF did not foresee
the international financial crisis of ‘07-’09.

43. TT ChazinTrust
he Chazin Group
he Group YOUR Instincts
• Trust your own intuition based on:
– your schooling;
– on-the-job training;
– Past work experience; and
– your certifications.

44. TT Chazin Group Can
Observing
he Chazin Group
he Change a Situation
• A situation occurs in experiments to test the
efficacy of drugs or medical treatments known
as 'the placebo response.' A placebo (sugar or a
'tonic' containing nothing medicinal) is used
with a control group of patients to compare
with another group taking the drug or
treatment being tested. Researchers have
found that frequently a placebo has a positive
effect because the person taking it believes it
will cure them.

45. he Find Group
he Chazin Meaningful
TT Chazin Group Statements
• Often politicians, businessmen, administrators
make statements which are meaningless:
– “I think that if we tried harder we could possibly do
somewhat better."
– "Some improvements in performance might be
expected in the fullness of time.”
– A much more meaningful sentence would be: "We
will reduce recorded crimes of violence by 10%
before the next election" or "If we increase our
capital expenditure by 5% annually for the next
three years, we should achieve a 25% increase in
revenues by the end of the decade".

46. Deconstruct
TT Chazin Group
he Chazin Group
he Elements
• In a paper or speech, look at the arguments,
the evidence, the structure, and the
presentation.
• In a novel, consider the plot, the
characterization and the language.
• In a film, think about the script, the acting, the
direction, the cinematography, and the music.

47. TT ChazinUse a
he Chazin Group
he Group SWOT Analysis
• SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method
used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project
or situation.
• Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the
hospital.
• Opportunities and threats are external.

48. TT Chazin Group SMART
he Create
he Chazin Group Objectives
• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Timed

49. Use
TT Chazin Group
he Chazin Group
he Statistics
• A statistic without any content is
MEANINGLESS.
• Averages can be misleading.
• Medians and modes often work better than the
mean.
• Consider how the data points in a set are
distributed.
• The PARETO Principle.
1, 5, 5, 5, 13, 50, 74, 100

50. he ChazinWhat’s
TT Chazin Group
he Group NOT There?
• When asked to respond to material most people
limit their comments to what is requested.
• What ISN’T there is just as important. You might
want to ask: “Why are certain arguments missing?”
“Why have certain sources not been used?
• What about patient medical histories, prior
treatments, allergies, past surgeries?
• A clinical trial or hospital annual report will put the
most favorable ‘spin' on activities and may not
mention the financial difficulties or threats.

51. Think OUTSIDE the Box
"Problems cannot be solved by
thinking within the framework in
which they were created.”

52. TT Chazin The Socratic
he Chazin Group
he Group Method
• Have someone take a position
on a controversial issue
(Euthanasia, evolution)
evolution
• Have someone else ask a
question to make that person
explain themselves.
• Ask a follow up question to
exploit a potential weakness
of the answer to the first
question.
• Keep going to you either
establish or disprove the
person’s argument.