critical thinking meaning from oxford dictionary

Learn How to Use the Library
Providers & Employees
Research Help
All Research Guides

English Research

Catalogs & Databases

What is Critical Thinking?

7 steps to critical thinking, books in the collection.

Synthesizing Information
Entering the Conversation
APA Style (7th ed.) This link opens in a new window

The Oxford English Dictionary defines critical thinking as "the objective, systematic, and rational analysis and evaluation of factual evidence in order to form a judgement on a subject, issue, etc."

Put simply, critical thinking is the ability to recognize and examine information to understand the evidence, arguments, and perspectives present in that information. Critical thinking means seeking answers and asking questions.

TED-Ed Can You Solve This Riddle? (playlist) Try out some of the classic riddles in this playlist from TED Ed. Each video established the riddle with narration and animation. Use your critical thinking skills to solve the riddles!

The following seven steps, developed by Kraus et al., are meant to illustrate the process of critical thinking. While true critical thinking may not follow these steps as written, they can serve as a guide or framework for individuals working on improving their critical thinking skills.

What am I being asked to believe or accept?
What evidence is available to support the claim?
What alternative ways are there to interpret the evidence?
Rate the evidence/alternatives on 0-10 scale based on validity/strength.
What assumptions or biases came up when doing the above steps? (e.g., using intuition/emotion, authority, or personal experience rather than science)
What additional evidence would help us evaluate the alternatives?
What conclusions are most reasonable or likely?

Kraus, S., Sears, S. R., & Burke, B. L. (2013). Is truthiness enough? Classroom activities for encouraging evidence-based critical thinking. The Journal of Effective Teaching, 13 (2), 83-93.

These ebooks are available in the NEOLINK catalog.

These books are available on-site in the library's circulating collection.

<< Previous: Catalogs & Databases
Next: Synthesizing Information >>
Last Updated: Jan 18, 2024 11:16 AM
URL: https://aultman.libguides.com/english

Aultman Health Sciences Library

Aultman Education Center, C2-230, 2600 Sixth St SW, Canton, OH 44710 | 330-363-5000 | [email protected]

To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

critical thinking

Definition of critical thinking

Examples of critical thinking in a sentence, word history.

1815, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Dictionary Entries Near critical thinking

critical temperature

critical value

Cite this Entry

“Critical thinking.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/critical%20thinking. Accessed 19 Nov. 2024.

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

How to use em dashes (—), en dashes (–) , and hyphens (-), plural and possessive names: a guide, the difference between 'i.e.' and 'e.g.', why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word, what's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism', popular in wordplay, 8 words with fascinating histories, 8 words for lesser-known musical instruments, birds say the darndest things, 10 words from taylor swift songs (merriam's version), 10 scrabble words without any vowels, games & quizzes.