Critical Thinking

Head of Department: Felicity Marsden

Department Background
 We are constantly bombarded with information, evidence and arguments that try to convince us of a particular point of view. Advertisers try to persuade us of the benefits of a particular product – are they justified in their claims? Newspapers and television media supposedly offer a factual report of events, but how far can we trust their reports to be accurate? An ability to think objectively about the information that we deal with on a daily basis, and to describe its benefits and flaws, is an essential one in the modern world, and the Critical Thinking course is intended to introduce Year 12 students to the basic skills required.

Critical Thinking is not like other A-level subjects. Rather than study a rigid sequence of topics, Critical Thinking will teach you a set of skills that you can apply to a whole host of subjects both in and out of the classroom.
Sixth Form

 The course is split into 2 units, which cover a range of different skills that students will be able to apply to their other subjects and the wider media. You will study:

Unit 1 – Introduction to Critical Thinking:
This unit introduces the basic skills required by the Critical Thinker. The vast majority of our information comes to us second-hand. How can we decide which sources of information to trust? When several sources tell us different things, how can we decide which we should believe?
The first part of the unit, ‘The Language of Reasoning’, is designed to give candidates a grounding in the important skills and language of Critical Thinking, including an understanding of how arguments are constructed and how they differ from other forms of written material.
The second part of the unit, ‘Credibility’, recognizes that the plausibility of an argument, or the evidence used to support it, is also influenced by its origin, be that a person or an organization. In this section, you will learn to evaluate the credibility of sources of information and develop your ability to apply strict criteria to contexts, documents, and individual witnesses using material from a wide range of subject areas. These skills can then be used to come to an informed judgment about the relative credibility of documents or individuals.

Unit 2 – Assessing and Developing Argument
We are surrounded by attempts to persuade us to accept a point of view. We naturally accept some and reject others, but can you describe how you decide which to accept and reject? Probably not clearly. No doubt you can offer counter-arguments and alternative explanations to explain conclusions that you don’t agree with, but can you clearly and rationally explain why the original argument is weak?
This unit builds on the first part of Unit 1 in developing your ability to understand what an argument is and to describe and reconstruct the structure of arguments. You will learn to objectively evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of arguments; to appreciate, describe and explain some of the flaws and fallacies that can seriously weaken them; and finally to construct sound, reasoned arguments of your own.