Critical Thinking and Decision Making.

Diane Halpern (1996) gives us this definition of critical thinking: Critical thinking is the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome. It is used to describe thinking that is purposeful, reasoned and goal directed - the kind of thinking involved in solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions when the thinker is using skills that are thoughtful and effective for the particular context and type of …

…resisting "quick fix" solutions. We would hold ourselves to high standards of thinking, and we would look for these standards in the thinking of others. References Halpern, D. F. (1996). Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, 17: Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates. Brown, M. N., Keeley, S. M., McCall, M. W. Jr., Kaplan, R. E., (2003), Readings in critical thinking. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing. Medical Dictionary Search Engine, http://www.books.md/D/dic/decisionmaking.php