Career Life Planning
  Homepage

  Assessment

  Occupational Exploration

  Job Search

  Interpersonal Skills for  
  Success

  Education/Training And
  Preparation

  Study Hall

  Cultures

  Program Events

Today's world demands critical thinking and on-the-fly problem solving, where, increasingly even blue-collar jobs require acquisition and analysis of complex information, rather than rote task performance of a known set of steps in a fixed order, an Industrial Age construct, which in the Information Age is less often effective.  Skills needed to be successful in the Digital Age include working independently and creatively without too much "hand holding".  Industries that focus on information technology and a more freewheeling labor market are demanding dynamic self-starters -- not the conservative graduates of the establishment .  (Ellsworth,2000, p. 2; Cohen, 1999; Desruisseaux, 1999b; Coleman; 2000a, p. 10). 

Between January 1995 and 1998, the number of jobs increased by over 6 million and only 1 million left the ranks of the unemployed.  He adds nearly two out of three of the 17 million full-time jobs added since 1998 were in the professional, managerial, and technical occupations; in 1996, these occupations accounted for only about on in four jobs.  Many of the new jobs require creativity and critical thinking, for example, jobs for actors, college professors, social scientists, reporters, and lawyers have doubled and tripled at the rate of nonprofessional jobs and college professor jobs have risen from 125,000 in 1950 to around 850,000 in 1995 (Lerman, 1998, p. 2).

Cooperative learning activities help develop abilities in problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork.  Computer technology structures and facilitates cooperative learning experiences.  The interactive components of the Web, in particular, facilitates communication, enhances cross-cultural exchanges, and encourages the use of technology.  (Quick, and Lieb, 2001, p. 41; The National Alliance of Business (NAB), 1999, p. 2). 

Critical thinking is concerned with reason, intellectual honesty, and open-mindedness, as opposed to emotionalism, intellectual laziness, and close-mindedness. It follows that critical thinking involves: following evidence where it leads; considering all possibilities; relying on reason rather than emotion; being precise; considering a variety of possible viewpoints and explanations; weighing the effects of motives and biases; being concerned more with finding the truth than with being right; not rejecting unpopular views without consideration; being aware of one's own prejudices and biases, and not allowing them to sway one's judgment.   (Fowler, B., 1996, Longview Community College)

If we take Logic to be the activity of drawing inferences (conclusions) from a body of information, then no doubt humans have been using logic for as long as they have been thinking, or at least consciously thinking.  They probably drew logically correct conclusions from their data about as often as folks do nowadays, i.e. maybe 62.3% of the time.  Logic, as the analysis of concepts involved in making inferences, and the identification of standards and patterns of correct inference, can be traced only back to the days of Aristotle, Theophrastus (Aristotle's successor as head of the Peripatetic school), Eudemus (Theophrastus's successor),  and in early Hindu writings, beginning  around 350  B.C.  Aristotle's influence is sustained until, in the 16th century, Pierre de la Ramee (Petrus Ramus) developed a widely influential anti-Aristoleian position, a deductive logic.  Modern logic was developed in the 19th and 20th centuries.  It was at this time logic received renewed interest (and an emphasis on symbolic representation), from mathematicians in search of a fundamental connection between logical and mathematical reasoning.  Development of, and reaction to, this line of inquiry led to two divergent lines of emphasis in the study of logic:  Symbolic (formal) logic vs critical thinking (informal) logic.  In symbolic logic, emphasis is placed on the precise symbolic representation of logical concepts, the study of the abstract relationships between these concepts, and the systematization of these relationships.  In informal logic or critical thinking, the focus is on the application of logical concepts to the analysis of everyday reasoning and problem solving.  Elements of symbolic logic will frequently be involved, but only to the extent that it contributes to this practical objective.  (Lauren Miller and Michael Connelly,  1996, Longview Community College)

Critical thinking is defined by several authors in: 
Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum Project: Critical Thinking Definitions
Contributed by Barbara Fowler, Longview Community College. 
http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/longview/ctac/definitions.htm 

A critical thinker: 

• asks pertinent questions
• assesses statements and arguments
• is able to admit a lack of understanding or information
• has a sense of curiosity
• is interested in finding new solutions
• is able to clearly define a set of criteria for analyzing ideas
• is willing to examine beliefs, assumptions, and opinions and weigh them against facts
• listens carefully to others and is able to give feedback
• sees that critical thinking is a lifelong process of self assessment
• suspends judgment until all facts have been gathered and considered
• looks for evidence to support assumption and beliefs
• are able to adjust opinions when new facts are found
• looks for proof
• examines problems closely
• are able to reject information that is incorrect or irrelevant.

Critical thinkers are able to distinguish between the validity of a philosophical truth, a statement made to convince another of a truism and a political truth which is a statement made to solicit agreement, regardless of the truth of the statement where power and control are primary concerns.  The statement would be valid if (and only if) all the premises are true; then the conclusion must be true too.

Information Competency

Information Competency or Information Literacy is the ability to locate, evaluate, and synthesize information in response to a specific information need. These critical thinking skills include the following abilities:

• To recognize and articulate problems as an information need
• To determine what type of information is required to solve a problem
• To know how to locate relevant information
• To develop research strategies to discover desired information
• To evaluate the reliability of information based on origin and currency
• To incorporate and synthesize information
• To communicate information using various technology modes

Information competency embodies fundamental skills necessary for academic achievement and lifelong learning. The ability to identify and resolve one’s own information needs is a prerequisite to success in education, work, and personal life. 

Information Competency Tutorials
Santa Ana College
http://ext.sac.edu/academic_progs/library/informationcompetency/index.html

Critical Thinking Core Concepts
http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/longview/ctac/corenotes.htm

Thinking Critically about Discipline Based World Wide Web Resources. 
UCLA College Library Instruction
http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/pyramid.htm