Intellectual Traits

Valuable Intellectual Traits 
Richard Paul and Linda Elder 

Intellectual traits, or virtues, are interrelated intellectual habits that enable students to discipline and improve mental functioning. Teachers need to keep in mind that critical thinking can be used to serve two incompatible end s: self-centeredness or fair-mindedness. As students learn the basic intellectual skills that critical thinking entails, they can begin to use those skills in either a selfish or in a fair-minded way. For example, when students are taught how to recognize mistakes in reasoning (commonly called fallacies), most students readily see those mistakes in the reasoning of others but do not see them so readily in their own reasoning. Often they enjoy pointing out others' errors and develop some proficiency in making their opponents' thinking look bad, but they don't generally use their understanding of fallacies to analyze and assess their own reasoning. It is thus possible for students to develop as thinkers and yet not to develop as fair-minded thinkers. The best thinkers strive to be fair-minded, even when it means they have to give something up. They recognize that the mind is not naturally fair-minded, but selfish. And they understand that to be fair-minded, they must also develop particular traits of mind, traits such as intellectual humility, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual integrity, intellectual perseverance, faith in reason, and fair-mindedness. Teachers should model and discuss the following intellectual traits as they help their students become fair-minded, ethical thinkers. 

1. Intellectual Humility: Having a consciousness of the limits of one's knowledge, including a sensitivity to circumstances in which one's native egocentrism is likely to function self-deceptively; sensitivity to bias, prejudice and limitations of one's viewpoint. Intellectual humility depends on recognizing that one should not claim more than one actually knows. It does not imply spinelessness or submissiveness. It implies the lack of intellectual pretentiousness, boastfulness, or conceit, combined with insight into the logical foundations, or lack of such foundations, of one's beliefs.
   
2. Intellectual Courage: Having a consciousness of the need to face and fairly address ideas, beliefs or viewpoints toward which we have strong negative emotions and to which we have not given a serious hearing. This courage is connected with the recognition that ideas considered dangerous or absurd are sometimes rationally justified (in whole or in part) and that conclusions and beliefs inculcated in us are sometimes false or misleading. To determine for ourselves which is which, we must not passively and uncritically "accept" what we have "learned." Intellectual courage comes into play here, because inevitably we will come to see some truth in some ideas considered dangerous and absurd, and distortion or falsity in some ideas strongly held in our social group. We need courage to be true to our own thinking in such circumstances. The penalties for non-conformity can be severe.
   
3. Intellectual Empathy: Having a consciousness of the need to imaginatively put oneself in the place of others in order to genuinely understand them, which requires the consciousness of our egocentric tendency to identify truth with our immediate perceptions of long-standing thought or belief. This trait correlates with the ability to reconstruct accurately the viewpoints and reasoning of others and to reason from premises, assumptions, and ideas other than our own. This trait also correlates with the willingness to remember occasions when we were wrong in the past despite an intense conviction that we were right, and with the ability to imagine our being similarly deceived in a case-at-hand.
   
4. Intellectual Integrity: Recognition of the need to be true to one's own thinking; to be consistent in the intellectual standards one applies; to hold one's self to the same rigorous standards of evidence and proof to which one holds one's antagonists; to practice what one advocates for others; and to honestly admit discrepancies and inconsistencies in one’s own thought and action.
   
5. Intellectual Perseverance: Having a consciousness of the need to use intellectual insights and truths in spite of difficulties, obstacles, and frustrations; firm adherence to rational principles despite the irrational opposition of others; a sense of the need to struggle with confusion and unsettled questions over an extended period of time to achieve deeper understanding or insight. 
   
