critical thinking skills success_1

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Hàng loạt nhà xây dựng kỹ năng phục vụ người đọc có nhu cầu để làm chủ các kỹ năng cụ thể cho mục đích vượt qua một thử nghiệm quan trọng, chẳng hạn như một lối ra kỳ thi, kiểm tra tuyển sinh, kỳ thi nghề, kỳ thi chứng chỉ. Trong 20 bài học theo các bước, độc giả tìm hiểu các nguyên tắc cơ bản của tư duy phê phán và áp dụng các kỹ năng giải quyết vấn đề thiết yếu cần thiết cho sự thành công. Bài học nhắm mục tiêu đòi hỏi phải có cam...

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C RITICAL THINKING SKILLS SUCCESS IN 20 MINUTES A DAY
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS SUCCESS IN 20 MINUTES A DAY ® Lauren Starkey NEW YORK
Copyright © 2004 LearningExpress, LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by LearningExpress, LLC, New York. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Starkey, Lauren B., 1962– Critical thinking skills success / Lauren Starkey.—1st ed. p. cm. ISBN 1-57685-508-2 1. Critical thinking—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title. LB1590.3.S73 2004 160—dc22 2003017066 Printed in the United States of America 987654321 First Edition ISBN 1-57685-508-2 For more information or to place an order, contact LearningExpress at: 55 Broadway 8th Floor New York, NY 10006 Or visit us at: www.learnatest.com
Contents INTRODUCTION How to Use this Book vii PRETEST 1 LESSON 1 Recognizing a Proglem 11 LESSON 2 Deﬁning a Problem 17 LESSON 3 Focused Observation 23 LESSON 4 Brainstorming with Graphic Organizers 29 LESSON 5 Setting Goals 43 LESSON 6 Troubleshooting 51 LESSON 7 Finding Resources 57 LESSON 8 Evaluating Facts 63 LESSON 9 Persuasion Techniques 71 LESSON 10 Misusing Information—The Numbers Game 79 LESSON 11 Checking Your Emotions 87 LESSON 12 Deductive Reasoning 93 LESSON 13 Misusing Deductive Reasoning—Logical Fallacies 99 LESSON 14 Inductive Reasoning 105 LESSON 15 Misusing Inductive Reasoning—Logical Fallacies 111 LESSON 16 Distracting Techniques 117 LESSON 17 Judgment Calls 123 LESSON 18 Explanation or Argument? 131 LESSON 19 Critical Thinking for Exams 137 LESSON 20 Putting It All Together 151 POST-TEST 159 v
How to Use this Book C T H I N K I N G S K I L L S S U C C E S S is about changing the way you think about the way RITICAL you think. Sound complicated? It’s not, especially when you learn how, lesson by 20-minute lesson. A critical thinker approaches problems and complicated situations aware of his or her thoughts, beliefs, and viewpoints. Then, he or she can direct those thoughts, beliefs, and viewpoints to be more rational and accurate. A critical thinker is willing to explore, question, and search out answers and solutions. These skills not only mean greater success at school and at work, but they are the basis of better decisions and problem solving at home, too. Critical thinking has been speciﬁcally identiﬁed by colleges and universities, as well as by many employ- ers, as a measure of how well an individual will perform at school and on the job. In fact, if you are apply- ing to college or graduate school, or for a job, chances are your critical thinking skills will be tested. Standardized exams, such as the SAT and ACT, have sections on critical thinking. Employers such as fed- eral and state governments, and many Fortune 500 companies, routinely test job applicants with exams such as the California Critical Thinking Test or the Cornell Critical Thinking Test. vii
– HOW TO USE THIS BOOK – with your goals. Effective troubleshooting removes set- Generally, critical thinking involves both problem backs and keeps you on task. solving and reasoning. In fact, these terms are often Lessons 7 and 8 explain how to ﬁnd the infor- used interchangeably. But speciﬁcally, what are critical mation you need to make sound decisions, and how to thinking skills? They include the ability to: evaluate that information so you don’t end up relying on facts and ﬁgures that aren’t accurate. You will specif- make observations ■ ically learn how to judge the content of websites, which be curious, asking relevant questions and ﬁnd- ■ are increasingly used for research, but can be biased, ing the resources you need misleading, and simply incorrect. challenge and examine beliefs, assumptions, ■ In Lesson 9, you will get a lesson in the art of per- and opinions against facts suasion. Not only will you be able to recognize when it recognize and deﬁne problems ■ is being used against you, but you will ﬁnd out how to assess the validity of statements and arguments ■ implement persuasion techniques effectively yourself. make wise decisions and ﬁnd valid solutions ■ Lesson 10 is about numbers, and how they are understand logic and