what is the concept of critical thinking

Critical Thinking Definition, Skills, and Examples

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what is the concept of critical thinking

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Critical thinking refers to the ability to analyze information objectively and make a reasoned judgment. It involves the evaluation of sources, such as data, facts, observable phenomena, and research findings.

Good critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions from a set of information, and discriminate between useful and less useful details to solve problems or make decisions. Employers prioritize the ability to think critically—find out why, plus see how you can demonstrate that you have this ability throughout the job application process.

Why Do Employers Value Critical Thinking Skills?

Employers want job candidates who can evaluate a situation using logical thought and offer the best solution.

Someone with critical thinking skills can be trusted to make decisions independently, and will not need constant handholding.

Hiring a critical thinker means that micromanaging won't be required. Critical thinking abilities are among the most sought-after skills in almost every industry and workplace. You can demonstrate critical thinking by using related keywords in your resume and cover letter, and during your interview.

Examples of Critical Thinking

The circumstances that demand critical thinking vary from industry to industry. Some examples include:

A triage nurse analyzes the cases at hand and decides the order by which the patients should be treated.
A plumber evaluates the materials that would best suit a particular job.
An attorney reviews evidence and devises a strategy to win a case or to decide whether to settle out of court.
A manager analyzes customer feedback forms and uses this information to develop a customer service training session for employees.

Promote Your Skills in Your Job Search

If critical thinking is a key phrase in the job listings you are applying for, be sure to emphasize your critical thinking skills throughout your job search.

Add Keywords to Your Resume

You can use critical thinking keywords (analytical, problem solving, creativity, etc.) in your resume. When describing your work history , include top critical thinking skills that accurately describe you. You can also include them in your resume summary , if you have one.

For example, your summary might read, “Marketing Associate with five years of experience in project management. Skilled in conducting thorough market research and competitor analysis to assess market trends and client needs, and to develop appropriate acquisition tactics.”

Mention Skills in Your Cover Letter

Include these critical thinking skills in your cover letter. In the body of your letter, mention one or two of these skills, and give specific examples of times when you have demonstrated them at work. Think about times when you had to analyze or evaluate materials to solve a problem.

Show the Interviewer Your Skills

You can use these skill words in an interview. Discuss a time when you were faced with a particular problem or challenge at work and explain how you applied critical thinking to solve it.

Some interviewers will give you a hypothetical scenario or problem, and ask you to use critical thinking skills to solve it. In this case, explain your thought process thoroughly to the interviewer. He or she is typically more focused on how you arrive at your solution rather than the solution itself. The interviewer wants to see you analyze and evaluate (key parts of critical thinking) the given scenario or problem.

Of course, each job will require different skills and experiences, so make sure you read the job description carefully and focus on the skills listed by the employer.

Top Critical Thinking Skills

Keep these in-demand critical thinking skills in mind as you update your resume and write your cover letter. As you've seen, you can also emphasize them at other points throughout the application process, such as your interview.

Part of critical thinking is the ability to carefully examine something, whether it is a problem, a set of data, or a text. People with analytical skills can examine information, understand what it means, and properly explain to others the implications of that information.

Asking Thoughtful Questions
Data Analysis
Interpretation
Questioning Evidence
Recognizing Patterns

Communication

Often, you will need to share your conclusions with your employers or with a group of colleagues. You need to be able to communicate with others to share your ideas effectively. You might also need to engage in critical thinking in a group. In this case, you will need to work with others and communicate effectively to figure out solutions to complex problems.

Active Listening
Collaboration
Explanation
Interpersonal
Presentation
Verbal Communication
Written Communication

Critical thinking often involves creativity and innovation. You might need to spot patterns in the information you are looking at or come up with a solution that no one else has thought of before. All of this involves a creative eye that can take a different approach from all other approaches.

Flexibility
Conceptualization
Imagination
Drawing Connections
Synthesizing

Open-Mindedness

To think critically, you need to be able to put aside any assumptions or judgments and merely analyze the information you receive. You need to be objective, evaluating ideas without bias.

Objectivity
Observation

Problem Solving

Problem-solving is another critical thinking skill that involves analyzing a problem, generating and implementing a solution, and assessing the success of the plan. Employers don’t simply want employees who can think about information critically. They also need to be able to come up with practical solutions.

Attention to Detail
Clarification
Decision Making
Groundedness
Identifying Patterns

More Critical Thinking Skills

Inductive Reasoning
Deductive Reasoning
Noticing Outliers
Adaptability
Emotional Intelligence
Brainstorming
Optimization
Restructuring
Integration
Strategic Planning
Project Management
Ongoing Improvement
Causal Relationships
Case Analysis
Diagnostics
SWOT Analysis
Business Intelligence
Quantitative Data Management
Qualitative Data Management
Risk Management
Scientific Method
Consumer Behavior

Key Takeaways

Demonstrate that you have critical thinking skills by adding relevant keywords to your resume.
Mention pertinent critical thinking skills in your cover letter, too, and include an example of a time when you demonstrated them at work.
Finally, highlight critical thinking skills during your interview. For instance, you might discuss a time when you were faced with a challenge at work and explain how you applied critical thinking skills to solve it.

University of Louisville. " What is Critical Thinking ."

American Management Association. " AMA Critical Skills Survey: Workers Need Higher Level Skills to Succeed in the 21st Century ."

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Article • 8 min read

Critical Thinking

Developing the right mindset and skills.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

We make hundreds of decisions every day and, whether we realize it or not, we're all critical thinkers.

We use critical thinking each time we weigh up our options, prioritize our responsibilities, or think about the likely effects of our actions. It's a crucial skill that helps us to cut out misinformation and make wise decisions. The trouble is, we're not always very good at it!

In this article, we'll explore the key skills that you need to develop your critical thinking skills, and how to adopt a critical thinking mindset, so that you can make well-informed decisions.

What Is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is the discipline of rigorously and skillfully using information, experience, observation, and reasoning to guide your decisions, actions, and beliefs. You'll need to actively question every step of your thinking process to do it well.

Collecting, analyzing and evaluating information is an important skill in life, and a highly valued asset in the workplace. People who score highly in critical thinking assessments are also rated by their managers as having good problem-solving skills, creativity, strong decision-making skills, and good overall performance. [1]

Key Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinkers possess a set of key characteristics which help them to question information and their own thinking. Focus on the following areas to develop your critical thinking skills:

Being willing and able to explore alternative approaches and experimental ideas is crucial. Can you think through "what if" scenarios, create plausible options, and test out your theories? If not, you'll tend to write off ideas and options too soon, so you may miss the best answer to your situation.

To nurture your curiosity, stay up to date with facts and trends. You'll overlook important information if you allow yourself to become "blinkered," so always be open to new information.

But don't stop there! Look for opposing views or evidence to challenge your information, and seek clarification when things are unclear. This will help you to reassess your beliefs and make a well-informed decision later. Read our article, Opening Closed Minds , for more ways to stay receptive.

Logical Thinking

You must be skilled at reasoning and extending logic to come up with plausible options or outcomes.

It's also important to emphasize logic over emotion. Emotion can be motivating but it can also lead you to take hasty and unwise action, so control your emotions and be cautious in your judgments. Know when a conclusion is "fact" and when it is not. "Could-be-true" conclusions are based on assumptions and must be tested further. Read our article, Logical Fallacies , for help with this.

Use creative problem solving to balance cold logic. By thinking outside of the box you can identify new possible outcomes by using pieces of information that you already have.

Self-Awareness

Many of the decisions we make in life are subtly informed by our values and beliefs. These influences are called cognitive biases and it can be difficult to identify them in ourselves because they're often subconscious.

Practicing self-awareness will allow you to reflect on the beliefs you have and the choices you make. You'll then be better equipped to challenge your own thinking and make improved, unbiased decisions.

One particularly useful tool for critical thinking is the Ladder of Inference . It allows you to test and validate your thinking process, rather than jumping to poorly supported conclusions.

Developing a Critical Thinking Mindset

Combine the above skills with the right mindset so that you can make better decisions and adopt more effective courses of action. You can develop your critical thinking mindset by following this process:

Gather Information

First, collect data, opinions and facts on the issue that you need to solve. Draw on what you already know, and turn to new sources of information to help inform your understanding. Consider what gaps there are in your knowledge and seek to fill them. And look for information that challenges your assumptions and beliefs.

Be sure to verify the authority and authenticity of your sources. Not everything you read is true! Use this checklist to ensure that your information is valid:

Are your information sources trustworthy ? (For example, well-respected authors, trusted colleagues or peers, recognized industry publications, websites, blogs, etc.)
Is the information you have gathered up to date ?
Has the information received any direct criticism ?
Does the information have any errors or inaccuracies ?
Is there any evidence to support or corroborate the information you have gathered?
Is the information you have gathered subjective or biased in any way? (For example, is it based on opinion, rather than fact? Is any of the information you have gathered designed to promote a particular service or organization?)

If any information appears to be irrelevant or invalid, don't include it in your decision making. But don't omit information just because you disagree with it, or your final decision will be flawed and bias.

Now observe the information you have gathered, and interpret it. What are the key findings and main takeaways? What does the evidence point to? Start to build one or two possible arguments based on what you have found.

You'll need to look for the details within the mass of information, so use your powers of observation to identify any patterns or similarities. You can then analyze and extend these trends to make sensible predictions about the future.

To help you to sift through the multiple ideas and theories, it can be useful to group and order items according to their characteristics. From here, you can compare and contrast the different items. And once you've determined how similar or different things are from one another, Paired Comparison Analysis can help you to analyze them.

The final step involves challenging the information and rationalizing its arguments.

Apply the laws of reason (induction, deduction, analogy) to judge an argument and determine its merits. To do this, it's essential that you can determine the significance and validity of an argument to put it in the correct perspective. Take a look at our article, Rational Thinking , for more information about how to do this.

Once you have considered all of the arguments and options rationally, you can finally make an informed decision.