6. Faith In Reason: Confidence that, in the long run, one's own higher interests and those of humankind at large will be best served by giving the freest play to reason, by encouraging people to come to their own conclusions by developing their own rational faculties; faith that, with proper encouragement and cultivation, people can learn to think for themselves, to form rational viewpoints, draw reasonable conclusions, think coherently and logically, persuade each other by reason and become reasonable persons, despite the deep-seated obstacles in the native character of the human mind and in society as we know it. 
7. Fair-mindedness: Having a consciousness of the need to treat all viewpoints alike, without reference to one's own feelings or vested interests, or the feelings or vested interests of one's friends, community or nation; implies adherence to intellectual standards without reference to one's own advantage or the advantage of one's group.

Critical Thinking Principles Draft Statement

A Draft Statement of Principles 
Dr. Richard Paul, Chair, NCECT 

Goals 
The goals of the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking Instruction are as follows:

1. To articulate, preserve, and foster high standards of research, scholarship, and instruction in critical thinking.
2. To articulate the standards upon which "quality" thinking is based and the criteria by means of which thinking, and instruction for thinking, can be appropriately cultivated and assessed.
3. To assess programs which claim to foster higher-order critical thinking.
4. To disseminate information that aids educators and others in identifying quality critical thinking programs and approaches which ground the reform and restructuring of education on a systematic cultivation of disciplined universal and domain specific intellectual standards. 

Founding Principles 

1. There is an intimate interrelation between knowledge and thinking.
2. Knowing that something is so is not simply a matter of believing that it is so, it also entails being justified in that belief (Definition: Knowledge is justified true belief).
3. There are general, as well as domain-specific, standards for the assessment of thinking.
4. To achieve knowledge in any domain, it is essential to think critically.
5. Critical thinking is based on articulable intellectual standards and hence is intrinsically subject to assessment by those standards.
6. Criteria for the assessment of thinking in all domains are based on such general standards as: clarity, precision, accuracy, relevance, significance, fairness, logic, depth, and breadth, evidentiary support, probability, predictive or explanatory power. These standards, and others, are embedded not only in the history of the intellectual and scientific communities, but also in the self-assessing behavior of reasonable persons in everyday life. It is possible to teach all subjects in such a way as to encourage the use of these intellectual standards in both professional and personal life.
7. Instruction in critical thinking should increasingly enable students to assess both their own thought and action and that of others by reference, ultimately, to standards such as those above. It should lead progressively, in other words, to a disciplining of the mind and to a self-chosen commitment to a life of intellectual and moral integrity.
8. Instruction in all subject domains should result in the progressive disciplining of the mind with respect to the capacity and disposition to think critically within that domain. Hence, instruction in science should lead to disciplined scientific thinking; instruction in mathematics should lead to disciplined mathematical thinking; instruction in history should lead to disciplined historical thinking; and in a parallel manner in every discipline and domain of learning.
9. Disciplined thinking with respect to any subject involves the capacity on the part of the thinker to recognize, analyze, and assess the basic elements of thought: the purpose or goal of the thinking; the problem or question at issue; the frame of reference or points of view involved; assumptions made; central concepts and ideas at work; principles or theories used; evidence, data, or reasons advanced, claims made and conclusions drawn; inferences, reasoning, and lines of formulated thought; and implications and consequences involved.
10. Critical reading, writing, speaking, and listening are academically essential modes of learning. To be developed generally they must be systematically cultivated in a variety of subject domains as well as with respect to interdisciplinary issues. Each are modes of thinking which are successful to the extent that they are disciplined and guided by critical thought and reflection.
11. The earlier that children develop sensitivity to the standards of sound thought and reasoning, the more likely they will develop desirable intellectual habits and become open-minded persons responsive to reasonable persuasion.
12. Education - in contrast to training, socialization, and indoctrination - implies a process conducive to critical thought and judgment. It is intrinsically committed to the cultivation of reasonability and rationality. 

