T: +27(0)51 401 9111 | info@ufs.ac.za | www.ufs.ac.za

Developing critical thinking skills

through mind mapping

Yvonne Botma

Orientation

• My mind map

• Thinking operations

• Outcomes of critical thinking

• Example

My mind map on critical thinking

Foundational knowledge from various fields/sciences

Op

erat

ion

s

Make decisionsSolve

problemsConcep-tualize

Critical thinkerIn

form

Thinking operations

• Reflexive comparison – against standards developed

through experiential and theoretical knowledge

• Socratic reasoning – asking and answering questions to

investigate below the surface, looks for consequences,

multiple views, distinguishes between what is known and

assumptions

• Inductive reasoning

Thinking operations

• Deductive reasoning

• Dialectic reasoning – stating a thesis and developing a

contradictory antithesis

• Critical analysis – gain insight – subjective because it

reflects the person’s stance and interpretation

Thinking operations

• Empirical reasoning – quantification of risks based on

statistics and probabilities

• Prescriptive reasoning – those who compiled guidelines –

the “thinker” follows the guideline or algorithm

• Intuition – not a thinking process but developed from

extensive experience of reasoning in similar situations -

experts

Critical thinking process

1• Identify central issues and assumptions in the argument

2• Recall declarative knowledge and gather information

3• Analyze arguments, claims & evidence

4• Recognize important relationships

5• Interpret and explain evidence

6• Judge or evaluate validity and reliability of the evidence

7• Make inferences

8• Make decisions, solve problems, or conceptualize

Outcomes of critical thinking

Problem solving

• Recognise the problem

• Represent the problem

• Collect information on how to solve the problem

• Process the collected information

• Propose a solution

• Justify all claims

• Implement the solution

• Evaluate the outcome

Decision making

• Define the goal

• Define the criteria

• Identify the alternatives

• Analyse/explore the alternatives

• Rank the options

• Choose the best option

• Implement

• Evaluate

Conceptualising

• Identify examples

• Identify common attributes

• Classify the attributes

• Interrelate categories of the attributes

• Identify additional examples

• Modify the concept attributes

Example

healthy80 year old

Sleeping tablet?Wine????

Immobility EmboliDeathOther cause? Processes &

Procedure?

Wife ?Co-passengers ?

Thank you