Afterward, take time to reflect on what you have learned and what you found challenging. Step back from the detail of your decision or problem, and look at the bigger picture. Record what you've learned from your observations and experience.

Critical thinking involves rigorously and skilfully using information, experience, observation, and reasoning to guide your decisions, actions and beliefs. It's a useful skill in the workplace and in life.

You'll need to be curious and creative to explore alternative possibilities, but rational to apply logic, and self-aware to identify when your beliefs could affect your decisions or actions.

You can demonstrate a high level of critical thinking by validating your information, analyzing its meaning, and finally evaluating the argument.

Critical Thinking Infographic

See Critical Thinking represented in our infographic: An Elementary Guide to Critical Thinking .

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1 Introduction to Critical Thinking

I. what is c ritical t hinking [1].

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. Someone with critical thinking skills is able to do the following:

Understand the logical connections between ideas.
Identify, construct, and evaluate arguments.
Detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning.
Solve problems systematically.
Identify the relevance and importance of ideas.
Reflect on the justification of one’s own beliefs and values.

Critical thinking is not simply a matter of accumulating information. A person with a good memory and who knows a lot of facts is not necessarily good at critical thinking. Critical thinkers are able to deduce consequences from what they know, make use of information to solve problems, and to seek relevant sources of information to inform themselves.

Critical thinking should not be confused with being argumentative or being critical of other people. Although critical thinking skills can be used in exposing fallacies and bad reasoning, critical thinking can also play an important role in cooperative reasoning and constructive tasks. Critical thinking can help us acquire knowledge, improve our theories, and strengthen arguments. We can also use critical thinking to enhance work processes and improve social institutions.

Some people believe that critical thinking hinders creativity because critical thinking requires following the rules of logic and rationality, whereas creativity might require breaking those rules. This is a misconception. Critical thinking is quite compatible with thinking “out-of-the-box,” challenging consensus views, and pursuing less popular approaches. If anything, critical thinking is an essential part of creativity because we need critical thinking to evaluate and improve our creative ideas.

II. The I mportance of C ritical T hinking

Critical thinking is a domain-general thinking skill. The ability to think clearly and rationally is important whatever we choose to do. If you work in education, research, finance, management or the legal profession, then critical thinking is obviously important. But critical thinking skills are not restricted to a particular subject area. Being able to think well and solve problems systematically is an asset for any career.

Critical thinking is very important in the new knowledge economy. The global knowledge economy is driven by information and technology. One has to be able to deal with changes quickly and effectively. The new economy places increasing demands on flexible intellectual skills, and the ability to analyze information and integrate diverse sources of knowledge in solving problems. Good critical thinking promotes such thinking skills, and is very important in the fast-changing workplace.

Critical thinking enhances language and presentation skills. Thinking clearly and systematically can improve the way we express our ideas. In learning how to analyze the logical structure of texts, critical thinking also improves comprehension abilities.

Critical thinking promotes creativity. To come up with a creative solution to a problem involves not just having new ideas. It must also be the case that the new ideas being generated are useful and relevant to the task at hand. Critical thinking plays a crucial role in evaluating new ideas, selecting the best ones and modifying them if necessary.

Critical thinking is crucial for self-reflection. In order to live a meaningful life and to structure our lives accordingly, we need to justify and reflect on our values and decisions. Critical thinking provides the tools for this process of self-evaluation.

Good critical thinking is the foundation of science and democracy. Science requires the critical use of reason in experimentation and theory confirmation. The proper functioning of a liberal democracy requires citizens who can think critically about social issues to inform their judgments about proper governance and to overcome biases and prejudice.

Critical thinking is a metacognitive skill . What this means is that it is a higher-level cognitive skill that involves thinking about thinking. We have to be aware of the good principles of reasoning, and be reflective about our own reasoning. In addition, we often need to make a conscious effort to improve ourselves, avoid biases, and maintain objectivity. This is notoriously hard to do. We are all able to think but to think well often requires a long period of training. The mastery of critical thinking is similar to the mastery of many other skills. There are three important components: theory, practice, and attitude.

III. Improv ing O ur T hinking S kills

If we want to think correctly, we need to follow the correct rules of reasoning. Knowledge of theory includes knowledge of these rules. These are the basic principles of critical thinking, such as the laws of logic, and the methods of scientific reasoning, etc.

Also, it would be useful to know something about what not to do if we want to reason correctly. This means we should have some basic knowledge of the mistakes that people make. First, this requires some knowledge of typical fallacies. Second, psychologists have discovered persistent biases and limitations in human reasoning. An awareness of these empirical findings will alert us to potential problems.

However, merely knowing the principles that distinguish good and bad reasoning is not enough. We might study in the classroom about how to swim, and learn about the basic theory, such as the fact that one should not breathe underwater. But unless we can apply such theoretical knowledge through constant practice, we might not actually be able to swim.

Similarly, to be good at critical thinking skills it is necessary to internalize the theoretical principles so that we can actually apply them in daily life. There are at least two ways to do this. One is to perform lots of quality exercises. These exercises don’t just include practicing in the classroom or receiving tutorials; they also include engaging in discussions and debates with other people in our daily lives, where the principles of critical thinking can be applied. The second method is to think more deeply about the principles that we have acquired. In the human mind, memory and understanding are acquired through making connections between ideas.

Good critical thinking skills require more than just knowledge and practice. Persistent practice can bring about improvements only if one has the right kind of motivation and attitude. The following attitudes are not uncommon, but they are obstacles to critical thinking:

I prefer being given the correct answers rather than figuring them out myself.
I don’t like to think a lot about my decisions as I rely only on gut feelings.
I don’t usually review the mistakes I have made.
I don’t like to be criticized.

To improve our thinking we have to recognize the importance of reflecting on the reasons for belief and action. We should also be willing to engage in debate, break old habits, and deal with linguistic complexities and abstract concepts.

The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory is a psychological test that is used to measure whether people are disposed to think critically. It measures the seven different thinking habits listed below, and it is useful to ask ourselves to what extent they describe the way we think:

Truth-Seeking—Do you try to understand how things really are? Are you interested in finding out the truth?
Open-Mindedness—How receptive are you to new ideas, even when you do not intuitively agree with them? Do you give new concepts a fair hearing?
Analyticity—Do you try to understand the reasons behind things? Do you act impulsively or do you evaluate the pros and cons of your decisions?
Systematicity—Are you systematic in your thinking? Do you break down a complex problem into parts?
Confidence in Reasoning—Do you always defer to other people? How confident are you in your own judgment? Do you have reasons for your confidence? Do you have a way to evaluate your own thinking?
Inquisitiveness—Are you curious about unfamiliar topics and resolving complicated problems? Will you chase down an answer until you find it?
Maturity of Judgment—Do you jump to conclusions? Do you try to see things from different perspectives? Do you take other people’s experiences into account?

Finally, as mentioned earlier, psychologists have discovered over the years that human reasoning can be easily affected by a variety of cognitive biases. For example, people tend to be over-confident of their abilities and focus too much on evidence that supports their pre-existing opinions. We should be alert to these biases in our attitudes towards our own thinking.

IV. Defining Critical Thinking

There are many different definitions of critical thinking. Here we list some of the well-known ones. You might notice that they all emphasize the importance of clarity and rationality. Here we will look at some well-known definitions in chronological order.

1) Many people trace the importance of critical thinking in education to the early twentieth-century American philosopher John Dewey. But Dewey did not make very extensive use of the term “critical thinking.” Instead, in his book How We Think (1910), he argued for the importance of what he called “reflective thinking”:

…[when] the ground or basis for a belief is deliberately sought and its adequacy to support the belief examined. This process is called reflective thought; it alone is truly educative in value…

Active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends, constitutes reflective thought.

There is however one passage from How We Think where Dewey explicitly uses the term “critical thinking”:

The essence of critical thinking is suspended judgment; and the essence of this suspense is inquiry to determine the nature of the problem before proceeding to attempts at its solution. This, more than any other thing, transforms mere inference into tested inference, suggested conclusions into proof.

2) The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (1980) is a well-known psychological test of critical thinking ability. The authors of this test define critical thinking as:

…a composite of attitudes, knowledge and skills. This composite includes: (1) attitudes of inquiry that involve an ability to recognize the existence of problems and an acceptance of the general need for evidence in support of what is asserted to be true; (2) knowledge of the nature of valid inferences, abstractions, and generalizations in which the weight or accuracy of different kinds of evidence are logically determined; and (3) skills in employing and applying the above attitudes and knowledge.

3) A very well-known and influential definition of critical thinking comes from philosopher and professor Robert Ennis in his work “A Taxonomy of Critical Thinking Dispositions and Abilities” (1987):

Critical thinking is reasonable reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do.

4) The following definition comes from a statement written in 1987 by the philosophers Michael Scriven and Richard Paul for the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking (link), an organization promoting critical thinking in the US:

Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue, assumptions, concepts, empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions, implications and consequences, objections from alternative viewpoints, and frame of reference.

The following excerpt from Peter A. Facione’s “Critical Thinking: A Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction” (1990) is quoted from a report written for the American Philosophical Association:

We understand critical thinking to be purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based. CT is essential as a tool of inquiry. As such, CT is a liberating force in education and a powerful resource in one’s personal and civic life. While not synonymous with good thinking, CT is a pervasive and self-rectifying human phenomenon. The ideal critical thinker is habitually inquisitive, well-informed, trustful of reason, open-minded, flexible, fairminded in evaluation, honest in facing personal biases, prudent in making judgments, willing to reconsider, clear about issues, orderly in complex matters, diligent in seeking relevant information, reasonable in the selection of criteria, focused in inquiry, and persistent in seeking results which are as precise as the subject and the circumstances of inquiry permit. Thus, educating good critical thinkers means working toward this ideal. It combines developing CT skills with nurturing those dispositions which consistently yield useful insights and which are the basis of a rational and democratic society.