History and Philosophy  Critical thinking is integral to education and rationality and, as an idea, is traceable, ultimately, to the teaching practices — and the educational ideal implicit in them — of Socrates of ancient Greece. It has played a seminal role in the emergence of academic disciplines, as well as in the work of discovery of those who created them. Knowledge, in other words, has been discovered and verified by the distinguished critical thinkers of intellectual, scientific, and technological history. For the majority of the idea's history, however, critical thinking has been "buried," a conception in practice without an explicit name. Most recently, however, it has undergone something of an awakening, a coming-out, a first major social expression, signaling perhaps a turning-point in its history.

This awakening is correlated with a growing awareness that if education is to produce critical thinkers en mass, if it is to globally cultivate nations of skilled thinkers and innovators rather than a scattering of thinkers amid an army of intellectually unskilled, undisciplined, and uncreative followers, then a renaissance and re-emergence of the idea of critical thinking as integral to knowledge and understanding is necessary. Such a reawakening and recognition began first in the USA in the later 30's and then surfaced in various forms in the 50's, 60's, and 70's, reaching its most public expression in the 80's and 90's. Nevertheless, despite the scholarship surrounding the idea, despite the scattered efforts to embody it in educational practice, the educational and social acceptance of the idea is still in its infancy, still largely misunderstood, still existing more in stereotype than in substance, more in image than in reality.

The members of the Council (some 8000 plus educators) are committed to high standards of excellence in critical thinking instruction across the curriculum at all levels of education. They are, therefore, concerned with the proliferation of poorly conceived "thinking skills" programs with their simplistic — often slick — approaches to both thinking and instruction. If the current emphasis on critical thinking is genuinely to take root, if it is to avoid the traditional fate of passing educational fad and "buzz word," it is essential that the deep obstacles to its embodiment in quality education be recognized for what they are, reasonable strategies to combat them formulated by leading scholars in the field, and successful communication of both obstacles and strategies to the educational and broader community achieved.

To this end, sound standards of the field of critical thinking research must be made accessible by clear articulation and the means set up for the large-scale dissemination of that articulation. The nature and challenge of critical thinking as an educational ideal must not be allowed to sink into the murky background of educational reform and restructuring efforts, while superficial ideas take its place. Critical thinking must assume its proper place at the hub of educational reform and restructuring. Critical thinking — and intellectual and social development generally — are not well-served when educational discussion is inundated with superficial conceptions of critical thinking and slick merchandizing of "thinking skills" programs while substantial — and necessarily more challenging conceptions and programs — are thrust aside, obscured, or ignored. 


Elements of Thought 
Linda Elder and Richard Paul 

If teachers want their students to think well, they must help students understand at least the rudiments of thought, the most basic structures out of which all thinking is made. In other words, students must learn how to take thinking apart. All thinking is defined by the eight elements that make it up. Eight basic structures are present in all thinking. Whenever we think, we think for a purpose within a point of view based on assumptions leading to implications and consequences. We use concepts, ideas, and theories to interpret data, facts, and experiences in order to answer questions, solve problems, and resolve issues. Thinking, then, generates purposes, raises questions, uses information, utilizes concepts, makes inferences, makes assumptions, generates implications, and embodies a point of view. Students should understand that each of these structures has implications for the others. If they change their purpose or agenda, they change their questions and problems. If they change their questions and problems, they are forced to seek new information and data, and so on. Students should regularly use the following checklist for reasoning to improve their thinking in any discipline or subject area: 

1. All reasoning has a purpose. 
   1. State your purpose clearly. 
   2. Distinguish your purpose from related purposes. 
   3. Check periodically to be sure you are still on target. 
   4. Choose significant and realistic purposes.
2. All reasoning is an attempt to figure something out, to settle some question, solve some problem. 
   1. State the question at issue clearly and precisely. 
   2. Express the question in several ways to clarify its meaning and scope. 
   3. Break the question into sub-questions. 
   4. Distinguish questions that have definitive answers from those that are a matter of opinion and from those that require consideration of multiple viewpoints.
3. All reasoning is based on assumptions (beliefs you take for granted). 
   1. Clearly identify your assumptions and determine whether they are justifiable. 
   2. Consider how your assumptions are shaping your point of view.
4. All reasoning is done from some point of view. 
   1. Identify your point of view. 
   2. Seek other points of view and identify their strengths and weaknesses. 
   3. Strive to be fair-minded in evaluating all points of view.
5. All reasoning is based on data, information, and evidence. 
   1. Restrict your claims to those supported by the data you have. 
   2. Search for information that opposes your position, as well as information that supports it. 
   3. Make sure that all information used is clear, accurate, and relevant to the question at issue. 
   4. Make sure you have gathered sufficient information.

