Critical Thinking: a statement of expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction

Critical Thinking: a statement of expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction

1. It is understand as to be purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based

2. An effective and meaningful education requires that curricular, pedagogical and assessment strategies at all levels of education be coordinated so as to foster in students those cognitive skills and habits of inquiry associated with critical thinking

3. Critical Thinking Pedagogy

   • Should develop in students the cognitive skills and affective dispositions which characterize the good critical thinker. Rather than, or in addition, to targeting whether a given answer is correct.

4. Critical Thinking Assessment

   • Should target the quality of the critical thinking the students put into arriving at an answer

5. The ideal critical thinker

   • inquisitive, well-informed, trustful of reason, open-minded, flexible, fair-minded in evaluation, honest in facing personal biases, prudent in making judgments, willing to reconsider, clear about issues, orderly in complex matters, diligent in seeking relevant information, reasonable in the selection of criteria, focused in inquiry, and persistent in seeking results which are as precise as the subject and the circumstances of inquiry permit

6. Methodology

   • The Delphi Method as a powerful qualitative research methodology which allows people to make questions and obtain detailed responses about certain topic or information.

7. The cognitive skills of Critical Thinking

   • Interpretation
     • • Categorization • Decoding significance • Clarifying meaning
   • Analysis
     • • Examining ideas • Identifying arguments • Analyzing arguments
   • Explanation
     • • Stating results • Justifying procedures • Presenting arguments
   • Self-regulation
     • • Self-examination • Self-correction
   • Inference
     • • Querying evidence • Conjecturing alternatives • Drawing conclusions
   • Evaluation
     • • Assessing claims • Assessing arguments