V. Two F eatures of C ritical T hinking

A. how not what .

Critical thinking is concerned not with what you believe, but rather how or why you believe it. Most classes, such as those on biology or chemistry, teach you what to believe about a subject matter. In contrast, critical thinking is not particularly interested in what the world is, in fact, like. Rather, critical thinking will teach you how to form beliefs and how to think. It is interested in the type of reasoning you use when you form your beliefs, and concerns itself with whether you have good reasons to believe what you believe. Therefore, this class isn’t a class on the psychology of reasoning, which brings us to the second important feature of critical thinking.

B. Ought N ot Is ( or Normative N ot Descriptive )

There is a difference between normative and descriptive theories. Descriptive theories, such as those provided by physics, provide a picture of how the world factually behaves and operates. In contrast, normative theories, such as those provided by ethics or political philosophy, provide a picture of how the world should be. Rather than ask question such as why something is the way it is, normative theories ask how something should be. In this course, we will be interested in normative theories that govern our thinking and reasoning. Therefore, we will not be interested in how we actually reason, but rather focus on how we ought to reason.

In the introduction to this course we considered a selection task with cards that must be flipped in order to check the validity of a rule. We noted that many people fail to identify all the cards required to check the rule. This is how people do in fact reason (descriptive). We then noted that you must flip over two cards. This is how people ought to reason (normative).

Section I-IV are taken from http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/ and are in use under the creative commons license. Some modifications have been made to the original content. ↵

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What is Critical Thinking?

The ability to think critically calls for a higher-order thinking than simply the ability to recall information.

Definitions of critical thinking, its elements, and its associated activities fill the educational literature of the past forty years. Critical thinking has been described as an ability to question; to acknowledge and test previously held assumptions; to recognize ambiguity; to examine, interpret, evaluate, reason, and reflect; to make informed judgments and decisions; and to clarify, articulate, and justify positions (Hullfish & Smith, 1961; Ennis, 1962; Ruggiero, 1975; Scriven, 1976; Hallet, 1984; Kitchener, 1986; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Mines et al., 1990; Halpern, 1996; Paul & Elder, 2001; Petress, 2004; Holyoak & Morrison, 2005; among others).

After a careful review of the mountainous body of literature defining critical thinking and its elements, UofL has chosen to adopt the language of Michael Scriven and Richard Paul (2003) as a comprehensive, concise operating definition:

Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.

Paul and Scriven go on to suggest that critical thinking is based on: "universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue, assumptions, concepts, empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions, implication and consequences, objections from alternative viewpoints, and frame of reference. Critical thinking - in being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes - is incorporated in a family of interwoven modes of thinking, among them: scientific thinking, mathematical thinking, historical thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking, moral thinking, and philosophical thinking."

This conceptualization of critical thinking has been refined and developed further by Richard Paul and Linder Elder into the Paul-Elder framework of critical thinking. Currently, this approach is one of the most widely published and cited frameworks in the critical thinking literature. According to the Paul-Elder framework, critical thinking is the:

Analysis of thinking by focusing on the parts or structures of thinking ("the Elements of Thought")
Evaluation of thinking by focusing on the quality ("the Universal Intellectual Standards")
Improvement of thinking by using what you have learned ("the Intellectual Traits")

Selection of a Critical Thinking Framework

The University of Louisville chose the Paul-Elder model of Critical Thinking as the approach to guide our efforts in developing and enhancing our critical thinking curriculum. The Paul-Elder framework was selected based on criteria adapted from the characteristics of a good model of critical thinking developed at Surry Community College. The Paul-Elder critical thinking framework is comprehensive, uses discipline-neutral terminology, is applicable to all disciplines, defines specific cognitive skills including metacognition, and offers high quality resources.

Why the selection of a single critical thinking framework?

The use of a single critical thinking framework is an important aspect of institution-wide critical thinking initiatives (Paul and Nosich, 1993; Paul, 2004). According to this view, critical thinking instruction should not be relegated to one or two disciplines or departments with discipline specific language and conceptualizations. Rather, critical thinking instruction should be explicitly infused in all courses so that critical thinking skills can be developed and reinforced in student learning across the curriculum. The use of a common approach with a common language allows for a central organizer and for the development of critical thinking skill sets in all courses.

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Critical Thinking

Jonathan Haber was an educational researcher, writer and entrepreneur working in the fields of critical-thinking education, assessment, and technology-enabled learning whose work has been featured in the New York Times , the Boston Globe , the Chronicle of Higher Education , and the Wall Street Journal . He is the author of another MIT Press Essential Knowledge book, MOOCs , and The Critical Voter .

How the concept of critical thinking emerged, how it has been defined, and how critical thinking skills can be taught.

Critical thinking is regularly cited as an essential twenty-first century skill, the key to success in school and work. Given our propensity to believe fake news, draw incorrect conclusions, and make decisions based on emotion rather than reason, it might even be said that critical thinking is vital to the survival of a democratic society. But what, exactly, is critical thinking? In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Jonathan Haber explains how the concept of critical thinking emerged, how it has been defined, and how critical thinking skills can be taught and assessed.

Haber describes the term's origins in such disciplines as philosophy, psychology, and science. He examines the components of critical thinking, including structured thinking, language skills, background knowledge, and information literacy, along with such necessary intellectual traits as intellectual humility, empathy, and open-mindedness. He discusses how research has defined critical thinking, how elements of critical thinking have been taught for centuries, and how educators can teach critical thinking skills now.

Haber argues that the most important critical thinking issue today is that not enough people are doing enough of it. Fortunately, critical thinking can be taught, practiced, and evaluated. This book offers a guide for teachers, students, and aspiring critical thinkers everywhere, including advice for educational leaders and policy makers on how to make the teaching and learning of critical thinking an educational priority and practical reality.

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Critical Thinking By: Jonathan Haber https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/12081.001.0001 ISBN (electronic): 9780262357340 Publisher: The MIT Press Published: 2020

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Supplement to Critical Thinking

This supplement elaborates on the history of the articulation, promotion and adoption of critical thinking as an educational goal.

John Dewey (1910: 74, 82) introduced the term ‘critical thinking’ as the name of an educational goal, which he identified with a scientific attitude of mind. More commonly, he called the goal ‘reflective thought’, ‘reflective thinking’, ‘reflection’, or just ‘thought’ or ‘thinking’. He describes his book as written for two purposes. The first was to help people to appreciate the kinship of children’s native curiosity, fertile imagination and love of experimental inquiry to the scientific attitude. The second was to help people to consider how recognizing this kinship in educational practice “would make for individual happiness and the reduction of social waste” (iii). He notes that the ideas in the book obtained concreteness in the Laboratory School in Chicago.

Dewey’s ideas were put into practice by some of the schools that participated in the Eight-Year Study in the 1930s sponsored by the Progressive Education Association in the United States. For this study, 300 colleges agreed to consider for admission graduates of 30 selected secondary schools or school systems from around the country who experimented with the content and methods of teaching, even if the graduates had not completed the then-prescribed secondary school curriculum. One purpose of the study was to discover through exploration and experimentation how secondary schools in the United States could serve youth more effectively (Aikin 1942). Each experimental school was free to change the curriculum as it saw fit, but the schools agreed that teaching methods and the life of the school should conform to the idea (previously advocated by Dewey) that people develop through doing things that are meaningful to them, and that the main purpose of the secondary school was to lead young people to understand, appreciate and live the democratic way of life characteristic of the United States (Aikin 1942: 17–18). In particular, school officials believed that young people in a democracy should develop the habit of reflective thinking and skill in solving problems (Aikin 1942: 81). Students’ work in the classroom thus consisted more often of a problem to be solved than a lesson to be learned. Especially in mathematics and science, the schools made a point of giving students experience in clear, logical thinking as they solved problems. The report of one experimental school, the University School of Ohio State University, articulated this goal of improving students’ thinking:

Critical or reflective thinking originates with the sensing of a problem. It is a quality of thought operating in an effort to solve the problem and to reach a tentative conclusion which is supported by all available data. It is really a process of problem solving requiring the use of creative insight, intellectual honesty, and sound judgment. It is the basis of the method of scientific inquiry. The success of democracy depends to a large extent on the disposition and ability of citizens to think critically and reflectively about the problems which must of necessity confront them, and to improve the quality of their thinking is one of the major goals of education. (Commission on the Relation of School and College of the Progressive Education Association 1943: 745–746)

The Eight-Year Study had an evaluation staff, which developed, in consultation with the schools, tests to measure aspects of student progress that fell outside the focus of the traditional curriculum. The evaluation staff classified many of the schools’ stated objectives under the generic heading “clear thinking” or “critical thinking” (Smith, Tyler, & Evaluation Staff 1942: 35–36). To develop tests of achievement of this broad goal, they distinguished five overlapping aspects of it: ability to interpret data, abilities associated with an understanding of the nature of proof, and the abilities to apply principles of science, of social studies and of logical reasoning. The Eight-Year Study also had a college staff, directed by a committee of college administrators, whose task was to determine how well the experimental schools had prepared their graduates for college. The college staff compared the performance of 1,475 college students from the experimental schools with an equal number of graduates from conventional schools, matched in pairs by sex, age, race, scholastic aptitude scores, home and community background, interests, and probable future. They concluded that, on 18 measures of student success, the graduates of the experimental schools did a somewhat better job than the comparison group. The graduates from the six most traditional of the experimental schools showed no large or consistent differences. The graduates from the six most experimental schools, on the other hand, had much greater differences in their favour. The graduates of the two most experimental schools, the college staff reported:

… surpassed their comparison groups by wide margins in academic achievement, intellectual curiosity, scientific approach to problems, and interest in contemporary affairs. The differences in their favor were even greater in general resourcefulness, in enjoyment of reading, [in] participation in the arts, in winning non-academic honors, and in all aspects of college life except possibly participation in sports and social activities. (Aikin 1942: 114)

One of these schools was a private school with students from privileged families and the other the experimental section of a public school with students from non-privileged families. The college staff reported that the graduates of the two schools were indistinguishable from each other in terms of college success.

