Part of a set of university teaching materials called "Encouraging Critical Thinking Online" by Meriel Patrick of Oxford University, made openly available for adaptation and re-use in the Intute Virtual Training Suite <http: />

1. Encouraging Critical
Thinking Online
Unit 1
Checking Facts and
Gathering Opinions

2. How many countries are there in
the world today?
• Find three websites that provide an
answer
• Fill in the boxes on the worksheet
for each of them
• Comment on any notable features
of the sites or answers you discover

3. How many countries are there in
the world today?
• The United Nations has 192 members,
plus one permanent observer state,
making 193
• However, other possible answers vary
from around 189 to over 260
– For example, 204 of the
205 National Olympic Committees were
represented at the 2008 Games in Beijing

4. How many countries are there in
the world today?
• ‘Country’ has multiple definitions
– Infoplease.com suggests countries are
“self-governing political entities”
– But constituent countries and
dependent territories complicate the
issue

5. How many countries are there in
the world today?
• For example, England, Scotland,
Wales, and Northern Ireland are
frequently described as countries
– The
Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
supports this
– But DirectGov views the UK as one
country made up of these four

6. Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
entry for England
http://www.getty.edu/vow/TGNFullDisplay?find=England&place=&nation=&prev_page=1&english=Y&subjectid=7002445 Retrieved 11 August 2008

7. Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
entry for England
http://www.getty.edu/vow/TGNFullDisplay?find=England&place=&nation=&prev_page=1&english=Y&subjectid=7002445 Retrieved 11 August 2008

8. Extract from DirectGov website
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/LivingintheUK/DG_10012517 Retrieved 11 August 2008

9. Extract from DirectGov website
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/LivingintheUK/DG_10012517 Retrieved 11 August 2008

10. How many countries are there in
the world today?
• Even with an agreed definition of
country, the situation isn’t clear cut
• Some regions have declared
independence, but this has not
been universally recognised – for
example Kosovo, Taiwan, and Tibet

11. How many countries are there in
the world today?
• Various websites give an overview
of the situation
– WorldAtlas.com
– The Geography Site
– About.com: Geography

12. Extract from WorldAtlas.com
http://www.worldatlas.com/nations.htm Retrieved 6 June 2008

13. Extract from The Geography Site
http://www.geography-site.co.uk/pages/countries/howmany.html Retrieved 11 August 2008

14. How many countries are there in
the world today?
• The answer changes as the political
situation does – but old sources
may not be updated
– This Ask Yahoo answer is from 2001,
but is still on the first page of results
for the Google search “
How many countries?”

15. Ask Yahoo’s answer – from 2001, but
still on the first page of Google results
http://ask.yahoo.com/20010105.html Retrieved 6 June 2008

16. Ask Yahoo’s answer – from 2001, but
still on the first page of Google results
http://ask.yahoo.com/20010105.html Retrieved 6 June 2008

17. Summary - key things to note
• Definitions of central terms may
affect the answer
• Even assuming a common
definition, opinions may vary
• Answers may change over time –
but sources may not be updated

18. Why might we find conflicting
answers to a question?
• There may be real uncertainty
about the answer
• Authorities may disagree
• There may be multiple ways of
interpreting a question

19. Why might we find conflicting
answers to a question?
• Some sources may be more up to
date than others
• Answers may vary in precision
• Some sources may simply be
wrong

20. Questions to ask when
assessing sources
• Who is the author?
– An individual or an institution?
– What are the author’s credentials?
• Is this a scholarly resource, or a
more informal one?
• How up to date is this source?

21. Questions to ask when
assessing sources
• Are there reasons to doubt the
reliability of this source?
– Does it include information I know to
be false?
– Does it contradict itself or use poor
reasoning?
– Is it biased towards a particular view?

22. Questions to ask when
assessing sources
• Is the information provided
confirmed by other sources?
– Are references provided?
– Do other websites agree? (A major
advantage of the Web is that many
sources can be compared quickly and
easily.)

23. Remember the three Ws
• WHO wrote this site?
– Is the author a trustworthy source?
• WHEN was it written?
– Is it up to date?
• WHY was it written?
– Does the author have an axe to grind?

24. This slideshow is part of
Encouraging Critical Thinking Online,
a set of free teaching resources
designed to develop
students’ analytic abilities,
using the Web as source material.
For the full set, please visit
Intute Training:
http://www.intute.ac.uk/training/