Interrogative Method Diagrams

Interrogative Method

When - Where	Who - What	How - Why
Condition - Context	Interaction	Evaluation
*	*	*
Space - Time	Role - Agent	Criteria for Evaluation

When - Where:

What is the condition or context (spatial and/or chronological)? How is X situated?

Who - What:

Who acts? Who is acted upon (Agent/Client)? What is the relationship/interaction pattern between X and Y?

How - Why:

How is X to be evaluated (Criteria 1, 2, 3 pro/con)?

Why is X in its current situation or condition (evaluation of cause/effect relationships)?

Cognitive Layers

Cognitive Layers

Fact
Concept
Process
Procedure
Principle

AZ-Info

A to Z

Top
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entries at B: (Blogs) C: (CLN) Critical Thinking, V Viasyl, Virtual Sylvia W Writing



A Top

• 
  

B Top 

Blogs:
bcommatters.blogspot.com

http://bcomca.blogspot.com/

bcommatters.blogspot.com

http://cln-blog.blogspot.com/

http://criticalthinkingmatters.blogspot.com

http://owcom.blogspot.com

http://sylviayvonne.blogspot.com/

http://t-issues.blogspot.com

http://viasyl-g.blogspot.com

http://viasyl-p.blogspot.com

http://viasylcc.blogspot.com

http://viasylcs.blogspot.com

http://virtualsylvia.blogspot.com

http://writingmatters2.blogspot.com

http://writcommca.blogspot.com

C Top 

• http://cln-blog.blogspot.com/
• http://criticalthinkingmatters.blogspot.com/

D Top 

• 
  

E Top 

• 
  

F
Top

• 
  

G
Top

• 
  

H
Top

• 
  

I
Top

• 
  

J
Top

• 
  

K
Top

• 
  

L
Top

• 
  

M
Top

• 
  

N
Top

• 
  

O
Top

• 
  

P
Top

• 
  

Q
Top

• 
  

R
Top

• 
  

S
Top

• 
  

T
Top

• 
  

U
Top

• 
  

V
Top

• http://viasyl-g.blogspot.com
• http://viasyl-p.blogspot.com
• http://viasylcc.blogspot.com
• http://viasylcs.blogspot.com
• http://virtualsylvia.blogspot.com

W
Top

Writing:

• http://writingmatters2.blogspot.com
• http://owcom.blogspot.com

X
Top

• 
  

Y
Top

Z Top

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Word Parts that Indicate Time - I5 Vocabulary

Patterns in Language

Patterns in Language

I. FRAMES OF LANGUAGE                   

A. verbal  

B. tonal  

C. Physical/kinetic  

II. PATTERNS OF VOICE

A. Tone of voice

1. Intonational frame

2. "Mystique"   of tone

a. attitude  

b. mood  

c. mode  

d. style  

B. Direct Address

1. Speaker/Listener writer/reader symmetry  

2. Point of view  

a. character  

b. role   playing

III. PATTERNS OF REPETITION 

A. rhythm  

1. prosody  

2. Literary usage

a. mode

  i. mime  

 ii. Prose  : words spoken

               