In 1933 Dewey issued an extensively rewritten edition of his How We Think (Dewey 1910), with the sub-title “A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process”. Although the restatement retains the basic structure and content of the original book, Dewey made a number of changes. He rewrote and simplified his logical analysis of the process of reflection, made his ideas clearer and more definite, replaced the terms ‘induction’ and ‘deduction’ by the phrases ‘control of data and evidence’ and ‘control of reasoning and concepts’, added more illustrations, rearranged chapters, and revised the parts on teaching to reflect changes in schools since 1910. In particular, he objected to one-sided practices of some “experimental” and “progressive” schools that allowed children freedom but gave them no guidance, citing as objectionable practices novelty and variety for their own sake, experiences and activities with real materials but of no educational significance, treating random and disconnected activity as if it were an experiment, failure to summarize net accomplishment at the end of an inquiry, non-educative projects, and treatment of the teacher as a negligible factor rather than as “the intellectual leader of a social group” (Dewey 1933: 273). Without explaining his reasons, Dewey eliminated the previous edition’s uses of the words ‘critical’ and ‘uncritical’, thus settling firmly on ‘reflection’ or ‘reflective thinking’ as the preferred term for his subject-matter. In the revised edition, the word ‘critical’ occurs only once, where Dewey writes that “a person may not be sufficiently critical about the ideas that occur to him” (1933: 16, italics in original); being critical is thus a component of reflection, not the whole of it. In contrast, the Eight-Year Study by the Progressive Education Association treated ‘critical thinking’ and ‘reflective thinking’ as synonyms.

In the same period, Dewey collaborated on a history of the Laboratory School in Chicago with two former teachers from the school (Mayhew & Edwards 1936). The history describes the school’s curriculum and organization, activities aimed at developing skills, parents’ involvement, and the habits of mind that the children acquired. A concluding chapter evaluates the school’s achievements, counting as a success its staging of the curriculum to correspond to the natural development of the growing child. In two appendices, the authors describe the evolution of Dewey’s principles of education and Dewey himself describes the theory of the Chicago experiment (Dewey 1936).

Glaser (1941) reports in his doctoral dissertation the method and results of an experiment in the development of critical thinking conducted in the fall of 1938. He defines critical thinking as Dewey defined reflective thinking:

Critical thinking calls for a persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it tends. (Glaser 1941: 6; cf. Dewey 1910: 6; Dewey 1933: 9)

In the experiment, eight lesson units directed at improving critical thinking abilities were taught to four grade 12 high school classes, with pre-test and post-test of the students using the Otis Quick-Scoring Mental Ability Test and the Watson-Glaser Tests of Critical Thinking (developed in collaboration with Glaser’s dissertation sponsor, Goodwin Watson). The average gain in scores on these tests was greater to a statistically significant degree among the students who received the lessons in critical thinking than among the students in a control group of four grade 12 high school classes taking the usual curriculum in English. Glaser concludes:

The aspect of critical thinking which appears most susceptible to general improvement is the attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that come within the range of one’s experience. An attitude of wanting evidence for beliefs is more subject to general transfer. Development of skill in applying the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning, however, appears to be specifically related to, and in fact limited by, the acquisition of pertinent knowledge and facts concerning the problem or subject matter toward which the thinking is to be directed. (Glaser 1941: 175)

Retest scores and observable behaviour indicated that students in the intervention group retained their growth in ability to think critically for at least six months after the special instruction.

In 1948 a group of U.S. college examiners decided to develop taxonomies of educational objectives with a common vocabulary that they could use for communicating with each other about test items. The first of these taxonomies, for the cognitive domain, appeared in 1956 (Bloom et al. 1956), and included critical thinking objectives. It has become known as Bloom’s taxonomy. A second taxonomy, for the affective domain (Krathwohl, Bloom, & Masia 1964), and a third taxonomy, for the psychomotor domain (Simpson 1966–67), appeared later. Each of the taxonomies is hierarchical, with achievement of a higher educational objective alleged to require achievement of corresponding lower educational objectives.

Bloom’s taxonomy has six major categories. From lowest to highest, they are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Within each category, there are sub-categories, also arranged hierarchically from the educationally prior to the educationally posterior. The lowest category, though called ‘knowledge’, is confined to objectives of remembering information and being able to recall or recognize it, without much transformation beyond organizing it (Bloom et al. 1956: 28–29). The five higher categories are collectively termed “intellectual abilities and skills” (Bloom et al. 1956: 204). The term is simply another name for critical thinking abilities and skills:

Although information or knowledge is recognized as an important outcome of education, very few teachers would be satisfied to regard this as the primary or the sole outcome of instruction. What is needed is some evidence that the students can do something with their knowledge, that is, that they can apply the information to new situations and problems. It is also expected that students will acquire generalized techniques for dealing with new problems and new materials. Thus, it is expected that when the student encounters a new problem or situation, he will select an appropriate technique for attacking it and will bring to bear the necessary information, both facts and principles. This has been labeled “critical thinking” by some, “reflective thinking” by Dewey and others, and “problem solving” by still others. In the taxonomy, we have used the term “intellectual abilities and skills”. (Bloom et al. 1956: 38)

Comprehension and application objectives, as their names imply, involve understanding and applying information. Critical thinking abilities and skills show up in the three highest categories of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The condensed version of Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom et al. 1956: 201–207) gives the following examples of objectives at these levels:

analysis objectives : ability to recognize unstated assumptions, ability to check the consistency of hypotheses with given information and assumptions, ability to recognize the general techniques used in advertising, propaganda and other persuasive materials
synthesis objectives : organizing ideas and statements in writing, ability to propose ways of testing a hypothesis, ability to formulate and modify hypotheses
evaluation objectives : ability to indicate logical fallacies, comparison of major theories about particular cultures

The analysis, synthesis and evaluation objectives in Bloom’s taxonomy collectively came to be called the “higher-order thinking skills” (Tankersley 2005: chap. 5). Although the analysis-synthesis-evaluation sequence mimics phases in Dewey’s (1933) logical analysis of the reflective thinking process, it has not generally been adopted as a model of a critical thinking process. While commending the inspirational value of its ratio of five categories of thinking objectives to one category of recall objectives, Ennis (1981b) points out that the categories lack criteria applicable across topics and domains. For example, analysis in chemistry is so different from analysis in literature that there is not much point in teaching analysis as a general type of thinking. Further, the postulated hierarchy seems questionable at the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. For example, ability to indicate logical fallacies hardly seems more complex than the ability to organize statements and ideas in writing.

A revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson et al. 2001) distinguishes the intended cognitive process in an educational objective (such as being able to recall, to compare or to check) from the objective’s informational content (“knowledge”), which may be factual, conceptual, procedural, or metacognitive. The result is a so-called “Taxonomy Table” with four rows for the kinds of informational content and six columns for the six main types of cognitive process. The authors name the types of cognitive process by verbs, to indicate their status as mental activities. They change the name of the ‘comprehension’ category to ‘understand’ and of the ‘synthesis’ category to ’create’, and switch the order of synthesis and evaluation. The result is a list of six main types of cognitive process aimed at by teachers: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. The authors retain the idea of a hierarchy of increasing complexity, but acknowledge some overlap, for example between understanding and applying. And they retain the idea that critical thinking and problem solving cut across the more complex cognitive processes. The terms ‘critical thinking’ and ‘problem solving’, they write:

are widely used and tend to become touchstones of curriculum emphasis. Both generally include a variety of activities that might be classified in disparate cells of the Taxonomy Table. That is, in any given instance, objectives that involve problem solving and critical thinking most likely call for cognitive processes in several categories on the process dimension. For example, to think critically about an issue probably involves some Conceptual knowledge to Analyze the issue. Then, one can Evaluate different perspectives in terms of the criteria and, perhaps, Create a novel, yet defensible perspective on this issue. (Anderson et al. 2001: 269–270; italics in original)

In the revised taxonomy, only a few sub-categories, such as inferring, have enough commonality to be treated as a distinct critical thinking ability that could be taught and assessed as a general ability.

A landmark contribution to philosophical scholarship on the concept of critical thinking was a 1962 article in the Harvard Educational Review by Robert H. Ennis, with the title “A concept of critical thinking: A proposed basis for research in the teaching and evaluation of critical thinking ability” (Ennis 1962). Ennis took as his starting-point a conception of critical thinking put forward by B. Othanel Smith:

We shall consider thinking in terms of the operations involved in the examination of statements which we, or others, may believe. A speaker declares, for example, that “Freedom means that the decisions in America’s productive effort are made not in the minds of a bureaucracy but in the free market”. Now if we set about to find out what this statement means and to determine whether to accept or reject it, we would be engaged in thinking which, for lack of a better term, we shall call critical thinking. If one wishes to say that this is only a form of problem-solving in which the purpose is to decide whether or not what is said is dependable, we shall not object. But for our purposes we choose to call it critical thinking. (Smith 1953: 130)

Adding a normative component to this conception, Ennis defined critical thinking as “the correct assessing of statements” (Ennis 1962: 83). On the basis of this definition, he distinguished 12 “aspects” of critical thinking corresponding to types or aspects of statements, such as judging whether an observation statement is reliable and grasping the meaning of a statement. He noted that he did not include judging value statements. Cutting across the 12 aspects, he distinguished three dimensions of critical thinking: logical (judging relationships between meanings of words and statements), criterial (knowledge of the criteria for judging statements), and pragmatic (the impression of the background purpose). For each aspect, Ennis described the applicable dimensions, including criteria. He proposed the resulting construct as a basis for developing specifications for critical thinking tests and for research on instructional methods and levels.

