Critical Thinking: Foundations of Critical Thinking for the Study of the Humanities

The overall aim of the workshop is to help students understand what it means to think "critically" and to coach them not to take everything they read (or hear or watch) at face value. Rather than recounting the media they consume in a purely descriptive manner, students will be taught to identify the differences between description and discourse with a view to developing their own discursive skills. More specifically, the workshop aims to provide participants with a method and stimulus for self-reflection and to get participants to reflect on the way in which they read, study and present information. At the same time, the workshop will direct students, through tutor-led group and individual activities, to suggest methods for self-improvement in terms of giving clear descriptions, concise summaries, substantiated arguments at odds with their own convictions and convincing explanations.

Knowledge and understanding
Participants will learn to identify the processes of attention, categorisation, selection and judgment which are involved in critical thinking, and to apply these in order to understand the features, structure, angle and style of argumentative texts (both written and oral) and the factors that distinguish a discursive argument from other types of speech or writing.
Application of knowledge and understanding
Participants will apply the knowledge and skills they have learnt through a series of reading-based exercises that will help them comprehend texts as a whole and in detail. In these exercises, they will identify the stances being taken (discourse, analysis, selection, conclusions), assess the facts presented, weigh up the counterarguments, recognise any implicit non-verbal aspects, learn to critique and cultivate their own intuition and personal viewpoints, and express their viewpoints persuasively both in speech and in writing.
Judgment skills
Participants will have the opportunity to evaluate the interpretation/study/summarisation methods of themselves and of their peers with a view to engaging in collective debate which features all elements of discursive quality (clarity, coherence, substantiation, articulation) and in which discourse is supported by strong evidence.