iii. Song  :  words sung

                      iv. Epos  :  words chanted

b. tone

  i. irony  

 ii. satire  

iii. wit  

iv. paradox  

3. Repetitive sound patterns

a. rhyme also rime  

b. alliteration  

               B. Vocabulary or lexicon  

                 1. Lexical devices

                   a. Diction   or word choice

                   b. usage  

                   c. idiom  

               C. syntax  

                 1. Syntactical devices

                   a. Basic statement patterns

                   b. Varieties of sentence   structure

                   c. clause   and combinations

                   d. Coordination

                   e. Parallelism

                   f. Juxtaposition

                   g. Emphasis

                   h. Subordination

                   i. Modification

                   j. Reference

                   k. Incomplete or noncomplete construction

               D. Rhetoric

                 1. Rhetorical devices

                   a. Definition

                   b. Classification

                   c. Exemplification

                   d. Comparison

                   e. Causal analysis (cause and effect)

                   f. Process analysis

                   g. Detailing

                   h. Illustration

                   i. Organization

                     i. chronological  

                    ii. spatial  

                   iii. logical  

                       (a). inductive  

                       (b). deduction  

            IV. PATTERNS OF MEANING

               A. Multiple meaning

                 1. Horizontal ambiguity 

                   a. verbal pluralism

                 2. Vertical ambiguity

                   a. abstractive  /concretive 

               B. Notational meaning

                 1. denote  

                 2. connotation  

                 3. majority, group meanings

                 4. minority, individual meanings

               C. etymology  

                 1. Meaning of verbal signs

                   a. historically

                   b. contextually

                   c. culturally

               D. Neologisms

                 1. focus on productivity of language through

                   a. "word coinage" or naming

             V. PATTERNS OF FIGURES

               A. trope  

                 2. analogy  

               B. metaphor  

                 1. Relational analysis

                   a. Simple/Directional relations A:B

                   b. Reciprocal/mutual relations A:B B:A

                   c. Wheel/Simultaneous relations AB

                 2. Rhetorical  analysis

                   a. Explosive

                      "in,small,qualitative" to "out,large, quantitative"

                   b. Implosive

                      "out, large, quantitative" to "in, small, qualitative"

                   c. Pulse

                      combination of explosive and implosive

               C. Images

                 1. Presentation to the senses

                   a. visual  

                   b. auditory  

                   c. kinetic (see above)

                   d. gustatory  

                   e. olfactory

Courses and Sites

Courses and Sites


E75 Critical Thinking
T 9-10:15, 10:30-11:45
http://e75cthink.blogspot.com/
http://e75cthink.wikifoundry.com/

E82B Written Communication II
T 12:30-1:45, 2-3:15
http://e82bwcom.blogspot.com/

http://e82bwcom.wikifoundry.com/

IEP5 Vocabulary
T 3:30-4:15, 4:30-5:15
http://i5vocab.blogspot.com/

http://i5vocab.wikifoundry.com/

------------------------

E77 Computer-Assisted Vocabulary Study
Th 9-10:15, 10:30-11:45
http://e77cavocab.blogspot.com/

http://e77cavocab.wikifoundry.com/

IEP3 Reading Comprehension
Th 12:30-1:45, 2-3:15, 3:30-4:15
http://i3rcomp.blogspot.com/

