Key Critical Thinking Skills

? Reflecting on what you're told. Take time out to consider your reaction to information. Do you agree with it, are you surprised or excited by it, or do you think it links to other information you have? If you disagree or disbelieve it, why? What would it take to convince you?

? Observing how information is presented. Is it in a paragraph, a table, an illustration, a graph, map or chart? Can you think of ways to improve the way information you have read about is presented?

? Comparing new information with previous knowledge. Does the new information extend or confirm your previous knowledge, by adding more instances, or contradict it because the results are different?

? Considering the status or reputation, skills and abilities of the people who give you information. Always ask what the possible bias of any information source might be: What's in it for them?

? Distinguishing between fact, hypothesis and opinion. Facts are what there is evidence for. Hypotheses are theories or ideas which need to be tested by academic enquiry. Opinion is personal. Based on impressions, experience and perhaps limited research, you can't demonstrate opinion objectively.

? Identifying the conclusion of an argument. Conclusions are what you are left with (or meant to be) after a discussion or argument. Conclusions, like the truth, are not always simple.

? Identifying the stages in an argument. The stages in an argument show the links between the information given and the conclusion.

? Evaluating the quality of the evidence presented. How good is the evidence? Where and who did it come from? How was it acquired? Always ask who gains and who loses.

? Being aware of what hasn't been discussed and wondering why not. Sometimes data is missing from a data set. Always ask what the data is not telling you, as well as what it is.

? Analysing and evaluating the argument. Evaluating data means giving it a value - not quite marks out of ten but sufficient to answer these questions: Is the argument or conclusion good? Does it explain all the circumstances or only some? Does it have flaws, or leave awkward examples out? How could I make it better?

? Making inferences, decisions and judgements. Making an inference is when you draw a conclusion from what is suggested but not explicitly stated. Decisions usually involve choices, and come after you have evaluated the different possibilities. Judgements, similarly, come after evaluations and usually state a preference for one thing over another after you have investigated both.

? Weighing up the evidence and presenting your own argument. Weighing up the evidence includes evaluating and judging it, and it could be that none of the theories or arguments given seem to work in all cases, so you may have an argument of your own to present.