COS Indiana Newsletter March Edition

Combining these three sets of characteristics, critical thinking becomes a guide to belief and
action.
To boil it down, critical thinking has two major components: skills and habits. The skills involve
the way we obtain and process information, and the habit becomes our commitment to practicing
those skills frequently.
Conversely, it is not about:
information for information’s sake.
having the skills without practicing them.
using the skills without considering the potential consequences.
Getting Closer to the Truth
Remember that this skill is all about the evaluation and application of information as a guide to
belief and action. But information is not always what it appears to be on the surface.
Look at these headlines about the Texas GOP party concerning the teaching of critical thinking in
the public schools.
Texas GOP Rejects Critical Thinking – Really – Washington Post
No More Critical Thinking in Schools! – Education Week
The Terrifying Republican Platform – Forbes magazine
From these headlines, you might believe the Texas legislature was banning teaching public school
children how to think critically. However, if we were to check the Austin Chronicle, we would find
that the articles in the preceding list related to a plank in the GOP platform. Digging deeper we can
visit the GOP website and read the actual party platform. Here’s the real truth – the plank in the
party platform reads like this:
"Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
(values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of
Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and
have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."
Not exactly the same thing, is it? The plank in the platform is actually about a method of
teaching, Outcome Based Education, and the fear that Outcome Based Education undermines
parental authority. But you wouldn’t know it by the headlines.
Tips for Researching Information
So thinking critically requires us to find information that gets us as close to the source as possible.
Here are some tips for doing that:
Don’t rely on a limited number of sources no matter how noble their intentions.
Start to dig. Google can be a starting point, as long as you remember that the first few
references (or pages of references) from Google will be those that most align with Google’s
algorithms.
Look to find conflicting views of the same information.
Research the authors of reviews or articles to determine their biases, to help you
understand what is really being said.
Remember that sometimes even though the source is openly biased (e.g., the Austin
Chronicle is left-leaning), you may find a clue that will lead you closer to the truth.
SIFT. LogicCheck.net suggests the SIFT method as a kind of mantra to help kickstart your
research.
The SIFT method has these four steps:
S – Stop – don’t accept or reject, check it out.
I – Investigate – this is the initial research process.
F – Find better coverage – check other sources, widen your reach.
T – Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context. In other words, what was really
said, and in what context was it said.
Why Do We Care?