In the 1970s and 1980s there was an upsurge of attention to the development of thinking skills. The annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Educational Reform has attracted since its start in 1980 tens of thousands of educators from all levels. In 1983 the College Entrance Examination Board proclaimed reasoning as one of six basic academic competencies needed by college students (College Board 1983). Departments of education in the United States and around the world began to include thinking objectives in their curriculum guidelines for school subjects. For example, Ontario’s social sciences and humanities curriculum guideline for secondary schools requires “the use of critical and creative thinking skills and/or processes” as a goal of instruction and assessment in each subject and course (Ontario Ministry of Education 2013: 30). The document describes critical thinking as follows:

Critical thinking is the process of thinking about ideas or situations in order to understand them fully, identify their implications, make a judgement, and/or guide decision making. Critical thinking includes skills such as questioning, predicting, analysing, synthesizing, examining opinions, identifying values and issues, detecting bias, and distinguishing between alternatives. Students who are taught these skills become critical thinkers who can move beyond superficial conclusions to a deeper understanding of the issues they are examining. They are able to engage in an inquiry process in which they explore complex and multifaceted issues, and questions for which there may be no clear-cut answers (Ontario Ministry of Education 2013: 46).

Sweden makes schools responsible for ensuring that each pupil who completes compulsory school “can make use of critical thinking and independently formulate standpoints based on knowledge and ethical considerations” (Skolverket 2018: 12). Subject syllabi incorporate this requirement, and items testing critical thinking skills appear on national tests that are a required step toward university admission. For example, the core content of biology, physics and chemistry in years 7-9 includes critical examination of sources of information and arguments encountered by pupils in different sources and social discussions related to these sciences, in both digital and other media. (Skolverket 2018: 170, 181, 192). Correspondingly, in year 9 the national tests require using knowledge of biology, physics or chemistry “to investigate information, communicate and come to a decision on issues concerning health, energy, technology, the environment, use of natural resources and ecological sustainability” (see the message from the School Board ). Other jurisdictions similarly embed critical thinking objectives in curriculum guidelines.

At the college level, a new wave of introductory logic textbooks, pioneered by Kahane (1971), applied the tools of logic to contemporary social and political issues. Popular contemporary textbooks of this sort include those by Bailin and Battersby (2016b), Boardman, Cavender and Kahane (2018), Browne and Keeley (2018), Groarke and Tindale (2012), and Moore and Parker (2020). In their wake, colleges and universities in North America transformed their introductory logic course into a general education service course with a title like ‘critical thinking’ or ‘reasoning’. In 1980, the trustees of California’s state university and colleges approved as a general education requirement a course in critical thinking, described as follows:

Instruction in critical thinking is to be designed to achieve an understanding of the relationship of language to logic, which should lead to the ability to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas, to reason inductively and deductively, and to reach factual or judgmental conclusions based on sound inferences drawn from unambiguous statements of knowledge or belief. The minimal competence to be expected at the successful conclusion of instruction in critical thinking should be the ability to distinguish fact from judgment, belief from knowledge, and skills in elementary inductive and deductive processes, including an understanding of the formal and informal fallacies of language and thought. (Dumke 1980)

Since December 1983, the Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking has sponsored sessions at the three annual divisional meetings of the American Philosophical Association. In December 1987, the Committee on Pre-College Philosophy of the American Philosophical Association invited Peter Facione to make a systematic inquiry into the current state of critical thinking and critical thinking assessment. Facione assembled a group of 46 other academic philosophers and psychologists to participate in a multi-round Delphi process, whose product was entitled Critical Thinking: A Statement of Expert Consensus for Purposes of Educational Assessment and Instruction (Facione 1990a). The statement listed abilities and dispositions that should be the goals of a lower-level undergraduate course in critical thinking. Researchers in nine European countries determined which of these skills and dispositions employers expect of university graduates (Dominguez 2018 a), compared those expectations to critical thinking educational practices in post-secondary educational institutions (Dominguez 2018b), developed a course on critical thinking education for university teachers (Dominguez 2018c) and proposed in response to identified gaps between expectations and practices an “educational protocol” that post-secondary educational institutions in Europe could use to develop critical thinking (Elen et al. 2019).

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Critical Thinking: A Streamlined Conception

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Robert H. Ennis

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Critical thinking under that name was inspired by pragmatic philosopher John Dewey (1910) and endorsed by analytic philosopher Max Black (1946). Dewey was revered by the progressive educators, who re-labeled his “reflective thinking” as “critical thinking,” a name I believe they originated and that persists to the present (see Aiken (1942) for a mixture of both terms). Black (1946), insofar as I can determine, wrote the first college text including the words “critical thinking” in the title.

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Ennis, R.H. (2015). Critical Thinking: A Streamlined Conception. In: Davies, M., Barnett, R. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137378057_2

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1: Basic Concepts of Critical Thinking

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1.1: Basic Concepts
1.2: A Role for Reason
1.3: Improving Reasoning
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Listen to an interview with Jonathan Haber at Partially Examined Life.

Read Jonathan Haber's piece in Inside Higher Ed: It's Time to Get Serious About Teaching Critical Thinking.

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Thinking With Concepts

From practice in activities such as these, students can begin to become educated speakers of their native language. In learning to speak our native language, we can learn thousands of concepts which, when properly used, enable us to make legitimate inferences about the objects of our experience.

Command of Concepts Requires Insight into Social Conditioning

Unfortunately, overlaid on the logic of language is the logic of the social meanings into which we have been conditioned by the society by which we are raised and from which we take our identity (Italian-American Catholic father, for example). Taking command of these “social” meanings is as large a problem as that of taking command of the logic of educated usage (in our native language). We have a dual problem, then. Our lack of insight into the basic meanings in our native language is compounded by our lack of insight into the social indoctrination we have undergone. Social indoctrination, of course, is a process by which the ideology (or belief system) of a particular group of people is taught to fledgling members of the group in order that they might think as the dominant members of that group do. Education, properly conceived, empowers a person to see-through social indoctrination, freeing them from the shackles of social ideology. They learn to think beyond their culture by learning how to suspend some of the assumptions of thinking within it.

The Journey to Personal Freedom

To move toward personal freedom we must develop the ability to distinguish the concepts and ideas implicit in our social conditioning from the concepts and ideas implicit in the natural language we speak. We must understand the divergent basis for both. For example, people from many different countries and cultures may speak the same natural language. The peoples of Canada, Ireland, Scotland, England, Australia, Canada, and the United States all speak English. By and large they implicitly share (to the extent to which they are proficient in the language) a similar set of basic concepts (that are codified in the 23 volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary). Nevertheless, though sharing this linguistic heritage, these various peoples do not share the same social conditioning. What is more, a person from China or Tibet could learn to speak the English language fluently without in any sense taking in our social indoctrination.

Unfortunately, very few students have sufficient insight into the differences between a natural language and the various cultures that might all use it. They fail to see, therefore, that natural languages — French, German, English, Swahili, or Hindi — are repositories of concepts that, by and large, are not “ideological.” They are not to be equated with the concepts implicit in the social indoctrination fostered by particular social or cultural groups. Indeed, we can use concepts from our native language to critique social indoctrination, just as this article is doing. Command of language makes social critique possible.

In the United States, for example, most people are raised to believe that the U.S. form of economic system (capitalism) is superior to all others. When we are speaking in ideological ways, we call it “free enterprise.” We also often assume (ideologically) that no country can be truly democratic unless it uses an economic system similar to ours. Furthermore, we assume that the major alternative economic systems are either “wrong” or “enslaving” or “evil” (the “evil empire”). We are encouraged to think of the world in this simplistic way by movies, the news, schooling, political speeches, and a thousand other social rituals. Raised in the United States, we internalize different concepts, beliefs, and assumptions about ourselves and the world than we would had we been raised in China or Iran (for example). Nevertheless, no lexicographer would confuse these ideological meanings with the foundational meanings of the words in a bona fide dictionary of the English language. The word "communism" would never be given the gloss of an economic system that enslaves the people. The word "capitalism" would never be given the gloss of an economic system essential to a democratic society.

However, because we are socially conditioned into a self-serving conception of our country, many of our social contradictions or inconsistencies are hidden and go largely unquestioned. Leaving social self-deception undisturbed is incompatible with developing the critical thinking of students. Command of concepts cannot be separated, then, from recognition of when they are, and when they are not, ideologically biased.

The Challenge We Face

If we are committed to helping students think well with concepts, we must teach them how to strip off surface language and consider alternative ways to talk and think about things. This includes teaching them how to closely examine the concepts they have personally formed as well as those into which they have been socially indoctrinated. It means helping students understand that, being fundamentally egocentric, humans tend to be trapped in “private” meanings. Thinking sociocentrically we are trapped in the world-view of our peer group and that of the broader society.

Both set of binders make it hard to rationally decide upon alternative ways to conceptualize situations, persons, and events. Being so trapped, most students are unable to identify or evaluate either meanings in a dictionary or the social rituals, pomp, and glitter of social authority and prestige. Students live their lives, then, on the surface of meaning. They do not know how to plumb the depths.

When we are teaching well, students go beneath the surface. They learn how to identify and evaluate concepts based in natural languages, on the one hand, and those implicit in social rituals and taboos, on the other. They become articulate about what concepts are and how they shape our experience. They can, then, identify key concepts implicit in a communication. They begin to practice taking charge of their ideas and therefore of the life-decisions that those ideas shape and control. Crazy and superficial ideas exist in our society because crazy and superficial thinking has created them. They exist for mass consumption in movies, on television, in the highly marketed “news,” and in the double speak of the ideological world of “law and order.” They do damage everyday to the lives of people.

The challenge to teaching with this end in view is a significant one. It is one we must pursue with a keen sense of the long-term nature of the project and of its importance in the lives of students. We may begin in modest ways for example, with the proper use of the dictionary or how to identify the mores and taboos of one’s peer group — but begin we must, for the quality of the thinking of the students of today determines the quality of the world they shall create tomorrow.

Adapted from the book, Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life , by Richard Paul and Linda Elder.

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Why is critical thinking important?

What do lawyers, accountants, teachers, and doctors all have in common?

