Diane Halpern: A Critical Analysis

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Diane Halpern describes through the text that in order to be a great critical thinker one must not only possess a vast amount of knowledge, but also have the skill to comprehend the information in a more perceptive manner. Hence, both thought and knowledge have a dependent relationship with one another that when combined allow the individual to create meaning and understanding out of any concept presented.
Chapter 1 defines critical thinking as an objective oriented process of thought which uses intellectual skills to enhance the chances of the desired outcome. In the text, the author argues that critical thinking includes “calculating likelihoods” because critical thinking not only requires the process of finding the way to a primary goal, but also calculating the possibilities a method would reach that certain target. Because critical thinkers not only look at the process, they also look at the chances their decisions can go wrong and find alternate methods that have the greatest chance.
In the text, Diane Halpern argues there are ways we can increase our critical thinking skills, she proves this by providing credible areas of research. The first area of research Halpern provides is the results from the thinking skills program in Venezuela. The program tested two groups of students, one experimental and one control group. The experimental group was involved in a thinking skills class, whilst the control group had no such instruction. The results were that the experimental group had notable gains in answering questions which required thinking critically. This …show more content…

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