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| © Laurie Block Spigel 2005-2008 |
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Critical Thinking has to do with asking questions that are not prompted by a teacher, and solving problems that don't necessarily have a right answer. It involves taking a closer look, examining the truth in advertising, revealing the layers of ideas in politics, finding new interpretations in literature, exploring logic and philosophy. It is about learning to think for oneself, developing reasoning skills, being able to figure out problems and understand situations that are designed to deceive.
Websites
- The Critical Thinking Community (the Foundation for Critical Thinking) has a lot of useful resources.
- The Critical Thinking Co.
One parent says, "Just about everything we've used from Critical Thinking Press has been superb. At younger ages, the Building Thinking Skills books are good; at older ages the Critical Thinking in U.S. History is fabulous, and a good friend raves about the Constitution book by CTP. One of the nice things about CTP is that they have a lot of applied critical thinking books, so that if your child particularly enjoys science (or math, or some other subject) you can find a book that teaches skills in that area. My kids all liked the MindBenders series, but they're pricy for the length of the book; find a friend to split the cost. Note that if you go to the CTP web site the homeschool prices are lower than the standard prices. You can also sometimes find the books used."
- eIMACS (electronic Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science. The online EIMACS curriculum is very solid and self-paced for mathematical logic (which underpins a lot of higher-level math), and you can get high school honors credit for the classes.
Books
- The Fallacy Detective, 36 Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning, by Nathaniel Bluedorn and Hans Bluedorn
- Introductory Logic by Douglas Wilson and James Nance. Part of the Mars Hill Textbook Series.
- Lady or the Tiger? And Other Logic Puzzles Including a Mathematical Novel That Features Godel's Great Discovery by Raymond M. Smullyan (lfor math logic)
- Media Literacy: Thinking Critically About Advertising by Peyton Paxson is a high school-level book that can be adapted to younger ages. It takes an in-depth look at advertising tricks and techniques, and opens the eyes to what's going on in print, TV, and radio advertising. Homeschoolers who use mass transit will find lots of examples in real life for applying this!
The Mars Hill logic text and the Bluedorns' Fallacy Detective book are both done from a Christian perspective. One parent's opinion: both Mars Hill and Fallacy Detective are okay, not spectacular.
Games & Puzzles
Logic
Philosophy
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