Critical thinking, deductive reasoning and reflection

When I began my undergraduate degree, a unit comprised of a dual critical thinking and academic writing course that I had to complete. I must admit, I was pretty excited by this unit. As I had been a tradesman for twenty years prior to that, I was already making similar decisions, I just didn't know the actual mechanics and thought processes behind critical thinking.

I would like to expand the study of critical thinking to include deductive reasoning and reflection. Firstly, we were given a large number of academic readings on critical thinking yet most readings failed to succinctly define what critical thinking actually was - I had to go looking for my own answers.

Secondly, we only had a collection of what I thought was unrelated academic readings, no textbook existed for the unit. Since then, my love of bookshops allowed me to stumble across a reference book on critical thinking - if only I had that text during the course.

So, I need to define what critical thinking actually is. In one paper, the description of critical thinking was defined as the opposite of irrational and illogical thinking, not a brilliant definition by any standards. So I searched further and found a definition from the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking.

A statement presented by Michael Scriven and Richard Paul at the 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform in their paper existed where others did not. For me, this was an improvement but probably not as succinct as I had hoped as I want a definition I can cite easily.

According to Scriven and Paul, critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualising, applying, analysing, synthesising, 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.

So, critical thinking must include higher-order skills linked to individual skill-sets of reasoning, problem-solving, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The skill sub-sets involved in critical thinking tend to incorporate the development of an academic argument.

This involves the identification of flaws and weaknesses in an existing argument indicated by making relevant connections and links across multiple disciplines. This then requires analysing the material from a range of sources and perspectives and synthesising possible responses.

Applying deductive reasoning to academic argument, the process of reasoning requres applying a number of known premises to reach a logical conclusion. As such, general rules of logic are applied to concordance of multiple premisis generally assumed to be true. Also described as top down logic, deductive reasoning proceeds from general premisis to a specific conclusion.

Finally applying self-reflection to learning, the willingness to seek awareness and consciousness allows a deeper level of learning. Not only are you motivated, being self-critical allows you to analyse study habits to prepare for examinations. If you get the question right, was it because you knew the answer or was it a lucky guess?

Likewise, if you get a question wrong, was it a simple mistake or a lack of knowledge? As a test preparation I have found reflection and critical analysis a tool to not only improve perform in examinations but to increase knowledge retention in general.