A slide show on the various types of 'thinking" encountered in the TECH4310 course "The Futures of Climate and Energy"

1. Types of Thinking
For the TECH 4310 Course
Adjunct Professor - Jim Breaux, MSF
Fall 2014

2. Types of Thinking
Encountered in this Course
• Futures Thinking
• Critical Thinking
• Systems Thinking
• Cathedral Thinking

3. Cathedral Thinking
• Long term thinking – accomplishing a vision
over several generations.

4. FuturesThinking
1. Foresight: anticipating
the future state of
events
2. Foresight is a human
ability

5. Critical Thinking
Edward Glaser says, “The ability to think critically … involves
three things:
1. An attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful
way the problems and subjects that come within the
range of one's experiences
2. Knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and
reasoning, and
3. Some skill in applying those methods.”
You need to be prepared to question the
information you are given. More important
conclusions merit more intense questioning.

6. Systems Thinking
“The process of understanding how things that
are related influence one another within a
whole.”
“everything is connected to
everything else”

7. References and Further Reading
• www.criticalthinking.org website resource
• Edward M. Glaser, An Experiment in the Development
of Critical Thinking, Teacher’s College, Columbia
University, 1941
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09krCGboqzw
quick video on critical thinking
• Five part series on critical thinking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP29vOogWvw
• Systems thinking quotes
http://www.futurist.com/articles-archive/10-useful-
ideas-on-systems-thinking/