logical argument ■ manipulated. Surveys, studies, and statistics can look important and truthful when in fact they are mean- You may already be competent in some of these ingless. You will learn what makes a valid survey areas. Or, you may feel you need to learn or improve on or study and how to watch out for their invalid all of them. This book is designed to help you either way. counterparts. The pretest will pinpoint those critical thinking skills you In Lesson 11, the topic of emotion, and its effect need help with, and even direct you to the lessons in the on critical thinking, is explored. You can’t think rea- book that teach those skills. The lessons themselves not sonably and rationally if you allow yourself to be only present the material you need to learn, but give you affected by bias, stereotyping, stress, or your ego. Learn- opportunities to immediately practice using that material. ing how to keep these emotional responses in check is In Lessons 1 and 2, you will learn how to recog- one of the best ways to improve critical thinking. nize and deﬁne the problems you face. You will prac- Lessons 12 and 13 explain deductive reasoning, tice prioritizing problems, and distinguishing between one of the two forms of logical argument covered in actual problems and their symptoms or consequences. this book. You will learn about deduction and how to Lesson 3 shows you how to be a better observer. tell the difference between valid and invalid deductive When you are aware of the situations and contexts arguments. Logical fallacies such as slippery slope and around you, you will make good inferences, a key to false dilemma are explored. critical thinking skills success. Lessons 14 and 15 are about inductive reasoning. In Lessons 4 and 5, you will learn how to use You will learn how to construct a valid inductive argu- graphic organizers such as charts, outlines, and dia- ment, and how induction is misused to create logical grams to organize your thinking and to set goals. These fallacies such as confusing cause and effect, and mak- visual tools help to clearly deﬁne brainstorming ing hasty generalizations. options and lead you from problems to solutions. Lesson 16 shows you other ways in which logi- Lesson 6 is about troubleshooting. This skill helps cal arguments are misused intentionally to distract. you to anticipate and recognize problems that interfere viii
– HOW TO USE THIS BOOK – Fallacies such as the straw man, red herring, and ad higher education admissions and on the job. In Lesson hominem are explained, and you are given many prac- 19, you will learn about theses tests, see exactly what tice exercises to help reinforce the lesson. such questions look like, and get to practice answering In Lesson 17, you will learn about judgment calls. some of them. These are difﬁcult decisions in which the stakes are Lesson 20 summarizes the critical thinking skills high, and there is no clear-cut right or wrong answer. that are taught in this book. It is a valuable tool for rein- Understanding how these decisions should be forcing the lessons you just learned and as a refresher approached and how to evaluate risks and examine months after you complete the book. It is followed by consequences will improve your ability to make judg- a post-test, which will help you determine how well ment calls. your critical thinking skills have improved. Lesson 18 teaches you about good explanations, For the next twenty days, you will be spending what they are, and when they are needed. Since it is twenty minutes a day learning and improving upon important to be able to distinguish between explana- critical thinking skills. Success with these skills will tions and arguments, you will learn some key differ- translate into better performance at school, at work, ences between the two and use exercises to practice and/or at home. Let’s get started with the pretest. Good telling them apart. luck! The beginning of this introduction discusses the use of critical thinking questions on exams—both for ix
C RITICAL THINKING SKILLS SUCCESS IN 20 MINUTES A DAY
Pretest T designed to gauge how much you already know about critical thinking skills. Per- HIS TEST IS haps you have covered some of this material before, whether in a classroom or through your own study. If so, you will probably feel at ease answering some of the following questions. How- ever, there may be other questions that you ﬁnd difﬁcult. This test will help to pinpoint any critical think- ing weaknesses, and point you to the lesson(s) that cover the skills you need to work on. There are 30 multiple-choice questions in the pretest. Take as much time as you need to answer each one. If this is your book, you may simply circle the correct answer. If the book does not belong to you, use a separate sheet of paper to record your answers, numbering 1 through 30. In many cases, there will be no simple right or wrong choice, because critical thinking skills involve making the most reasonable selection, or the one that best answers the question. When you ﬁnish the test, use the answer key to check your results. Make a note of the lessons indi- cated by each wrong answer, and be sure to pay particular attention to those lessons as you work your way through this book. You may wish to spend more time on them, and less time on the lessons you have a bet- ter grasp of. 1
