{"ops":[{"insert":"When students learn to reason with skill within the content of their courses, they take ownership of the most basic principles and concepts within the subjects they are studying. The instructional ideas in all of our work are premised in this understanding. These ideas are based on a vision of instruction implied by critical thinking and an analysis of the weaknesses typically found in most traditional didactic lecture/quiz/test formats of instruction. We begin with two premises:\n \n■ that to learn a subject well, students must master the thinking that defines that subject, and"},{"attributes":{"indent":1},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"■ that we, in turn, as their instructors, must design activities and assignments that require students to think actively within the concepts and principles of the subject."},{"attributes":{"indent":1},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#211d1e"},"insert":"The essence of studying academic subjects with discipline entails learning the tools employed by the intellectually developed mind. This means "},{"insert":"internalizing fundamental concepts and principles before attempting to learn more advanced concepts. This requires that instructors design coursework that "},{"attributes":{"color":"#211d1e"},"insert":"makes intellectual work and deep learning manageable, practical, and intuitive to students."},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#211d1e"},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#211d1e"},"insert":"One of the goals of critical thinking is to foster lifelong learning and the traditional ideal of a liberally educated mind: a mind that questions, probes, and masters a variety of forms of knowledge, through command of itself, intellectual perseverance, and the tools of learning."},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#211d1e"},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"color":"#211d1e"},"insert":"Critical thinking helps put questions into clearer perspective. It illuminates that all bona fide fields of study share common intellectual structures and standards of reasonability. It emphasizes that foundational intellectual structures and standards of reasonability are worth learning explicitly and in themselves, since they help us more deeply interconnect and understand all that we learn. It also emphasizes foundational intellectual dispositions and values that define the traits of the disciplined thinker in all fields: intellectual autonomy, intellectual humility, intellectual integrity, intellectual perseverance, intellectual empathy, confidence in reason, and fairmindedness."},{"insert":"\n\nTo learn specific strategies for fostering critical thinking in instruction, read the many resources in our libraries for educators and students. Also view our many instructional design videos in our video library. Here are few of the resources in these libraries:\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"color":"#0066cc","link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/watchEmbeddedVideo.php?id=354"},"insert":"How to Foster Critical Thinking in Students on a Typical Day"},{"attributes":{"color":"#212121"},"insert":" (recently released webinar with Dr. Gerald Nosich)"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"color":"#0066cc","link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/viewDocument.php?doc=../content/library_for_educators/120/HowtoImproveStudentLearningforCommunityOnline.pdf&page=1"},"insert":"How to Improve Student Learning"},{"insert":"\n\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"color":"#0066cc","link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/viewDocument.php?doc=../content/library_for_students/29/Thinker__sGuideonHowtoStudyandLearnaDiscipline.pdf&page=1"},"insert":"The Thinkers Guide for Students on How to Study and Learn a Discipline"},{"insert":"\n"}]}