Title: Critical thinking | Psychology Wiki | Fandom
Headings: Critical thinking
Critical thinking
Contents
Overview
What is and is not universal in critical thinking
The uses of critical thinking
The affective dimension of critical thinking
Overcoming bias
Critical thinking in the classroom
Assessing Critical Thinking
Reaching a conclusion
Quotations
See also
References
External links

Content: Part of critical thinking comprises informal logic. However, a large part of critical thinking goes beyond informal logic and includes assessment of beliefs and identification of prejudice, bias, propaganda, self-deception, distortion, misinformation, etc. Given research in cognitive psychology, some educators believe that schools should focus more on teaching their students critical thinking skills, intellectual standards, and cultivating intellectual traits (such as intellectual humility, intellectual empathy, intellectual integrity, and fair-mindedness) than on memorizing facts by rote learning. As defined in A Greek-English Lexicon the verb krino- means to choose, decide or judge. Hence a krites is a discerner, judge or arbiter. Those who are kritikos have the ability to discern or decide by exercising sound judgment
The word krino- also means to separate (winnow) the wheat from the chaff or that which has worth from that which does not. Critical thinking is important, because it enables one to analyze, evaluate, explain, and restructure our thinking, decreasing thereby the risk of acting on, or thinking with, a false premise. However, even with the use of critical thinking skills, mistakes can happen due to a thinker's egocentrism or sociocentrism or failure to be in possession of the full facts. In addition, there is always the possibility of inadvertent human error . Universal concepts and principles of critical thinking can be applied to any context or case but only by reflecting upon the nature of that application.