FCST 1010 - Edenfield (Floyd) - Spring 2018: Critical Thinking & Critical Reading

The Elements of Thought

All thinking, if it is purposeful, includes the following elements of thought (Paul, 1990).

1. The problem, question, concern or issue being discussed or thought about by the thinker. What the thinker is attempting to figure out.
2. The purpose or goal of the thinking. Why we are attempting to figure something out and to what end. What do we hope to accomplish.
3. The frame of reference, points of view or even world view that we hold about the issue or problem.
4. The assumptions that we hold to be true about the issue upon which we base our claims or beliefs.
5. The central concepts, ideas, principles and theories that we use in reasoning about the problem.
6. The evidence, data or information provided to support the claims we make about the issue or problem.
7. The interpretations, inferences, reasoning, and lines of formulated thought that lead to our conclusions.
8. The implications and consequences that follow from the positions we hold on the issue or problem.

Heaslip, Penny. “Critical Thinking and Nursing.” The Critical Thinking Community. Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2013. Web. 5 November 2015. 

Critical reading is an active, intellectually engaged process in which the reader participates in an inner dialogue with the writer. Most people read uncritically and so miss some part of what is expressed while distorting other parts. A critical reader realizes the way in which reading, by its very nature, means entering into a point of view other than our own, the point of view of the writer. A critical reader actively looks for assumptions, key concepts and ideas, reasons and justifications, supporting examples, parallel experiences, implications and consequences, and any other structural features of the written text to interpret and assess it accurately and fairly. (Paul, 1990, pp 554 & 545 )

Heaslip, Penny. “Critical Thinking and Nursing.” The Critical Thinking Community. Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2013. Web. 5 November 2015.

We can distinguish between critical reading and critical thinking in the following way:

    Critical reading is a technique for discovering information and ideas within a text. It refers to a careful, active, reflective, analytic reading.

Critical thinking is a technique for evaluating information and ideas, for deciding what to accept and believe. It involves reflecting on the validity of what you have read in light of our prior knowledge and understanding of the world.

By these definitions, critical reading would appear to come before critical thinking: Only once we have fully understood a text (critical reading) can we truly evaluate its assertions (critical thinking).

The Two Together in Harmony:

In actual practice, critical reading and critical thinking work together.

Critical thinking allows us to monitor our understanding as we read.  If we sense that assertions are ridiculous or irresponsible (critical thinking), we examine the text more closely to test our understanding (critical reading).

Conversely, critical thinking depends on critical reading.  You can think critically about a text (critical thinking), after all, only if you have understood it (critical reading).  We may choose to accept or reject a presentation, but we must know why. We have a responsibility to ourselves, as well as to others, to isolate the real issues of agreement or disagreement. Only then can we understand and respect other people’s views.  To recognize and understand those views, we must read critically.

Kurland, Daniel J. “Critical Reading v. Critical Thinking.” How the Language Really Works:  The Fundamentals of Critical Reading and Effective Writing. Dan Kurland, 2000. Web. 5 November 2015.