Tools and methods for developing critical thinking

Introduction

Critical thinking helps you face challenging situations so that you can significantly increase the possibility of reaching your objectives and reduces the chance of falling into the trap of false information.
In a world in which the quantity of information significantly exceeds the amount we need in our day to day personal and professional life, critical thinking represents a fundamental skill for evaluating the authentic meaning of what we see, hear or read, and decide what to use in the future and what to set aside as irrelevant.
This course is designed to help you develop critical thinking, avoid manipulation and become more effective when you have to find solutions to difficulties and problems never faced in the past.

Purpose

Help the participants acquire:

• knowledge about bad habits, which are often well established, that prevent them from reasoning effectively and successfully facing difficult situations;
• techniques that help recognise stereotypes and preconceptions and avoid being a victim;
• knowledge of argumentation techniques that help correctly identify what we want to demonstrate, the justifying reasons, the conclusions;
• methods that help recognise inconsistent reasoning and false or manipulative information.

Who may find this course interesting?

The topics covered interest all company roles: managers, salespeople, technicians, project managers, designers, lawyers, consultants, controllers are only some of the people that may be interested.
This course may be particularly useful for those who have to evaluate the quality of the information available and use it to look for solutions (problem-solving)
In general, the course is essential for those who want to make their thinking more effective.

Contents

Some key points

• Definition of critical thinking: why criticism is not…criticism!
• Using critical listening and thinking in your personal and professional life
• Why suspending “judgement” and replacing it with “evaluation” can be useful

Doubt as a driver of discovering and creating new knowledge

• Maintain a sceptical attitude towards what we hear
• Be wary of common knowledge
• Check the reliability of sources
• Question authority
• Start from a solid base to increase knowledge

Deductive and inductive reasoning: the pitfalls of inference

Stereotypes, preconceptions and conformism: daily enemies

• Be aware of their existence
• Learn to recognise them, avoid confusing them with acquired knowledge
• The questions that let us demolish them          
• Why the fact that a Scottish person is stingy does not make all Scottish people stingy

The art of reasoning

• What matters in the discussion, and what is the conclusion?
• Learn to separate facts from opinions
• Reasoning as a combination of two affirmations: the conclusion and the reasons that justify it
• In search of ambiguity: of terms, of context, intentional
• Use, characteristics and risks of promises: techniques for identifying them and evaluating their substance
• The danger of assumptions influenced by values: when individual beliefs influence the conclusions
• Methods for determining the weak points in reasoning

To what extent is the evidence supporting the argument valid?

• Attention to managing aspects such as intuition, personal experience, authority, research, analogies, testimonials

Attention to evidence provided to prove that one event has caused another

• the same event can have multiple causes
• the person making the argument can present the reasons he/she prefers

Playing with numbers

• Misleading statistics and partial information to support deceitful reasoning

Searching for what is missing to complete the reasoning and arrive at the conclusion

• Identify the missing information
• Is the conclusion we drew the only possible conclusion?
• Searching for alternative solutions

Heo to formulate questions that support critical thinking

Training material

• Course slides
• Exercises
• The questions that support critical thinking
• Articles about critical thinking
• Movies and bibliography

The teaching method

This course has been designed and structured to promote complete immersion in the topic and the individual experience.
The participants will face situations through exercises and video clips that reproduce moments similar to the ones they face daily.
Would you like to know more about the teaching method? Click here.

Final test and certificate

At the end of the course, participants take a test; after passing it, they can download their certificate of attendance.

Duration

• Two days, 8 hours each
• Two or more days depending on the learning needs of the participants and how in-depth the topics are covered.