Critical thinking first ppt july 2016

INTRODUCTION
TO CRITICAL
THINKING
BCOM JULY 2016
By: Raji Thomas
traji@Strathmore.edu

Strathmore University
Wednesday, July 6, 2016 3

Strathmore University’s
Mission
To provide all round quality
education in an atmosphere of
freedom and responsibility;
excellence in teaching, research
and scholarship; ethical and
social development; and service
to Society.

WHY SHOULD I STUDY INTRODUCTION
TO CRITICAL THINKING?

WHY SHOULD I STUDY PHILOSOPHICAL
SUBJECTS?

Wednesday, July 6, 2016
7
Why do YOU study for
a Degree?

HUMAN BEINGS ARE RATIONAL
BEINGS

Leadership
10

How are we to change the world?
11

To provide an all-round education
for its students in an atmosphere
of freedom and responsibility.
Aim of Strathmore
University

S.H.S.S. Our aim.
• To forge personalities that are of the same
caliber as the technical knowledge and skills
of the person.
• Thus providing society with good individuals
and professionals who are technically and
morally prepared to place their knowledge at
the service of the human person and the
common good of society.

School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
(SHSS)
Strathmore offers humanities subjects in order
to enable its students attain a holistic
development.
Philosophical Subjects such as Ethics and
Critical Thinking are an integral component of
that all-round development.

Holistic growth as a person

Aim:
To help students to appreciate
and endeavour to develop art of
reasoning accurately in all
aspects of life.
Introduction to Critical
Thinking

Ask your self?
• Why do people buy stuff they don’t
need?
• Why do people vote for bad people as
their leaders?
• Why are there so many adverts today?
• Why are there so many conflicts based
on religion, ethnicity etc.?
• Etc.

At the end of the course the student
should be able to:
• Recognize the significance of search for truth in
University Education.
• Appreciate nature and significance of
philosophy in achieving the ends of university
education.
• Formulate and evaluate arguments.
• Apply Critical Thinking skills in academic writing
and other forms of communication.
• Appreciate the role of Critical Thinking in all
areas of personal life.
21

TOPIC 1
Idea of University Education
and the Role of Critical Thinking
22
By the end of this topic, the learner should be
able to:
• Relate the purpose of the university with
the need for critical thinking
• Unveil the role of critical thinking in
execution of the university’s key
functions
• Recognize the significance of Critical
Thinking in student’s life and beyond the
university

What is critical thinking?

able to:
• Trace the genesis of philosophical thinking
• Define Philosophy explaining its branches.
• Identify fundamental concepts and attributes of
Philosophy that bear on Critical Thinking
• Examine the application of Philosophy in daily life
TOPIC 2
What is Philosophy?

TOPIC 3
Knowledge and Truth
able to:
• Explain types, sources and relationship
between knowledge and truth
• Recognize errors committed in search
for knowledge and truth
• Appreciate the value of truth for a
flourishing life (within the university and
beyond)

TOPIC 4
Fallacies
By the end of this topic, the learner should be able
to:
• Define various types of fallacies
• Identify fallacies in arguments
• Show weaknesses of a fallacious argument
and correct the identified fallacies.

TOPIC 5
Critical Thinking: Tools and
Skills
able to:
• Analyze the elements/parts of thinking
• Evaluate thinking on basis of
appropriate intellectual standards
• Recognize and barriers in critical
thinking and ways to overcome them

CAT ONE
28

TOPIC 6
Argumentation
able to:
• Define an argument
• Identify arguments and parts of arguments; i.e.
reasons and conclusions.
• Identify different patterns of arguments
• Identify syllogisms and their structure, mood, and
figures.
• Rewrite arguments in standard form.
• Assess assumptions and context of arguments.
• Apply the art of assuring, guarding and discounting
arguments.Wednesday, July 6, 2016
29

CAT TWO

Topic 7
Rhetoric
By the end of this topic, the learner should
be able to:
• Explain the meaning and uses of rhetoric
• Illustrate the use of rhetorical devices
• Relate critical thinking and use of
rhetorical devices in presentation

TOPIC 8
Self-Examination
32
By the end of this topic, the learner
should be able to:
• Apply critical thinking skills in evaluation of
oneself
• Scrutinize oneself on the basis of strengths,
weaknesses, potentialities, opportunities and
threats
• Develop personal development project that
can be used in improving a person’s critical
thinking skills.

TOPIC 9
Faith and Reason
By the end of this topic, the learner
should be able to:
• Appreciate the fundamental differences
between faith and reason
• Relate errors in faith and reason debate
to errors of truth
• Highlight the significance of both faith
and reason in living a flourishing life

The students are expected to apply various
critical thinking skills they have learnt
through:
• Oral presentation in class on group work.
• Writing a philosophical essay on the topic of
their choice using philosophical writing skills.
• Apply what has been learnt so far and use
public speaking and other social media
platforms to communicate good arguments.
34
TOPIC 9
Group work presentations