– ANSWER SHEET – Pretest 1. 11. 21. a b c d a b c d a b c d 2. 12. 22. a b c d a b c d a b c d 3. 13. 23. a b c d a b c d a b c d 4. 14. 24. a b c d a b c d a b c d 5. 15. 25. a b c d a b c d a b c d 6. 16. 26. a b c d a b c d a b c d 7. 17. 27. a b c d a b c d a b c d 8. 18. 28. a b c d a b c d a b c d 9. 19. 29. a b c d a b c d a b c d 10. 20. 30. a b c d a b c d a b c d 2
– PRETEST – 4. Which one of the following is NOT an example 1. You conducted a successful job search, and of a persuasion technique? now have three offers from which to choose. a. Tigress jeans are available at your local What things can you do to most thoroughly Mega Mart store. investigate your potential employers? (Fill in all b. The very best mothers serve Longhorn that apply.) Chili-in-a-can. a. check out their websites c. “Vote for me, and I promise our schools b. watch the news to see if the companies are will improve. My opponent just wants to mentioned cut the school budget!” c. research their ﬁnancial situations d. Our tires not only look better, but they ride d. speak with people who work for them better, too. already 5. Which is a sound argument? 2. Every Monday, your teacher gives you a quiz a. I had a dream that I got a D on my biology on the reading he assigned for the weekend. test, and it came true. If I want to do better Since he typically assigns at least 50 pages of next time, I need to have a more positive textbook reading, the quizzes are difﬁcult and dream. you have not gotten good grades on them so b. Beth wanted to become a better driver, so far. Which answer represents the best idea for she took a driving class and studied the troubleshooting this problem and improving Motor Vehicles manual. Her driving really your grades? improved. a. ask for the assignment earlier in the week c. After a strong wind storm last October, all of b. schedule in more time on Saturday and the leaves were off the trees. That is when I Sunday for reading and studying learned that wind is what makes the leaves fall. c. get up an hour earlier on Monday morning d. When Max realized he was getting a cold, to go over the reading he started taking Cold-Go-Away. In four d. get a good night’s sleep and eat a good days, he felt much better, thanks to the breakfast before the quiz Cold-Go-Away. 3. What is the best conclusion for the argument 6. You are trying to decide what car to buy. You that begins, “The other eight people in my make a chart that compares a two-seater sports class . . .”? car, a two-door sedan, and a mini-SUV in three a. like meatballs, so I should too. categories. What would not be a suitable choice b. live in apartments on the south side of for a category? town, so I should live there too. a. price c. who studied Jorge’s notes got D’s, so I will b. gas mileage get a D too. c. tire pressure d. who met the new principal like him, so I d. storage capacity should too. 3
– PRETEST – 10. What is wrong with this argument? 7. Which answer best represents a situation that has been decided by emotion alone? “You think we need a new regulation to control a. You hate the winter, so even though you air pollution? I think we have already got too can’t afford it, you take a vacation to the many regulations. Politicians just love to pass Bahamas. new ones, and control us even more than they b. The school shuts down after a bomb threat. already do. It is suffocating. We deﬁnitely do c. Your company’s third-quarter earnings not need any new regulations.” were much higher than predicted. a. The person speaking doesn’t care about the d. You need a new mixer, so you watch the ads environment. in your newspaper, and buy one when it b. The person speaking has changed the goes on sale. subject. 8. In which case would it be better to do research c. The person speaking is running for politi- cal ofﬁce. in the library rather than on the Internet? d. The person speaking does not understand a. You are writing a report on recent U. S. pollution. Supreme Court decisions. b. You want to know the historical per- 11. What should you NOT rely on when making a formance of a stock you are considering judgment call? purchasing. a. intuition c. You need to compare credit card interest b. common sense rates. c. gossip d. You want to ﬁnd out more about the old d. past experience trails through the forest in your town. 12. Which is NOT a valid argument? 