Critical thinking skills are vital to well-educated individuals and acquiring this ability should be one of your most important goals inside and outside the class room.   You should attempt to consider alternate positions and theories, to participate in class discussions and debates, to interpret what you read and learn, and learn to form your own logical, informed views- no matter what the prevailing opinion of the moment is.

A broad framework of intellectual rigor is called critical thinking. Critical thinking skills enable people to evaluate, compare, analyze, critique, and synthesize information.  Even though at this stage of your life, it may seem as if this is a type of academic "buzz word," those who possess critical thinking skills know that knowledge is not a collection of facts, but rather an ongoing process of examining information, evaluating that information, and adding it to their understanding of the world.  Critical thinkers also know to keep an open mind- and frequently end by changing their views based on new knowledge.

A broad-based education, inter-disciplinary study, and the ability to think beyond the text or class lecture  extends to your written work as well.  Being able to think and write clearly, critically, and cogently is a skill that will contribute to any life-choice you may make.  Written assignments are essential to an education while at the same time, writing skills and logical arguments are tools that are frequently lacking in college-level students.  Hopefully this page will help you think more critically.  There is a companion page (Guide to Writing a Research Paper) where there are compiled research and writing guidelines to aid you in your quest.

In science, statements can be tested and falsified but they are never proved "true." Rather they can be substantiated by further research and re-testing of the data in equal or similar ways.  In time, the original relationship of an innovative hypothesis with further testing can lead to an established theory, such as Charles Darwin's theory of descent with modification or Gregor Mendel's law of independent assortment.  Usually, advances in other areas of inquiry will also aid to substantiate the value of a new hypothesis or larger theory.   Inadequate hypotheses that do not pass the test of replication, or which are replaced by a more explanatory hypothesis, end by being rejected, such as Jean Baptiste Lamarck's theory of acquired characteristics.

QUESTIONS TO ASK IN MAKING CRITICAL EVALUATIONS ABOUT ISSUES OR ANY ACADEMIC TOPIC:

1. What data are presented?
2. What conclusions are presented, and how are they organized (as tentative hypotheses or as more dogmatic assertions)?
3. Are these views the individual opinions of the authors, or are they supported by a larger body of research?
4. What are the research findings? Are they adequately documented?
5. Is the information consistent with information that you already possess? If not, can the inconsistencies be explained?
6. Are the conclusions (hypotheses) testable? How might one go about testing the various hypotheses that are presented?
7. If presentation of new research findings is at odds with previous hypotheses (or theories), must these hypotheses now be modified (or completely rejected)?
8. How do your own personal views bias you in interpreting the results?
9. Once you have identified your own biases, are you able to set them aside so as to evaluate the information objectively?
10. Are you able to discuss both the pros and cons of a scientific topic in an evenhanded manner?

[Questions condensed from: Robert Jurmain, Harry Nelson, Lynn Kilgore, Wenda Trevathan, 1997, Introduction to Physical Anthropology, pp. 18-20. New York: Wadsworth Publishing Co.]