35
Abortion Rights Gambling Population Domestic Violence Media Violence
Adoption Gangs Pornography
Driving Under the
Influence Medical Ethics
Affirmative Action
Genetic
Engineering Poverty Drug Legalization Mental Health
Alcohol Global Warming
Prayer In Public
Schools Eating Disorders Middle East
Animal
Experimentation Gun Control Prisons
Endangered
Species Suicide
Animal Rights Hate Crimes Racism Environment
Teenage
Pregnancy
Bioethics Health Care Rape Euthanasia Terrorism
Biological Weapons Homelessness School Violence Family Relations Welfare
Capital Punishment Homosexuality Sex Education National Security Women’s Rights
Censorship Human Rights
Sexual
Harassment Nuclear Weapons
Women In The
Military
Child Abuse Immigration Smoking Nutrition
Workplace
Violence
Cloning Internet Privacy Stem Cells Political Corruption
MISSING CLASSES
Crime Victims
Juvenile
Offenders Steroids
CHEATING IN
EXAMS
MAKING NOISE
INCLASS

01Idea of University Education
02 What is Philosophy?
03 Knowledge and Truth
04 Fallacies
05 Critical Thinking: Tools and Skills
06 Argumentation
07 Rhetoric
08 Self-Examination
09 Faith and Reason
Group work presentations .
Course Outline

STUDENT CENTERED LEARNING.
FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY

Lecturer’s details
• Email: traji@strathmore.edu
• Office: SRCC
• Consultation hours: Tue, Wed and Fri
Morning hours and Wed Evenings
Feel free to talk to me on any matter you think
I may help you in.

Teaching methodology

Class participation.

The ethics class has been so good
to me because it is the only
lecture that am able to be taught
realities about life

Presentation in class after group Discussions.
44

Guest lecturers in class when possible.
45

Personal development
project in critical
thinking.

The art of decision making.

“Critical thinking consists of a mental process of analyzing
or evaluating information, particularly statements or
propositions that people have offered as true. It forms a
process of reflecting upon the meaning of statements,
examining the offered evidence and reasoning, and
forming judgments about the facts.”
– Wikipedia
“Critical thinking is 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. “
- Michael Scriven & Richard Paul

Critical thinking is the art of thinking
about thinking while thinking to make
thinking better. It involves three
interwoven phrases: in analyzes
thinking, it evaluates thinking and it
improves thinking.
Richard Paul and Linda Elder 2012

Analyzing thinking
• By focusing on the parts of
thinking in any situation- its
purpose, question,
information ..

What is Critical Thinking?
• Problem solving
• Analyzing information
• Interpreting information
• Recognizing bias
• Understanding diverse points of view
• Applying information
• Learning!

Significance of Critical Thinking
(a) Informative
(b) Opens the mind
(c) Activates human’s rational capacity
(d) Challenges mental naivety
(e) Interrogates nature and other disciplines
(f) Nourishes the intellect
(g) Trains the mind to think
(h) Fosters understanding of oneself and others
(i) Encourages good reasoning
(j) Forms and shapes opinions
(k) Facilitates decision making
(l) Helps one to solve problems
(m)Guides ethical and moral values
(n) Fosters openness to truth
(o) Reflects on meaning of life

Informative

Opens the
mind

Interrogates nature and other
disciplines

Facilitates decision making

Nourishes the intellect

Trains the mind to
think

Encourages good reasoning

Helps one to
solve
problems

Guides ethical and moral
values

Fosters openness to
truth

Reflects on meaning of
life

Idea of University
Education and the role
of critical thinking

By the end of this topic, the learner should be able to:
Relate the purpose of the university with the need
for critical thinking
Unveil the role of critical thinking in execution of
the university’s key functions
Recognize the significance of Critical Thinking in
student’s life and beyond the university

University
• Latin- Universus
• Anglo-French- university or universitas
• The academy or studium

Historical Time Frame
• 12th Century AD University of Bologna
which became the center of legal
studies

Current Universities
• Bologna founded in 1088
• University of Paris founded in 1150
• University of Oxford founded in 1167
• University of Cambridge founded in
1209
• University of Salamanca founded in
1218

• If the idea of University is re-coined to
mean ancient institutions that did not
originally grant degrees but now do
some European and non-European
Universities pre-date University of
Bologna
• Nalanda University- 258 in India
• Al-Azar University- 988 in Egypt

Septem artes liberales
The seven liberal arts:
• Grammar
• Logic
• Rhetoric
• Arithmetic
• Geometry
• Music
• Astronomy

Trivium & Quadrivium
• Trivium:
• Grammar
• Logic
• Rherotic
• Quadrivium:
• Arithmetic
• Geometry
• Music
• Astronomy

Read Dorothy Sayers
The lost tools of learning

Metamorphosis
• Universities in the medieval period
considered themselves to be protectors
of human knowledge, but they did not
feel the urge to make it grow.
• Septem Artes Liberales were
considered as the whole of human
knowledge.
• From a Static kind of knowledge to one
that is dynamic

Principles of University
• Universality- Open to truth in totality
• Academic Freedom- Free to engage in
inquiry
• Autonomy- free from external influence

Aims of a University
• To Create or generate knowledge
• Knowledge dissemination and transfer
• Service to society

Argumentative Essay
• Read Philosophical Writing By: A. P.
Martinich
• Introduction and Chapter one before
the next class.

Assignment
• Read Apology By Plato
• Make and submit Cornell Notes on the
apology

Critical thinking first ppt july 2016

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