Critical thinking

Critical thinking is about exploring and evaluating ideas, opinions, theories, and evidence that you come across in your coursework.

Critical thinking is about exploring and evaluating ideas, opinions, theories, and evidence that you come across in your coursework, via other texts, the media, or in conversations with your teachers and peers. It also involves evaluating the quality of your own work and understanding what influences your own thinking.

For example, when you read an article, you might ask yourself:

• What exactly is the main idea, finding or argument?
• What examples or evidence are there to support this?
• Are there any assumptions being made by the author? Have they missed something important?
• How does it correlate with what other writers have to say on the same topic?
• How might my own beliefs or biases impact the way I am interpreting the article?

By questioning and analysing information, you can develop a deeper understanding and make more informed decisions. Remember, critical thinking is not just about finding flaws but also about recognising strong arguments and evidence.

What does critical thinking look like in practice at uni?

Evaluating information

• The sources of information that you base your assessment task responses on should be assessed for relevance to your task and for credibility.
• Recommended unit readings and Lib Guides provide a useful starting point.
• Learn more about evaluating sources.

Critical reading

• Ask yourself if the findings or arguments are backed by up evidence. The more you learn and read, the better equipped you will be to judge new information.
• Distinguish uninformed opinions from informed opinions, and opinions from facts.
• Practising critical reading and note making will help develop your evaluative skills.
• Be aware of your own biases and goals, as well as those of the authors and creators you are engaging with.
• Ask whether new information aligns with or challenges what you already know about the topic and the world around you.

Critical note making

Highlighting, underlining and quoting texts are all useful strategies for making notes. However, you can deepen comprehension and better prepare for assessments by using active reading and note-making strategies to develop an informed opinion. You might try:

• Noting your questions and possible responses as you’re reading, even if you are not sure of the answers.
• Making links between ideas, findings or opinions from other sources of information.
• Summarising and paraphrasing texts rather than copying or quoting.
• Presenting information in new ways or in different formats.

Learn practical ways to create critical notes to improve your assessment writing.

Critical analysis

When writing an assessment task, it is not enough to simply repeat what others have said. Markers will expect you to demonstrate a critical engagement with your sources.

Depending on your task, critical analysis can take different forms:

• comparing, contrasting and making links between sources of information
• questioning assumptions and seeking further details and evidence
• evaluating arguments and forming your own opinion based on facts
• arriving at reasoned, logical conclusions based on the consideration of evidence
• interrogating opinions, methodologies and conclusions
• presenting balanced arguments, supported by multiple credible sources. Learn more about developing an argument.

Critical self-reflection

• Reflect on your own values and experiences and consider how they influence your own understanding of what you believe to be reasonable and logical. For example, how is your own thinking influenced by political, cultural or religious beliefs? Where have these influences come from and how do they shape your points of view?
• When receiving feedback, think about how it can help improve your work and respond to future assessment tasks. Learn more about making the most of feedback.

Robust and respectful discussions with peers

• Keep in mind that what is ‘reasonable’ and ‘logical’ can mean different things to different people (and writers).
• Respectfully engage with and evaluate different viewpoints. Consider why other perspectives differ from your own.
• If you have a difference of opinion, be prepared to use reason and provide examples and evidence.
• Learn more about participating in discussions.

Critical thinking template

Use and adapt this critical thinking template (DOCX, 35.4KB) for your own purposes.

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