Critical Thinking

[Sweet Katie]

What classroom subject is most helpful in developing critical thinking skills? What classroom subject is the most important to everyday survival?

Disclaimer: The argument that everything we learn is helpful is well taken, but I'm looking for POVs regarding the class subject that gives the edge.

[SoylentGreen]

absolutely none.
The education system isn't there to tech you to think, That's something you have to learn for yourself , despite them.
If you want to learn everyday survival then get out there and try surviving everyday.
The education system will give you knowledge, If it's experience your looking for then give up school and go get some.

[rez]

Quote by: Sweet Katie What classroom subject is most helpful in developing critical thinking skills? What classroom subject is the most important to everyday survival? Disclaimer: The argument that everything we learn is helpful is well taken, but I'm looking for POVs regarding the class subject that gives the edge.

Currently I am taking a Philosophy course called "critically thinking". The basic premise of the course is to analyze reasoning and conclusions.


We discuss....

Transposition.
Double Negation
Modus Ponens
Modus Tollens
Pure Hypothetical Syllogism
Disjunctive Syllogism
Conditionalization


Some other things that help are simply Computer Science courses.

Learn

Javascript
PHP
CSS
Java
ASP.net 2.0
VB.net

If you exercise with these languages then you can apply this thinking to any political science or philosophy course.

Even take a science course! Learn about how Chemistry works or how Biology works.

Basically learn the facts before learning anything about the silly imaganitive things like "heaven, democracy, gods, angels, devils, and ghosts".

[Alive]

I think evolution and economics are great subjects for the development of critical thinking because it is easy to develop a great deal from intuitive "first principles." Once you understand the basic assumptions of economics you can "prove" all of microeconomics. Similarly, once you understand evolution, which is at its heart pretty simple, you can use it to analyze any feature of biology, from plant cell structure to human culture. On the other hand, subjects like chemistry rely on a lot of facts simply handed down by authority; you won't learn how they were discovered or their basic principles until you advance far down the road (its not intuitive).

Although philosophy is in theory great for critical thinking skills, a lot of philosophers are quite bad at it, so I can only suggest logic courses in that field.

Anthropology and history are good for critical thinking because they present you with other worldviews and ways of living, giving you a broader prospective.

[Jack_Sparrow]

Mathematics. Also, being a competitive person will lead you to be logical and a critical thinker, in the name of winning and 'being the best'

[Athena]

Quote by: rez Currently I am taking a Philosophy course called "critically thinking". The basic premise of the course is to analyze reasoning and conclusions. We discuss.... Transposition. Double Negation Modus Ponens Modus Tollens Pure Hypothetical Syllogism Disjunctive Syllogism Conditionalization Some other things that help are simply Computer Science courses. Learn Javascript PHP CSS Java ASP.net 2.0 VB.net If you exercise with these languages then you can apply this thinking to any political science or philosophy course. Even take a science course! Learn about how Chemistry works or how Biology works. Basically learn the facts before learning anything about the silly imaganitive things like "heaven, democracy, gods, angels, devils, and ghosts".

Excellent suggestions, but I am surprised you did not mention math. Math is a valuable thinking tool. I can not think of anything we can not study with math.

"In reality, logic simply has to do with the idea of letting one general pattern stand for a whole range of special cases. The use of logical technics enables us to move back and forth between lumpy formulas and smooth mathematical shapes. By a kind of idealization, logic lets a single symbol stand for an inefffably complex reality." Mind Tools by Rudy Rucker

"The studies that Plato specified as most effective in preparing the mind for understanding are the so-called mathematical subjects, consisting of number itself, music, geometry, and astronomy. These were the main studies of Pythagoras and his followers, who anticipated the realization of modern physics in proclaiming that all scales and departments of nature were linked by the same code of number. Geometry is the purest visible expression of number. In Platonic terms, the effect of its study is to lead the mind upward from Opinion onto the level of Reason, where its premises are rooted. It then provides the bridge or ladder by which the mind can achieve its highest level in the realm of pure intelliegnce. " A Beginners Guide to th Constructing the Universe" by Michael S. Schneider

I think the problem with this, is it does not engage emotions like the normal debates we have, that engage our emotions. We share our opinions here, and as many posters say, not reasoning. I think unless our emotions are engaged, we are unmotivated to give the thinking process our energy. So we argue over and over again if there is a God, which is a completely irrational behavior, considering it is impossible to study God as we study nature, but the subject excites our emotions so we love it. On the other hand, a logical subject such as the order of bureaucracy and relationship to individual liberty is, completely ignored. We have not been properly educated for logic thinking. We have been programming our young to be parts for the Borg, and coponents of the Borg only need good programming, not the ability to think.