Students in the School of Literatures, Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics give a presentation in a classroom in front of a screen

What is critical thinking?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines critical thinking as “The objective, systematic, and rational analysis and evaluation of factual evidence in order to form a judgment on a subject, issue, etc.” Critical thinking involves the use of logic and reasoning to evaluate available facts and/or evidence to come to a conclusion about a certain subject or topic. We use critical thinking every day, from decision-making to problem-solving, in addition to thinking critically in an academic context!

Why is critical thinking important for academic success?

You may be asking “why is critical thinking important for students?” Critical thinking appears in a diverse set of disciplines and impacts students’ learning every day, regardless of major.

Critical thinking skills are often associated with the value of studying the humanities. In majors such as English, students will be presented with a certain text—whether it’s a novel, short story, essay, or even film—and will have to use textual evidence to make an argument and then defend their argument about what they’ve read. However, the importance of critical thinking does not only apply to the humanities. In the social sciences, an economics major , for example, will use what they’ve learned to figure out solutions to issues as varied as land and other natural resource use, to how much people should work, to how to develop human capital through education. Problem-solving and critical thinking go hand in hand. Biology is a popular major within LAS, and graduates of the biology program often pursue careers in the medical sciences. Doctors use critical thinking every day, tapping into the knowledge they acquired from studying the biological sciences to diagnose and treat different diseases and ailments.

Students in the College of LAS take many courses that require critical thinking before they graduate. You may be asked in an Economics class to use statistical data analysis to evaluate the impact on home improvement spending when the Fed increases interest rates (read more about real-world experience with Datathon ). If you’ve ever been asked “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?”, you may find yourself thinking about the Roman Empire more than you thought—maybe in an English course, where you’ll use text from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra to make an argument about Roman imperial desire. No matter what the context is, critical thinking will be involved in your academic life and can take form in many different ways.

The benefits of critical thinking in everyday life

Building better communication.

One of the most important life skills that students learn as early as elementary school is how to give a presentation. Many classes require students to give presentations, because being well-spoken is a key skill in effective communication. This is where critical thinking benefits come into play: using the skills you’ve learned, you’ll be able to gather the information needed for your presentation, narrow down what information is most relevant, and communicate it in an engaging way.

Typically, the first step in creating a presentation is choosing a topic. For example, your professor might assign a presentation on the Gilded Age and provide a list of figures from the 1870s—1890s to choose from. You’ll use your critical thinking skills to narrow down your choices. You may ask yourself:

What figure am I most familiar with?
Who am I most interested in?
Will I have to do additional research?

After choosing your topic, your professor will usually ask a guiding question to help you form a thesis: an argument that is backed up with evidence. Critical thinking benefits this process by allowing you to focus on the information that is most relevant in support of your argument. By focusing on the strongest evidence, you will communicate your thesis clearly.

Finally, once you’ve finished gathering information, you will begin putting your presentation together. Creating a presentation requires a balance of text and visuals. Graphs and tables are popular visuals in STEM-based projects, but digital images and graphics are effective as well. Critical thinking benefits this process because the right images and visuals create a more dynamic experience for the audience, giving them the opportunity to engage with the material.

Presentation skills go beyond the classroom. Students at the University of Illinois will often participate in summer internships to get professional experience before graduation. Many summer interns are required to present about their experience and what they learned at the end of the internship. Jobs frequently also require employees to create presentations of some kind—whether it’s an advertising pitch to win an account from a potential client, or quarterly reporting, giving a presentation is a life skill that directly relates to critical thinking.

Fostering independence and confidence

An important life skill many people start learning as college students and then finessing once they enter the “adult world” is how to budget. There will be many different expenses to keep track of, including rent, bills, car payments, and groceries, just to name a few! After developing your critical thinking skills, you’ll put them to use to consider your salary and budget your expenses accordingly. Here’s an example:

You earn a salary of $75,000 a year. Assume all amounts are before taxes.
1,800 x 12 = 21,600
75,000 – 21,600 = 53,400
This leaves you with $53,400
320 x 12 = 3,840 a year
53,400-3,840= 49,560
726 x 12 = 8,712
49,560 – 8,712= 40,848
You’re left with $40,848 for miscellaneous expenses. You use your critical thinking skills to decide what to do with your $40,848. You think ahead towards your retirement and decide to put $500 a month into a Roth IRA, leaving $34,848. Since you love coffee, you try to figure out if you can afford a daily coffee run. On average, a cup of coffee will cost you $7. 7 x 365 = $2,555 a year for coffee. 34,848 – 2,555 = 32,293
You have $32,293 left. You will use your critical thinking skills to figure out how much you would want to put into savings, how much you want to save to treat yourself from time to time, and how much you want to put aside for emergency funds. With the benefits of critical thinking, you will be well-equipped to budget your lifestyle once you enter the working world.

Enhancing decision-making skills

Choosing the right university for you.

One of the biggest decisions you’ll make in your life is what college or university to go to. There are many factors to consider when making this decision, and critical thinking importance will come into play when determining these factors.

Many high school seniors apply to colleges with the hope of being accepted into a certain program, whether it’s biology, psychology, political science, English, or something else entirely. Some students apply with certain schools in mind due to overall rankings. Students also consider the campus a school is set in. While some universities such as the University of Illinois are nestled within college towns, New York University is right in Manhattan, in a big city setting. Some students dream of going to large universities, and other students prefer smaller schools. The diversity of a university’s student body is also a key consideration. For many 17- and 18-year-olds, college is a time to meet peers from diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds and learn about life experiences different than one’s own.

With all these factors in mind, you’ll use critical thinking to decide which are most important to you—and which school is the right fit for you.

Develop your critical thinking skills at the University of Illinois

At the University of Illinois, not only will you learn how to think critically, but you will put critical thinking into practice. In the College of LAS, you can choose from 70+ majors where you will learn the importance and benefits of critical thinking skills. The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at U of I offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs in life, physical, and mathematical sciences; humanities; and social and behavioral sciences. No matter which program you choose, you will develop critical thinking skills as you go through your courses in the major of your choice. And in those courses, the first question your professors may ask you is, “What is the goal of critical thinking?” You will be able to respond with confidence that the goal of critical thinking is to help shape people into more informed, more thoughtful members of society.

With such a vast representation of disciplines, an education in the College of LAS will prepare you for a career where you will apply critical thinking skills to real life, both in and outside of the classroom, from your undergraduate experience to your professional career. If you’re interested in becoming a part of a diverse set of students and developing skills for lifelong success, apply to LAS today!

Read more first-hand stories from our amazing students at the LAS Insider blog .

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Ways to improve your critical thinking

Posted: March 26, 2024 | Last updated: March 26, 2024

<p>Critical thinking is an essential <a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/lifestyle/439927/life-skills-parents-can-teach-their-children-for-success" rel="noopener">skill</a> for anyone who wishes to be successful in business. It is what allows us to analyze information properly to find appropriate solutions to problems. But it is also important to think critically in every day life; it helps us to filter out fake news, for example.</p> <p>While most of us have a certain level of critical thinking capacity, there is often room for improvement. Check out this gallery for some tips on how to improve your critical thinking.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/179932?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-us"> Do you recognize these big TV stars from 10 years ago?</a></p>

Critical thinking is an essential skill for anyone who wishes to be successful in business. It is what allows us to analyze information properly to find appropriate solutions to problems. But it is also important to think critically in every day life; it helps us to filter out fake news, for example.

While most of us have a certain level of critical thinking capacity, there is often room for improvement. Check out this gallery for some tips on how to improve your critical thinking.

You may also like: Do you recognize these big TV stars from 10 years ago?

<p>Before you set about trying to build those critical thinking skills, it is important to first understand what exactly critical thinking is. Put simply, it is the ability to think about <a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/lifestyle/426643/30-ideas-to-entertain-kids-at-home" rel="noopener">ideas</a> and concepts in a critical way.</p>

Understand the concept of critical thinking

Before you set about trying to build those critical thinking skills, it is important to first understand what exactly critical thinking is. Put simply, it is the ability to think about ideas and concepts in a critical way.

<p>It is the difference between accepting what you're told at face value and asking questions such as why you're being told that and what is the motivation of the speaker.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/203513?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> Scottish landscapes that will take your breath away</a></p>

It is the difference between accepting what you're told at face value and asking questions such as why you're being told that and what is the motivation of the speaker.

You may also like: Scottish landscapes that will take your breath away

Ask questions

It follows, then, that when learning to think critically it is important to ask questions. When you next read a report or listen to a presentation, try and ask as many questions as you can.

<p>Although you run the risk of winding up the presenter, asking questions is in everyone's interest because it can help to expose weaknesses in logic and pave the way for a better solution to a problem.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/262041?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> Laugh out loud: The best comedians in history</a></p>

Although you run the risk of winding up the presenter, asking questions is in everyone's interest because it can help to expose weaknesses in logic and pave the way for a better solution to a problem.

You may also like: Laugh out loud: The best comedians in history

<p>In addition to asking questions about the information in front of you, it is important also to question your own thoughts and actions on a regular basis.</p>

Question yourself

In addition to asking questions about the information in front of you, it is important also to question your own thoughts and actions on a regular basis.

<p>Questioning yourself will help you identify behaviors that are unhelpful or self-defeating. All too often we continue with a certain behavior because it seems right, when in fact it is making things worse.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/280284?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> The (often bizarre) foods historical figures loved</a></p>

Questioning yourself will help you identify behaviors that are unhelpful or self-defeating. All too often we continue with a certain behavior because it seems right, when in fact it is making things worse.

You may also like: The (often bizarre) foods historical figures loved

Pay attention to all incoming information

It is paramount that you pay attention to all information coming your way, whether or not it comes from a source or person you agree with.

<p>People without critical thinking skills tend to tune out information that they don't want to hear, when in fact people we don't like nearly always have something useful to say.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/304638?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> Funny celebrity moments: pranksters on the red carpet</a></p>

People without critical thinking skills tend to tune out information that they don't want to hear, when in fact people we don't like nearly always have something useful to say.

