People And Planet
November 18, 2010
or google Marie Schickel Rottschaefer
Resume Blog 6
The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking -- Concepts & Tools by Dr. Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder The Foundation for Critical Thinking 2003 is our mini-guide that contains the essence of critical thinking concepts and tools extracted for ‘pocket size’ learning. Users apply these skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and various academic disciplines such as history, science, math, philosophy, and the arts; as well as their personal and professional life. So this is a good beginning for those ‘training to be trained’ in this complex and uncertain society.
The authors begin by laying out the problem as to why we need critical thinking. Every one of us thinks. But without training often enough our thinking is subject to being biased, distorted, partial, uniformed or clearly prejudiced. We could easily think of examples we have encountered. They continue, the quality of our life and that of what we produce, make, or build depends on the quality of our thought. Substandard thinking is costly, in money and in quality of life. But excellence in thought must be systematically developed. (Let us remember as people & planet restoration people, we are trying to bring quality to people and planet.)
Such quality thinking must have a definition. Paul and Elder say: Critical thinking is that mode of thinking about any subject, content, or problem in which the thinker improves the quality of his/her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.
To understand this abstract definition concretely I use my own examples. Each person has his/her examples depending on one’s individual life circumstances. As a retired RN I am interested in health promotion. What are the structures? -- All those areas that promote health: nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management, avoiding harmful substances and situations in the environment, and timely preventive and restorative health care. These are the intellectual standards to be imposed on the structure or construction of a health promotion project because if any are missing then the health promotion task is compromised. In building a house, if any vital pieces were missing, it would never pass inspection.
What is the result we would expect from our adaptation?
Paul and Elder list them.
A well-cultivated thinker:
- raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely
[People and planet restoration workers want to get it right; my immediate area would be to focus on nutrition]
- gathers and assesses relevant information
[What area of nutrition? It could be anything from personal nutrition with particular diets for normal to therapeutic diets on one end of the spectrum, to State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet An incisive account of the global food crisis—and how it can be solved, on the other end. We know that it’s important to stay focused on one area yet be flexible enough to change priorities if necessary.]
I will continue Paul & Elder’s list next week with my examples to make it specific.
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