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Critical thinking

Crit­i­cal think­ing is of great impor­tance in the deci­sion-mak­ing process and as indi­vid­u­als increase their crit­i­cal think­ing capac­i­ties, their deci­sions will yield more pos­i­tive results for them­selves.

Turan et al., 2019*

Every­day we are bom­bard­ed by ideas, images, and infor­ma­tion from myr­i­ad sources, includ­ing peo­ple we know, shows we watch, and forums we mon­i­tor or par­tic­i­pate in. Crit­i­cal think­ing skills help us sep­a­rate sound infor­ma­tion and argu­ments from the mis­in­for­ma­tion, spin, and mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tions hurled at us from out­side sources—or gen­er­at­ed in our own minds. With­out these vital skills, we can­not acquire the knowl­edge we need to make sound deci­sions or form log­i­cal opin­ions. 

We live in an age of dig­i­tal and uni­ver­sal media, with an often instan­ta­neous and unre­lent­ing dis­sem­i­na­tion of infor­ma­tion good and bad. With­out crit­i­cal think­ing skills, we can­not reli­ably decide for our­selves what infor­ma­tion to embrace, ignore, or refute. 

For a short list of crit­i­cal-think­ing books and web­sites see this website’s resources page.

* Turan, U., Fidan, Y., & Yıldıran, C. (2019). Crit­i­cal Think­ing as a Qual­i­fied Deci­sion Mak­ing Tool. Jour­nal of His­to­ry Cul­ture and Art Research, 8(4), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v8i4.2316

Critical Thinking Cap

Crit­i­cal Think­ing Cap (CTC) is an e‑learning web­site offer­ing infor­mal lessons and activ­i­ties on dis­cern­ing, devel­op­ing, and deploy­ing crit­i­cal think­ing skills. It will guide adult learn­ers through a fun, casu­al crit­i­cal-think­ing course inspired by the prin­ci­ples of microlearn­ing.

CTC will pro­vide learn­ers an invit­ing and engag­ing space to learn and prac­tice crit­i­cal think­ing skills at their own pace at their con­ve­nience, with­out hav­ing to enroll in a weighty, bland, or expen­sive col­lege course.

The web­site was built using Word­Press and the Learn­Dash LMS plug-in.

CTC was a cap­stone project for the Dig­i­tal Media Design grad­u­ate (mas­ter’s) pro­gram at Har­vard Exten­sion School. It con­tin­ues to be a work in progress. Con­tent may be added, updat­ed, delet­ed, or enhanced over time. Course and les­son struc­ture and offer­ings may change. Per­haps it will become less of a course and more of a freer-form crit­i­cal-think­ing resource. Or per­haps it will be frozen in time. Or tak­en offline. It’s all to be deter­mined.

For an infor­mal jour­nal of some aspects of the cre­ation of this site, vis­it the CTC project notes.

CTC’s creator

Mar­cia Gray is a sea­soned infor­ma­tion design­er cur­rent­ly explor­ing the the­o­ry, prac­tice, and tech­nol­o­gy of instruc­tion­al (learn­ing) design.

To Mar­cia, the best designs facil­i­tate the trans­fer, com­pre­hen­sion, and reten­tion of knowl­edge. She thrives on projects where con­tent, orga­ni­za­tion, tone, visu­al design, and provider and user goals work togeth­er to cre­ate mean­ing­ful and endur­ing mes­sages and expe­ri­ences.

Mar­ci­a’s expe­ri­ence spans over 20 years serv­ing edu­ca­tion-relat­ed non­prof­its in the areas of writ­ing, edit­ing, and design­ing doc­u­ments, pub­li­ca­tions, info­graph­ics, and web­sites. End-users include gen­er­al audi­ences, admin­is­tra­tors and providers of K–12 edu­ca­tion, and cur­rent and poten­tial donors.

She holds a Mas­ter of Lib­er­al Arts (ALM) degree from Har­vard Exten­sion School in the field of Dig­i­tal Media Design. From HES she also earned a Learn­ing Design and Tech­nol­o­gy Grad­u­ate Cer­tifi­cate.

Mar­ci­a’s instruc­tion­al design port­fo­lio | Her graph­ic design port­fo­lio