9. You read a story in the newspaper about salary a. There are six cans of tomatoes in the negotiations involving public transportation pantry, and another fourteen in the base- workers. The workers are threatening to go on ment. There are no other cans of tomatoes strike tomorrow if their demands for higher in his house. Therefore, he has twenty cans wages and better beneﬁts are not met. What rep- of tomatoes in his house. resents an inference made from this scenario? b. Everyone who was northbound on the a. Health insurance premiums are very Interstate yesterday was late to work. Faith expensive. was on the Interstate. Faith was late to work. b. The cost of gas will make ticket prices c. Huang lives in either Kansas City, Kansas, increase in the next few weeks. or Kansas City, Missouri. If he lives in c. People who ride the bus should look for Kansas, then he is an American. possible alternative transportation. d. No one who eats in the cafeteria likes the d. Employers never like to meet salary pizza. My boss eats in the cafeteria. There- demands. fore, she does not like the pizza. 4
– PRETEST – 16. Which of these situations does NOT require 13. What statement represents a judgment instead problem solving? of a fact? a. After you get your new computer home, a. My presentation was excellent. I am sure you ﬁnd that there is no mouse in the box. my boss will promote me now. b. When you get your pictures back from b. My presentation was excellent. The clients being developed, you realize that they are all told me they liked it. someone else’s. c. My presentation was excellent. It won an c. Everyone on your team wants to celebrate award from management. at the Burger Palace, but you just ate there d. My presentation was excellent. It was cited last night. as such on my peer evaluation. d. Your boss asks you to ﬁnish a report for 14. Your dream is to spend a summer in Indonesia. tomorrow morning, but it is your son’s birthday and you promised you would take After some research, you conclude that you will him to the ball game tonight. need $6,000 for the trip. Which answer repre- sents the best choice for goal setting to make 17. Which type of website most likely provides the your dream a reality? most objective information about Abraham a. Cut $200 per month of discretionary Lincoln? spending, and save the money. a. www.members.aol.com/LeeV/Lin- b. Ask family members and friends for colnlover.html: home page of a history pro- donations. fessor who wrote a book on Lincoln’s c. Sell your car and use the money to fund the presidency trip. b. www.southerpower.org/assassinations: a d. Look into a more reasonably priced desti- Confederate group’s site on famous assassi- nation for your summer trip. nations, most pages devoted to Lincoln 15. What is wrong with the following argument? c. www.lincolndata.edu: site of a historical preservation group that archives Lincoln’s America—love it, or leave it! correspondence d. www.alincoln-library.com: from the presi- a. There is nothing wrong with the argument. dential library in Springﬁeld, Illinois, b. It implies that if you leave the country on devoted to telling the life story of the six- vacation, you do not love it. teenth president c. It does not tell you how to love it. d. It presents only two options, when in fact there are many more. 5
– PRETEST – 21. Which of the following is a sound argument? 18. What is the most likely cause of the following: a. I got an A on the test. I was really tired last “Our hockey team has been undefeated this night, though, and I barely studied. To keep season.” getting A’s, I need to stop studying so hard. a. The other teams do not have new uniforms. b. Your car is not running well. You just tried b. We have a new coach who works the team that new mechanic when you needed an oil hard. change. I bet he is the reason you are hav- c. Some of our team members went to hockey ing car trouble. camp over the summer. c. I have not vacuumed in weeks. There is d. I wore my lucky sweater to every home dust and dirt all over my ﬂoors, and my game. allergies are acting up. If I want a cleaner 19. What is wrong with the “logic” of the following house, I need to vacuum more frequently. d. The Boston Red Sox have not won a world statement? series in almost one hundred years. They “How can you believe his testimony? He is a won the American League playoffs in 2003. convicted felon!” The Red Sox will lose the series. a. The fact that the person testifying was con- Read the paragraph