Oh, oh, I do however, think, computer science is better than astromony. Excellent choice.

[Athena]

Quote by: Jack_Sparrow Mathematics. Also, being a competitive person will lead you to be logical and a critical thinker, in the name of winning and 'being the best'

I have concerns about being motivated by the competitive spirit, unless one also has a fine since of ethics and honor. Competitiveness without a sense of ethics and honor, can result in some kind of monster that we all may wish had never been born, such as men like Hitler, Bush and Cheney, and this confusion over if water boarding is torture, and if a person can judge if water boarding is torture, if this judgement does not come from the "authority" of Bush and Cheney.

[Praxius]

Quite honestly I felt Math was the most usless class in school.... besides addition, subtraction, mutiplication and division, you really don't require anything else for everyday life.

Does it help you to be a better critical thinker? I don't see how..... or at least, I don't see it improving your skills anymore then anything else.

Myself, the only things useful in school to teach are:

• Social Studies
• History
• Art
• Music
• English (Or whatever language you wish to use for your everyday life)

Everything else can be learned on your own when you require to learn about those things, such as physics, biology, chemistry, evolution, etc. I feel those things are just additional tid bits of information that you don't nessicarily need to know in great length, unless there is something that involves that knowlege in your life in paticular.

[Athena]

Quote by: Praxius Quite honestly I felt Math was the most usless class in school.... besides addition, subtraction, mutiplication and division, you really don't require anything else for everyday life. Does it help you to be a better critical thinker? I don't see how..... or at least, I don't see it improving your skills anymore then anything else. Myself, the only things useful in school to teach are: • Social Studies • History • Art • Music • English (Or whatever language you wish to use for your everyday life) Everything else can be learned on your own when you require to learn about those things, such as physics, biology, chemistry, evolution, etc. I feel those things are just additional tid bits of information that you don't nessicarily need to know in great length, unless there is something that involves that knowlege in your life in paticular.

I am sorry you do not understand what math does to change our emotional opinions to good reasoning.

[Milton Bradley]

The class, and the teacher that I credit with waking me up to reality was Current Events.


My favorite teacher had this exercise where we would read the local paper, and then he would ask us what information was implied, or inferred, but not expressly printed in the article.


Twas an eye opening experience, and it truly shaped me into the cynical skeptic I am today.

[Praxius]

Quote by: Athena I am sorry you do not understand what math does to change our emotional opinions to good reasoning.

No need to be sorry. My father has been teaching math long before I was born.... I know my math... I just don't confuse math as a substitutional change from emotional opinions to good reasoning.... as good reasoning still requires emotional opinions. Our emotions and our opinions are what gives us foundations for our reasoning, as we are not yet Androids such as Data just yet..... and counting numbers does nothing more different then learning from history and those who have lived through that said history.

Listening to the experience of these people, listening to the emotions in which come about from these past experiences, and learning how these actions and experiences have affected humanity of the time, beats trying to lean how to think by trying to figure out the square root of some number in an exercise of something you will most likely never encounter through your life unless you're a rocket scientist or something.... and I don't believe the average human is employed in that field.

[Praxius]

Quote by: Milton Bradley The class, and the teacher that I credit with waking me up to reality was Current Events. My favorite teacher had this exercise where we would read the local paper, and then he would ask us what information was implied, or inferred, but not expressly printed in the article. Twas an eye opening experience, and it truly shaped me into the cynical skeptic I am today.

Now see that's a perfect example of what I am trying to explain. Exercises which have some actual relation to real life.

[5010]

Out of all my college courses, math had the biggest impact on developing the functionality of my analytical sense. I stopped after calculus 3. That's my vote.

[Praxius]

Quote by: 5010 Out of all my college courses, math had the biggest impact on developing the functionality of my analytical sense. I stopped after calculus 3. That's my vote.

I guess it all depends on the person and how their minds work. Mine is a creative/artistic background, therefore hands on, actual real life examples and problems work best for me then systematic math equations.... Everybody is different

[Osborn F Enready]

A quote I like by Sagan relating to the OP topic.

“The business of skepticism is to be dangerous. Skepticism challenges established institutions. If we teach everybody, including, say, high school students, habits of skeptical thought, they will probably not restrict their skepticism to UFOs, aspirin commercials, and 35,000-year-old channelees. Maybe they'll start asking awkward questions about economic, or social, or political, or religious institutions. Perhaps they'll challenge the opinions of those in power. Then where would we be?” -Carl Sagan, in The Demon-Haunted World

[Jack_Sparrow]

Quote by: Praxius ...counting numbers does nothing more different then learning from history and those who have lived through that said history.

