Critical & Creative Thinking - OER & More Resources: Start Here

This course provides instruction in the vital, realistic, and practical methods of thinking which are in high demand in all occupations of substance today. Decision making, problem solving, detailed analysis of ideas, troubleshooting, argumentation, persuasion, creativity, setting goals and objectives, and more are considered in depth as the student applies specific thinking strategies and tools to situations in a wide variety of workplace, personal, academic, and cultural situations. Classroom instruction is demonstration, discussion, project and teamwork based. Assignments range from the short and simple to the detailed and complex. Reality and practicality are the focuses all through the course.

• Ascertain personal thinking strengths and weaknesses
• Compare personal thinking habits to those of others
• Compose personal goals for thinking skills improvement
• Formulate a set of customized personal goals for life and work
• Develop a personal mission statement
• Recognize the principles which lie at the heart of creative thinking
• Employ specific thinking behaviors which generate creative thinking
• Apply organized processes to solve problems
• Utilize deliberate thinking strategies to make effective decisions
• Differentiate facts from inferences, assumptions and judgments
• Make effective inferences
• Recognize fallacies of reasoning and apply them to cases
• Analyze a claim from multiple points of view
• Investigate a controversial issue through structured research
• Break down a complex issue into its component points, evidence and reasoning
• Discriminate logical from emotional appeals
• Arrange ideas and data into a coherent argument in favor of a specific claim or proposition
• Discuss or debate a controversial issue using reasons, evidence, logic, and deliberate organization
• Critique, attack, and resist the arguments of others