and answer the following two victed of a crime does not mean he is lying. questions. b. A convicted felon cannot testify in a court of law. I always knew I wanted to be a marine biologist. When c. The person speaking has a bias against I was six, my parents took me to an aquarium, and I was criminals. hooked. But it was in college, when I got to work on an d. The person speaking obviously did not ocean research cruise, that I decided to specialize in attend law school. oceanography. The trip was sponsored by the Plankton 20. Evidence shows that the people who live in the Investigative Service, and our goal was to collect as many different types of the microscopic plants and ani- Antarctic score higher on happiness surveys mals as we could, in order to see what, if any, impact than those who live in Florida. Which is the the increased number of ﬁshermen had on the marine best conclusion that can be drawn from this ecosystem. Our group was divided into two teams, each data? responsible for gathering a different type of plankton. a. Floridians would be happier if they moved Working with the phytoplankton, especially the blue- to the Antarctic. green algae, was fascinating. We measured the chloro- b. People in colder climates are happier than phyll in the water to determine where, and in what those in warmer climates. quantity the phytoplankton were. This worked well c. There are only happy people in the Antarctic. because the water was so clear, free of sediment and d. Those in the Antarctic who scored high on contaminants. a happiness survey probably like snow. 6
– PRETEST – 25. Which explanation is weakest? 22. What is phytoplankton? a. Gas prices are so high that many people are a. another name for chlorophyll not going on long trips anymore. b. a microscopic plant b. I can’t wear my new shirt tomorrow c. a microscopic animal because it is in the wash. d. a type of ﬁsh c. Jose’s homework was late because it was 23. The author says her group was investigating not turned in on time. d. We do not have new textbooks this year whether more ﬁshermen in the area of study because the school budget was cut. had a. a positive impact on the local economy. 26. Which of these problems is most severe? b. depleted the supply of ﬁsh. a. Your professor is sick and misses class on c. made more work for marine biologists. the morning you are supposed to take a big d. a negative impact on the health of the sur- exam. rounding waters. b. You lose track of your schedule and forget 24. You want to sell your three-year-old car and to study for a big exam. c. You can’t ﬁnd one of the books you need to buy a new one. Which website would probably study for a big exam. give you the best information on how to sell a d. The big exam is harder than you thought it used car? would be and includes a section you did a. www.autotrader.com: get the latest pricing not study. and reviews for new and used cars; tips on detailing for a higher price 27. What is the most important reason for evaluat- b. www.betterbusinessbureau.org: provides ing information found on the Internet? free consumer and business education; a. Authors who publish on the Internet are consult us before you get started in your typically less skilled than those who publish new business! in print. c. www.newwheels.com: research every make b. Web writers are usually biased. and model of Detroit’s latest offerings c. Anyone can publish on the Internet; there d. www.carbuyingtips.com: everything you need is no guarantee that what you are reading is to know before you shop for your new car truthful or objective. d. Information found in print is almost always more accurate than that found on the Internet. 7
– PRETEST – 28. What is wrong with the following argument? 29. What is the real problem, as opposed to being the offshoots of that problem? “We should not change our grading system to a. Your bank charges a $40 fee for bounced numbers instead of letters. The next thing you checks. know, they will take our names away and refer b. You wrote a check at the grocery store, but to us by numbers, too!” did not have the money to cover it. a. The conclusion is too extreme. c. Every month, you spend more money than b. There is nothing wrong with the argument. you earn. c. Students should not have a say in the type d. Last month, you paid $120 in bounced of grading system for their schools. check charges to your bank. d. It does not explain why they want to get rid 30. Which phrase is an example of hyperbole? of letter grades. a. In a perfect world, there would be no war. b. That outﬁt would scare the skin off a cat. c. You are not the world’s best cook. d. He drives almost as fast as a Nascar driver. 8

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