Critical Thinking
Notes on Critical Thinking takes a practical hands-on approach, providing an overview of each topic and then allowing students to apply the concepts of critical thinking through practice activities that feature Soomo-original videos, current news stories, and engaging scenarios. In the final chapter, a case study presents students with the opportunity to apply all of the critical thinking skills learned throughout the text.
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Steady encouragement
After each new topic is presented, students answer a few questions about the main ideas. This keeps students focused, actively processing the information and constructing new knowledge.
Presentation and exploration
Eleven chapters offer clear and concise presentation of key concepts. Practice activities guide students through the examination of real-world artifacts and case studies to put the concepts into context and test the limits of the ideas presented.
Study questions
Questions throughout the text encourage close reading and guide students to key information.
Everything you need
Notes on Critical Thinking provides everything you need for an online course including interactive activities, a test bank, and an analytics dashboard. And we can tailor the webtext to match your program’s emphasis, term length, student expectations, and assignment types.
- Thinking
- Introduction to Thinking
- What Is Critical Thinking?
- Practice: What Is Critical Thinking?
- Being a Critical Thinker
- Practice: Being a Critical Thinker
- Applying Critical Thinking
- Barriers
- Introduction to Barriers
- Recognizing Barriers
- Practice: Recognizing Barriers
- Culture and Stereotypes
- Jumping to Conclusions
- Practice: Culture and Stereotypes
- Emotions and Critical Thinking
- Bias and Critical Thinking
- Uncovering Emotions and Biases
- Practice: Uncovering Emotions and Biases
- Language
- Introduction to Language
- Define Your Terms
- Practice: Define Your Terms
- Language and Thinking
- Practice: Language and Thinking
- Word Games: Tone and Emotive Language
- Word Games: More Tactics
- Practice: Word Games
- Sources
- Introduction to Sources
- Locating Sources
- Types of Sources: Print-to-Digital
- Types of Sources: Digital-Only
- Avoiding Problematic Sources
- Verifying Digital Sources
- Practice: Verifying Digital Sources
- Determining Credibility: Origin and Context
- Determining Credibility: Objectivity
- Practice: Determining Credibility
- Evidence
- Introduction to Evidence
- Evidence in Arguments
- Using Evidence
- Using Scholarly Evidence
- Practice: Using Sources and Evidence
- Evaluating Evidence
- Practice: Evaluating Evidence
- Arguments
- Introduction to Arguments
- Foundations of Argument
- Deductive Arguments
- Enthymemes
- Practice: Deduction and Enthymemes
- Inductive Arguments
- Practice: Inductive Arguments
- Examining an Argument
- Evaluating Arguments: Claims and Language
- Evaluating Arguments: Evidence
- Practice: Evaluating Arguments
- Fallacies
- Introduction to Fallacies
- Fallacies
- Fallacies Continued
- Practice: Fallacies
- More Fallacies
- Practice: More Fallacies
- Even More Fallacies
- Practice: Even More Fallacies
- Explanations
- Introduction to Explanations
- Examining Explanations
- Qualities of Explanations
- Practice: Qualities of Explanations
- Scientific Explanations
- Practice: Scientific Explanations
- Statistics and Fallacies
- Problems with Statistics
- More Problems with Statistics
- Practice: Problems with Statistics
- Problem Solving
- Introduction to Problem Solving
- Understanding the Problem
- Practice: Understanding the Problem
- Generating Your Options
- Practice: Generating Your Options
- Evaluating Your Options
- Making Your Decision
- Implementing and Reflecting on Your Decision
- Practice: Reflecting on Your Decision
- Ethics
- Introduction to Ethics
- Ethical Claims
- Practice: Ethical Claims
- Ethical Reasoning
- Practice: Ethical Reasoning (Part 1 of 2)
- Practice: Ethical Reasoning (Part 2 of 2)
- Ethical Perspectives
- Using Ethical Perspectives
- Practice: Ethical Perspectives
- Case Study
- Introduction to the Case Study
- Situation
- Defining the Problem
- Researching the Problem
- Understanding the Problem
- Open Questions
- Considering Your Options
- Making Your Decision
- Introduction to the Case Study
Interactive content
Study questions
Multiple choice and short answer questions on every page guide students to critical information by providing immediate feedback. These low-risk opportunities allow students to reset answers to try again or study for tests.
Investigations
Investigations incorporate videos, journal articles, infographics, audio clips, simulations, and primary sources to help students explore key concepts in greater depth.
Response boards
Students engage each other through discussion boards that only allow students to see the responses of their peers after they've posted their own comment.
Polls
Polls allow students to share their opinions and then view a live pie chart displaying the responses of all class members.
Study tools
Webtext Reader app
Students can access materials and complete assignments offline with our mobile app available for iOS and Android.
Reading tools
Reading tools allow students to click on vocabulary terms for definitions and mark up their own webtext by highlighting and adding notes in the margins.
Read to Me
Our text-to-speech feature instantly creates an audio version of the webtext page to extend the reach of online content.
My Progress
Students can keep track of their own work inside My Progress, which records their scores, time spent, and completion.
The following materials are available for this course:
- Testbank
- Lecture Slides
- Release Notes
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Contributors
Candice Benjes-Small, Head of Research Services, William & Mary Libraries
Emily Ligon, MA
Advisors
Gary Curtis, PhD
Creator of the Fallacy Files
Enoch Hale, PhD
Executive Director of the Institute for Critical & Integrated Thinking
Vicki Vernon Lott, PhD
Huston-Tillotson University
Peer Reviewers
Jennie Smith-Pariola, PhD
Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College
Gigi Derballa, MA
Humanities Chair at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College
Whitman Bowles, MEd
Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College
Publisher
Mary Jane Lindrum
Executive Editor
Jenny Westrick
Senior Instruction and Content Specialist
Ashley Bourne-Richardson
Production Coordinator
Natalie Welch
Production Editors
Rachel Garzarelli
Erin Griffin Collum
Assistant Production Editors
Mandi DeLong
Thinacha Newberry
Video Director
Tim Alden Grant
Photo Research & Permissions
Zara Elizabeth Crockett
User Interface Design
Sam Korthof
Clint McFarlin
Note
Some multiple-choice questions were developed using ChatGPT; these questions were factchecked and edited for style and accuracy.