You may also like: Funny celebrity moments: pranksters on the red carpet

<p>Good critical thinking always involves an element of foresight. Successful critical thinkers are able to use the information available to them to predict what will happen in the future.</p>

Develop foresight

Good critical thinking always involves an element of foresight. Successful critical thinkers are able to use the information available to them to predict what will happen in the future.

<p>However, foresight is not about clairvoyants and tarot cards. Instead it is about carefully considering all the possible consequences of a certain action.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/350852?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> The dark side of Walt Disney</a></p>

However, foresight is not about clairvoyants and tarot cards. Instead it is about carefully considering all the possible consequences of a certain action.

You may also like: The dark side of Walt Disney

<p>Critical thinking, like anything else, takes practice. It is therefore a good idea to rid your life of time-wasting activities, such as Netflix bingeing, so you have more time to practice.</p>

Reduce time-wasting

Critical thinking, like anything else, takes practice. It is therefore a good idea to rid your life of time-wasting activities, such as Netflix bingeing, so you have more time to practice.

<p>That does not mean to say you shouldn't relax, however. In fact, the brain needs downtime in order to develop. Try and go for something more stimulating, though, like reading a book.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/369610?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> Hit songs you didn't know were written by Prince</a></p>

That does not mean to say you shouldn't relax, however. In fact, the brain needs downtime in order to develop. Try and go for something more stimulating, though, like reading a book.

You may also like: Hit songs you didn't know were written by Prince

<p>The more you practice critical thinking, the more easily it will come. In the beginning, however, it takes time. It is therefore important to maximize your time by planning carefully.</p>

Plan your day

The more you practice critical thinking, the more easily it will come. In the beginning, however, it takes time. It is therefore important to maximize your time by planning carefully.

<p>Prioritize your tasks and don't bite off more than you can chew. Make sure that you are allowing yourself enough time to really focus on each of your projects and consider them critically.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/382766?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> Torture tracks: Songs that have been weaponized</a></p>

Prioritize your tasks and don't bite off more than you can chew. Make sure that you are allowing yourself enough time to really focus on each of your projects and consider them critically.

You may also like: Torture tracks: Songs that have been weaponized

<p>Do not limit your critical thinking practice to office hours. While being able to think critically is a must if you want to be successful in business, it is also an important life skill in everyday life.</p>

Practice critical thinking in your daily life

Do not limit your critical thinking practice to office hours. While being able to think critically is a must if you want to be successful in business, it is also an important life skill in everyday life.

<p>Next time you are choosing a book to read or watching the news, ask yourself what you want to gain from the book, or why that newsreader is emphasizing a particular story.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/444420?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> Famous women who were demonized by the media</a></p>

Next time you are choosing a book to read or watching the news, ask yourself what you want to gain from the book, or why that newsreader is emphasizing a particular story.

You may also like: Famous women who were demonized by the media

<p>Try to keep a record of difficult situations that arise and how you handle them. Writing down your thoughts on such situations will help you to reflect better on your own actions.</p>

Keep a thought journal

Try to keep a record of difficult situations that arise and how you handle them. Writing down your thoughts on such situations will help you to reflect better on your own actions.

<p>It may not be easy at first, but laying bare your reactions to a difficult situation will help you to identify and eliminate destructive behaviors and therefore solve problems more efficiently.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/455968?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> Celebrities who were raised by single fathers</a></p>

It may not be easy at first, but laying bare your reactions to a difficult situation will help you to identify and eliminate destructive behaviors and therefore solve problems more efficiently.

You may also like: Celebrities who were raised by single fathers

<p>Having a big head can inhibit critical thinking since it makes it difficult to be objective when assessing a situation. However, being too altruistic doesn't help either.</p>

Check your ego

Having a big head can inhibit critical thinking since it makes it difficult to be objective when assessing a situation. However, being too altruistic doesn't help either.

<p>Try to assign the same level of importance to both your needs and the needs of others. When analyzing a situation, try to focus on people's motivations; why do they want a certain outcome?</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/457876?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> Funniest sayings from around the world</a></p>

Try to assign the same level of importance to both your needs and the needs of others. When analyzing a situation, try to focus on people's motivations; why do they want a certain outcome?

You may also like: Funniest sayings from around the world

<p>Active listening involves truly paying attention while someone else is talking, and not letting your eyes glaze over and your mind run off elsewhere.</p>

Practice active listening

Active listening involves truly paying attention while someone else is talking, and not letting your eyes glaze over and your mind run off elsewhere.

<p>Not only is it rude not to listen properly when someone is presenting, but you will miss important information and/or ideas that should be submitted to your own mental analysis.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/468378?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> Bandmates who hated each other</a></p>

Not only is it rude not to listen properly when someone is presenting, but you will miss important information and/or ideas that should be submitted to your own mental analysis.

You may also like: Bandmates who hated each other

<p>If you have a business problem to solve, the likelihood is that someone before you has solved a very similar if not identical issue. Make the most of past learnings to help you in the present.</p>

Evaluate existing evidence

If you have a business problem to solve, the likelihood is that someone before you has solved a very similar if not identical issue. Make the most of past learnings to help you in the present.

<p>Ask yourself whether you have encountered the issue before and, if not, speak to others. Use all the information available to you to find a successful solution.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/472561?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> These celebrities live in surprisingly modest homes</a></p>

Ask yourself whether you have encountered the issue before and, if not, speak to others. Use all the information available to you to find a successful solution.

You may also like: These celebrities live in surprisingly modest homes

<p>Like many other things in life, critical thinking can be taught. If the tips in this gallery aren't enough, it may be an idea to find a mentor who can help you on your way to becoming a critical thinking expert.</p>

Engage a mentor

Like many other things in life, critical thinking can be taught. If the tips in this gallery aren't enough, it may be an idea to find a mentor who can help you on your way to becoming a critical thinking expert.

<p>A mentor may be able to frame critical thinking in such a way that it becomes more accessible and natural to you, and they may have resources for you to practice with.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/477032?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> Bizarre jobs that no longer exist</a></p>

A mentor may be able to frame critical thinking in such a way that it becomes more accessible and natural to you, and they may have resources for you to practice with.

You may also like: Bizarre jobs that no longer exist

Participate in team-building activities

Many team-building activities put on by companies have the aim of improving the critical thinking skills of employees.

<p>Try not to let the thought of your next team-building session fill you with dread. Instead, see it as an opportunity to hone those critical thinking skills and give you a competitive advantage.</p><p>You may also like:<a href="https://www.starsinsider.com/n/500114?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=referral_description&utm_content=457285v1en-en"> Bizarre jobs within the British royal household</a></p>

Try not to let the thought of your next team-building session fill you with dread. Instead, see it as an opportunity to hone those critical thinking skills and give you a competitive advantage.

You may also like: Bizarre jobs within the British royal household

<p>If you're feeling confident, why not throw yourself in the deep end and volunteer to lead a project? Leaders are required to constantly think critically, meaning you'll have loads of practice.</p>

Take on a leadership role

If you're feeling confident, why not throw yourself in the deep end and volunteer to lead a project? Leaders are required to constantly think critically, meaning you'll have loads of practice.

And as we all know, practice makes perfect. So next time your boss asks for a volunteer to head a new initiative, why not take the plunge?

Sources: (Indeed) (Small Businessify)

See also: 30 fun virtual team building ideas

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Presentation1 - Critical thinking (2)

Flipping the Switch: Using the Flipped Classroom to Increase Student Critical Thinking and Engagement

Alexis Zehler Miami University Author
Britt Cole Miami University Author

The literature supports the concept of a flipped classroom as a pedagogical approach that can improve critical thinking, enhance clinical judgment, and promote student engagement. This project implemented the flipped classroom concept in two nursing specialty courses, one didactic and one clinical. Data were gathered from both courses using a mixed method approach to evaluate impact. The data demonstrated significant improvement in students’ critical thinking and clinical judgment, increased engagement, and increased positive perceptions of learning when the flipped classroom approach was used in course design

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Practical Example of Sourcing and Sinking Configurations in Industrial Control Circuits

Why are the terms sourcing and sinking important.

The terms sourcing and sinking identify circuit configurations often found in industrial control and automation circuits. With a sourcing configuration, current is supplied by the controlling device while in the sinking circuit, the controlling device connects the load to ground. While this definition is sufficient, it fails to capture the foundational nature of this concept. We cannot overstate the importance as the concepts dominate procurement decisions ranging from simple devices such as the Banner Engineering touch button, as shown in Figure 1, all the way to the most complex Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). The concepts also extend to sensors with a closely related PNP and NPN designation . There you will find the PNP is a synonym for sourcing and NPN for sinking.

This engineering brief explores a simple application example focused on the Banner Engineering K30 touch button. This device was chosen as it has “bipolar” outputs, which in this instance, implies a device with both sinking and sourcing outputs.

Figure 1 : Picture of the Banner Engineering K30ABTRGHQ touch button and Mallory FL1P-22NA-1-Y24V panel lamps along with the B&K Precision 1550 DC power supply.

Why is there confusion when we consider sinking vs sourcing?

There are two likely reasons including historical and nomenclature. For a historical perspective we can go all the way back to Benjamin Franklin and J.J. Thomson. This encompasses the initial discoveries of polarity followed nearly two hundred years later by the Nobel Prize level discovery of the electron and the “correct” understanding of current flow.

The problem with history

Unfortunately, this historical difference has left us with some interesting problems. As a rule, engineers are taught to think of current flow in Franklin’s terms while technicians are generally taught in Thomson’s refined terms. In fact, there are pairs of textbooks that are written in both conventional flow (Franklin) and electron flow (Thomson). A side-by-side comparison will show that every current direction is flipped, and the handedness of magnetic fields is flipped right to left hand.

To make sense of the terms sourcing and sinking we need to resolve this disconnect between the engineer and the technician. For better or worse, we will say Franklin is correct . Current flows from positive to negative and magnetic fields direction are defined by the right-hand rule. It’s good enough for most industrial electronics work. Should you find yourself in a semiconductor theory class or if you explore vacuum tube technology, you can readdress this situation and claim Thomson is correct. Stated another way, the first to define the terms wins.

