1. An education’s central mission
Critical Thinking
An education’s central mission

2. The Big Question
Everywhere we look, someone is making some claim or other about our behavior and experience, trying to make money and influence us.
How can we tell the difference between what is legitimate and beneficial and what is merely puffed-up advertising or just plain wrong?
Politics, Facebook claims, advertisements

3. Critical Thinking
Making crucial decisions on carefully accumulated evidence and well supported reasons
Not because of emotion or misplaced belief on isolated occurrences
Ask and seek answers at the right time, do you have evidence that the teacher is the worst, or is it your opinion.
Critical means criteria

4. Hallmarks of Critical Thinking
Ask questions – even about things others take for granted.
Much is undiscovered, uncertain, unsolved
We must first ask the questions before we can find the answers
There may be something that has always been done that way…Ask why, can it be done better?

5. Examine evidence Look carefully to assess a claim’s foundation
Based upon mere opinion?
A few intriguing but isolated occurrences
Careful observation?
Sweeping analyses of relationships?
Experimentation subjected to peer review?
Just because a person has an authority or has a lot of education, their claims might not be true

6. Look behind assumptions
Do we start our inquiry already leaning to a particular outcome?
Bias – an assumption or belief that unfairly influences our appraisal of the evidence
We attack a position before considering it objectively because we just know that it is wrong
Many biases are hidden or subtle.

7. APPLICATION Ground zero Mosque Repressed Memories
Evolution vs. Independent Design
Is all islams terrorists?