21st Century Learning and Teaching

I am interested in this post and post on critical thinking. Is critical thinking a skill?  Can one teach critical thinking? Stephen has delivered the course on Critical Literacies MOOC in the past....

Robert H. Ennis, Author of The Cornell Critical Thinking Tests
“Critical thinking is reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe and do.”

Assuming that critical thinking is reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do, a critical thinker:

1. Is open-minded and mindful of alternatives
2. Tries to be well-informed
3. Judges well the credibility of sources
4. Identifies conclusions, reasons, and assumptions
5. Judges well the quality of an argument, including the acceptability of its reasons, assumptions, and evidence
6. Can well develop and defend a reasonable position
7. Asks appropriate clarifying questions
8. Formulates plausible hypotheses; plans experiments well
9. Defines terms in a way appropriate for the context
10. Draws conclusions when warranted, but with caution
11. Integrates all items in this list when deciding what to believe or do

What are the principles of critical thinking?

- Knowledge is acquired only through thinking, reasoning, and questioning. Knowledge is based on facts.

- It is only from learning how to think that you learn what to think.

- Critical thinking is an organized and systematic process used to judge the effectiveness of an argument.

- Critical thinking is a search for meaning.

- Critical thinking is a skill that can be learned.

- Do the above principles hold true and won’t change from one domain to the next?

Read more, very interesting:

http://suifaijohnmak.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/critical-thinking-2/