Mathematics is a logical process carried out on data, yielding inferences and conclusions. It is not just number work, it can also be involved paradigm work, especially in statistics. It is infact a way to learn from the people who: "...lived through that said history", using statistical analysis.

Quote by: Praxius Listening to the experience of these people, listening to the emotions in which come about from these past experiences, and learning how these actions and experiences have affected humanity of the time, beats trying to lean how to think by trying to figure out the square root of some number in an exercise of something you will most likely never encounter through your life unless you're a rocket scientist or something....

Over generalisation fallacy. Just because it beats working out a square root doesnt mean it beats maths as a whole. Mathematics has much more to it, statistical regression modelling can be used to analyse the past along with scientific age dating, and this unfortunatly for you does use square roots. The thing about maths is it does get applied, and it is all around us. While empathy is worth its salt in interpreting and learning from the past, so is calculation.

Quote by: Praxius ...and I don't believe the average human is employed in that field.

Which is introducing irrelevant material into the argument, the average mans actions have no bearing on mathematic's analytical and logical qualities, nor on what constitutes good critical reasoning.

[Jack_Sparrow]

Quote by: Athena I have concerns about being motivated by the competitive spirit, unless one also has a fine since of ethics and honor. Competitiveness without a sense of ethics and honor, can result in some kind of monster that we all may wish had never been born, such as men like Hitler, Bush and Cheney, and this confusion over if water boarding is torture, and if a person can judge if water boarding is torture, if this judgement does not come from the "authority" of Bush and Cheney.

While I agree, our personal distaste of unethical people gaining strong logic and critical thinking via competitiveness - or shall I say greed and determination to dominate power - does not change the fact that competitiveness can provide these things.

History tells of many evil humans who have been logical and critical thinkers unfortunatly. Just look at the critical thinking involved in warfare throughout man kinds existence.

[Sweet Katie]

Athena, nice posts.

Computer science has helped my pattern of thinking immensely, more so than any other class. It helped me to think of finding a solution as a multitude of smaller parts. This applies well to logic. However, it doesn't help creativity and creative classes shouldn't be dismissed either. In order to think at all, creativity is necessary.

[Praxius]

Quote by: Jack_Sparrow Mathematics is a logical process carried out on data, yielding inferences and conclusions. It is not just number work, it can also be involved paradigm work, especially in statistics. It is infact a way to learn from the people who: "...lived through that said history", using statistical analysis.

Well all know what I think of statistics. And I said Math is good for addition, subtraction, mutiplication and division and all those things that need those things in everyday life.... heck in my profession, we ues measurements and math as well.

But I don't call that Critical Thinking

Something or someone that will make you Think Critically, would be someone like Hannibal or Jigsaw.

When it comes to most life and death choices in life, mathimatics.... well all that other rocket calculus garbage isn't gonna help you much.

Not to get a little crude.... but when it comes to critical thinking for survival or the sort, or making proper decisions.... do you think this guy:



Is gonna be able to take on this guy:



???

"THREE! Three gunshots to the chest! Ah Ah Ahhhhh..... " *Thud*

Ok... something a bit more realistic then? Ok......

These Guys:



Setting their mathimatic wits against them being thrown in a tank with:



Math I don't think will help much.

Over generalisation fallacy. Just because it beats working out a square root doesnt mean it beats maths as a whole. Mathematics has much more to it, statistical regression modelling can be used to analyse the past along with scientific age dating, and this unfortunatly for you does use square roots. The thing about maths is it does get applied, and it is all around us. While empathy is worth its salt in interpreting and learning from the past, so is calculation.

Meh, I'm speaking in my own personal life. Besides the little bit I use everyday at work and for bills, which I have already aknowleged, all that other garbage isn't required in my life. It maybe for you, just not for me. Math is only on a basic requirement in my life.

Which is introducing irrelevant material into the argument, the average mans actions have no bearing on mathematic's analytical and logical qualities, nor on what constitutes good critical reasoning.

None of that math has ever been required for me to develop my critical thinking, and I'm not saying I'm perfect by any means, as nobody is, but like yourself, I too have at least average critical thinking skills. All I'm saying is the truth, that for me personally, Math did squat. it's more of a tool for paying bills or doing my measurements for my projects.

^ But that's as useful as a screwdriver to build a computer... it get's the job done, but it's not complicated.... it's your knowlege of how things work in specific, in order to apply those numbers, is what matters.

Chicken/Egg sorta thing.

[Vee]

In High School I would say whatever you guys use as advanced English

Otherwise I recommend what has previously been recommend which is Philosophy, you can follow that up with political science and the political economy.

Not to mention a street walk of neighbourhoods that are completely different to your own.