Name: Beth

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I wrote this: critical thinking includes thinking open-mindedly; asking vital questions; gathering relevant information; testing well-reasoned conclusions and solutions; and recognizing and assessing their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences.

Name: Carol

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I went out on a search for a definition of Critical Thinking, and after finding an abundance of responses chose this. Philosopher Richard Paul and educational psychologists Linda Elder have written extensively on the subject of critical thinking.6 Paul and Elder define critical thinking as: "That mode of thinking - about any subject, content, or problem - in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them."7 Paul and Elder emphasize "asking vital questions," "gathering relevant information," "testing well reasoned conclusions and solutions," "thinking open mindedly," "recognizing and assessing" ... "their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences" and "communicating effectively."8 Paul and Elder offer a list of what they call "elements of thought:" purpose, information, inferences/conclusions, concepts, assumptions, points of view, implications/consequences, and questions.9 Paul and Elder suggest nine qualities that make messages optimally useful; these include: "clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, logic, significance, and fairness."