In a DC circuit, current flows from the positive source to the negative return.

The problem with nomenclature

When we explore the concept of sourcing and sinking, we need to carefully differentiate between the controller and the load:

Controller : For a digital circuit, the controller is a switch or the thing that contains the switch contacts.

Load : The load is the part that is being controlled by the controller. The load responds to the controller.

It’s no wonder that folks new to electronics have such confusion with the concept of sinking and sourcing. A single misunderstanding of the direction of current flow or misapplication of the terms controller or load and the entire concept is lost. Please consider these examples:

Suppose we have a circuit composed of a switch and a relay coil. In this situation, the switch is the controller, and the relay coil is the load.

Suppose we have a sensor and a PLC input terminal. In this situation, the sensor is the controller, and the PLC input circuit is the load. We must be very careful with our terminology and focus. With a big picture focus we are tempted to say that the PLC is a controller. However, in this focused situation, the PLC input circuit with its digital input serves as the load and the sensor is the controller. In this situation, the sensor in control of the PLC’s input. It helps to model the PLC with input resistance that serves as a load.

Sinking and Sourcing controller outputs with the Banner K30ABTRGHQ touch button

The Banner touch button featured in Figure 1 and Video 1 is an ideal device from which to explore sinking and sourcing as it contains one each of each output type. The wiring diagram from the device datasheet is included as Figure 2. This is a typical diagram for industrial controls. It assumes you are readily able to identify the sinking and sourcing loads. As will be shown, the load associated with the white wire (one leg to +24 VDC) is in a sinking configuration and the load associated with the black wire (one leg to the ground return) is in a sourcing configuration.

Figure 2 : Wire diagram for the K30ABTRGHQ red / green touch button from the device datasheet .

Video 1 : Operation of the Banner touch button. One panel lamp is sinking the other is sourcing.

For clarity, the circuit may be redrawn as shown in Figure 3. This is most helpful as the orientation of the diagram now associates sinking to the left and sourcing to the right. This is coupled with a left to right flow of current through the associated circuit.

Tech tip : Wire color is closely associated with the concepts of sourcing and sinking. Let’s assume that white with blue stripe wire is used for all connections that are hard wired to the return. Also, let blue wire be used for the 24 VDC source and any wire that could be at a 24 VDC potential. The results show that a load in a sinking configuration will have one blue and one white with blue stripe wire as one leg of the load is always solid at ground (return potential). A load in a sourcing configuration will always have two blue wires as both side of the load may measure at 24 VDC depending on the state of the controller.

Figure 3 Picture of the Banner touch button and a representative wire diagram showing two panel lamps. Note that the button is the designated controller, and the panel lamps serve as the load. One circuit is sinking and the other is sourcing.

It’s important to recognize that the Banner touch button is designed with two semi-independent controllers. Here, we are using our previous definition of controller as the thing with the switch contacts that controls the load. In this case, the touch button is greatly simplified as a Double Pole Single Throw (DPST) switch with a magic internal X that will be red or green depending on the state of the button press.

What is a sinking configuration?

By definition, a sinking configuration has continuity when the controller’s contacts close thereby connecting the load to the ground return. In Figure 3 we see that Panel Lamp number 1 (PL1) is part of this sinking configuration. If we follow Franklin’s conventional current flow, the controller provides a “sink” (ground return) for the load’s current.

What is a sourcing configuration?

By definition, a sourcing configuration has continuity when the controller’s contacts close thereby connecting the load to the power supply. In Figure 3 we see that PL is part of this sourcing configuration. Here the controller serves as a source of current. The current then flows through the load and return via the ground return.

Tech Tip : We must be careful with the terms “ground” and “return”. They are often used interchangeable, but they do imply different circuit configurations. The term return is typically associated with a floating system while ground refers to a system where the negative terminal of the power supply is connected to the metal chassis. As a rule, 24 VDC control system float relative to ground. Consequently, it is more appropriate to use the term return. As an example, consider this Delta Electronics DRC-24V10W1AZ power supply. According to the datasheet is a double insulated Class 2 device and “No Earth connection is required”. This is further supported by analyzing the power supply block diagram which show galvanic isolation for the output stage.

Which circuit is better sinking or sourcing?

There is an English saying “horses for courses.” There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, there are many different circuit configurations that require different product solutions. The best circuit is the one that gets the job done while simultaneously providing a clear and documented way for future assemblers, equipment integrators, and technicians to maintain and repair the system.

On a personal level, I prefer the sourcing configuration. There are a few reasons for this preference. First, I like to place the switches on the high-side of the load. Second, we tend to think in terms of positive logic with all things referenced to ground. For example, we reflexively place the meter’s reference probe (black) to ground. Third, this bias is reflected in the number of available products. For example, consider Digikey’s proximity sensors if we select for 3 and 4 wire normally open NPN (sinking controllers) we find 1,788 results. That same search for PNP (sourcing controllers) reveals 2,713 results. This does support the bias. However, this also suggests that both sinking and sourcing circuit are popular. Consequently, all personnel involved with industrial controls must have a deep understanding of both configurations.

Tech Tip : Banner products such as this touch button are available in many different configurations. An important distinction is who or what is in control of the indicator lamps. The featured Banner K30 is on one end of the control spectrum where the user is in control of the color. At the other end of the spectrum, we find devices such as the Banner K50 where the color is under control of a PLC such as the Schneider Electric Modicon TM221CE24T PLC. Given this range, we must carefully select products for a given application.

Parting thoughts

This brief explores the concepts of sinking and sourcing circuit configuration through the lens so the Banner Engineering touch button. It includes a brief segue into related concepts such as PLC, relays, and sensors with PNP (sourcing) and NPN (sinking) outputs. Perhaps in the future we can further explore those applications. I believe that would be a good use of our time as the concept of sinking and sourcing is a fundamental building block upon which so much of our technology rests.

Please share your comments and critiques of this material.

Best Wishes,

Return to the Industrial Control and Automation Index .

About the Author

Aaron Dahlen, LCDR USCG (Ret.), serves as an application engineer at DigiKey. He has a unique electronics and automation foundation built over a 27-year military career as a technician and engineer which was further enhanced by 12 years of teaching (interwoven). With an MSEE degree from Minnesota State University, Mankato, Dahlen has taught in an ABET accredited EE program, served as the program coordinator for an EET program, and taught component-level repair to military electronics technicians. Dahlen has returned to his Northern Minnesota home and thoroughly enjoys researching and writing articles such as this. LinkedIn | Aaron Dahlen - Application Engineer - DigiKey

Define the terms “controller” and “load” as applied to sinking and sourcing circuits.

Provide at least 3 examples of “controllers’ and three examples of “loads.”

With regards to Figure 3, identify the color for each wire. Use white with blue stripe for all solid connection to the return and blue for everything else.

T/F: The controller is the part of the circuit that initiates or controls the current though a circuit.

Suppose we inadvertently swapped wired 2 and 4 in the Figure 3 wire diagram. Describe the results.

Describe the term “sourcing” from a “flow of current perspective” for both controller and load.

What is meant by “high side” switch? Is this associated with sinking or sourcing?

Differentiate between the terms “ground” an “return.”

You are using a multimeter to troubleshoot a circuit. Describe the meter’s reading when the black reference probe is connected to the metal chassis as compared to when it is connected to a terminal block associated with the floating return.

Research PNP and NPN transistor configurations. For each type provide a schematic showing the power supply, transistor, and the load. Assume a fixed 24 VDC power supply. Also identify each schematic as sinking or sourcing.

Critical thinking questions

Explain how a relay may be both controller and load in a relay-based control circuit.

Describe how your troubleshooting steps differ in a sinking vs a sourcing circuit. Hint : Consider the measured voltages relative to the return when the controller’s contacts are open and when they are closed. Also, be sure to clarify where to place the meter’s reference probe?

Assuming the circuit breakers in your home are controllers, is your breaker panel part of a sinking or a sourcing configuration? What are the safety considerations for the circuit? Hint : Assume you have inadvertently become part of the circuit hand on wire and a wet foot to earth ground.

What are the pros and cons of grounding (earth reference the negative terminal) an industrial controller’s 24 VDC power supply.

Returning back to the swapped wire mentioned in question 4. Without returning the wires to a normal configuration, how could the circuit be restored using two large resistors. Hint 1 : Assume the resistors have a low resistance relative to the load. Hint 2 : Be sure to read the article on PNP and NPN sensors especially the section of substitution a NPN for a PNP.

Occasionally you will hear the absolute nonsense that “electricity follows the path of least resistance.” Explain how this thinking leads to a dangerous situation involving floating systems that have no apparent connection between the conductors and earth ground.

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According to the University of the People in California, having critical thinking skills is important because they are [ 1 ]: Universal. Crucial for the economy. Essential for improving language and presentation skills. Very helpful in promoting creativity. Important for self-reflection.
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Critical thinking questions. Explain how a relay may be both controller and load in a relay-based control circuit. Describe how your troubleshooting steps differ in a sinking vs a sourcing circuit. Hint: Consider the measured voltages relative to the return when the controller's contacts are open and when they are closed. Also, be sure to ...

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Ideas to Action (i2a)

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Critical Thinking

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Critical Thinking: A Streamlined Conception

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1: Basic Concepts of Critical Thinking

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Why is critical thinking important?

What is critical thinking?

Why is critical thinking important for academic success?

The benefits of critical thinking in everyday life

Fostering independence and confidence

Enhancing decision-making skills

Develop your critical thinking skills at the University of Illinois

Ways to improve your critical thinking

Understand the concept of critical thinking

Ask questions

Question yourself

Pay attention to all incoming information

Develop foresight

Reduce time-wasting

Plan your day

Practice critical thinking in your daily life

Keep a thought journal

Check your ego

Practice active listening

Evaluate existing evidence

Engage a mentor