In summary
Skills in analysis and critical evaluation are fundamental to learning throughout life, enabling:
- disaggregation and synthesis of parts of systems, processes, tasks, objects, texts, artefacts, problems, ideas, concepts and arguments;
- exploration of alternative ideas or solutions to problems;
- predictions about likely outcomes based on evidence;
- clear thinking using logic (inductive and deductive);
- identification of faulty reasoning, assumptions and biases by thorough testing; and
- informed judgement about the worth of ideas and arguments.
Teaching approaches/strategies for skills development
Critical analysis and evaluation skills can be taught, learned, practised and assessed in any discipline using a number of different strategies, such as:
- concept maps;
- debating;
- questioning;
- evaluating texts and web sites;
- applying inductive and deductive reasoning.
Encourage students to become critical thinkers
Ultimately, the test of a student's skills in analysis and critical evaluation lies in their ability to:
- read widely and read critically;
- make sense of and synthesise findings;
- take a big picture view of ideas and concepts and where they 'fit' in the scheme of things;
- get to the heart of issues by challenging and confronting different points-of-view;
- arrive at their own justifiable position.
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HANDOUTS: Principles of effective critical evaluation