http://i3rcomp.wikifoundry.com/

IEP5 Vocabulary
Th 4:30-5:15, 5:30-6:15
http://i5vocab.blogspot.com/

http://i5vocab.wikifoundry.com/

X<-

X

Y<-

Y

Z<-

Z

V<-

V

W<-

W

T<-

T

U<-

U

Q<-

Q

R<-

R

S<-

S

O<-

O

P<-

P

M<-

M

N<-

N

K

K

L<-

L

G

G

H<-

H

I<-

I

J<-

J

D<-

D

E<-

E

F

F

C<-

C

B<-

B<-

A<-

A<-

Welcome

Welcome to this blog at http://3lcenter.blogspot.com

ViaSyl's Blogs

Vocabulary (vocab072.blogspot.com)  How To Improve Your Vocabulary, Kenneth Beare Calendar Syllabus Assignment Schedule 14 Words Key to 100,000 Words Links Text for Vocabulary Where do you stand? Welcome Reading Comprehension (rcomp072.blogspot.com)  Calendar Spelling and Pronunciation SQ4R Method 4 UnI  Welcome 4 Us 2 Share  Welcome Photos from Canada L E B Negotiation Review Videos On Communication High Context and Haptic Communication Blog 4 Vocab  Long and Winding Road Word order: words before nouns Links -- Relevant Sites and Student Blogs Blog 4 Reading  Body Language Unit 3 Natural Disaster Vocab Weather idioms mhhe  mhhe Conflict Management Techniques Standing Assignments C-Here  Test E-mail Post A 2 Z Notes Welcome Welcome Syllabus Negotiation text link CLN -Blog -- Communications in Leadership and Negotiations  Using Language to Achieve a Leadership Purpose Usi... Critical Thinking Now  Ben -- Argument and Logical Fallacies Summary Freddie -- CRCB Chapter Summary: Visual Communication Azma -- Critical Thinking: On Opinion Critical Thinking Matters  Final Portfolio Shauna's Summaries Sanjay's Summaries CC ViaSyl Command Center  Quotes from http://www.mindoverclutter.com/quotes.htm Welcome Motivational Quotes F2F vs DE  Gagne -- Consider how-to DE/DL DE/DL Map DE System CC ViaSyl Command Center  Alpha Notes Quotes from http://www.mindoverclutter.com/quotes.htm Quotes from http://www.mindoverclutter.com/quotes.htm MS Newsletter Welcome Syllabus Negotiation text link Critical Thinking Now  Ben -- Argument and Logical Fallacies Summary Freddie -- CRCB Chapter Summary: Visual Communication Azma -- Critical Thinking: On Opinion

Written Communications II (wcom072.blogspot.com)  Calendar Writing Skills Evaluation 50 Writing Tipps from Poynter IM Glad 2 CU  Welcome Doc S 4 English  C B A Welcome Doc Syl  PMcGraw Life Laws Google Notebook Blogs Dr. Sylvia CA Blog  Doc Syl IB: Welcome Blogs Welcome Doc Syl IB  A Welcome DrSylvia  Welcome ds Bcom CLN  Negotiation C9 Negotiation C8 Negotiation C7 E 4 S 2  A2Z Notes Welcome eViaSyl  Leadership Chapter Ten Map eViaSyl  DVDs Movies -- Alpha Welcome Flock and Picturebucket In Site / Insight Blog  Welcome to Insite Blog for ViaSyl Listening Comprehension  Interview Questions Hedging Expressions Valentine's Day -- History and Story Oral and Written Communication  Vekil's Reflections on English Grammar Assignment for the Week of May 2 and May 4 Link for Definite and Indefinite Article Choices Photo Blog  Welcome Reading Comprehension  Reading Comprehension Tips from How to be a Successful Student Chapter Six Content Reading Strategies S 4 English  X Wayne Tony S Re A2Z  Welcome Sylvia4e  Drsylviaca dsbcomcln Alpha-S t-issues  Quotes TQ Re-Be Topics-Blog  Management of Meaning--U of Ohio Welcome

Google Docs & Spreadsheets  Business Communication (bcom072.blogspot.com)  The 10 Biggest Interview Killers -- Joe Turner, Yahoo Interview Questions Calendar ViaSyl's Blog (blog4viasyl.blogspot.com)  Blogs Welcome Links ViaSyl-2  DVD Movies Thoughts -- East and West Welcome Via Green  Welcome Via Red  Blogs -- Mostly Red Music DVDs Documentary DVDs Virtual Sylvia  A Movies Welcome ViaSyl-2  DVD Movies Thoughts -- East and West Welcome ViaSyl CC  A2Z ViaSyl CS  AZ Welcome ViaSyl-Blog  Google Help : Cheat Sheet Blogspots Welcome ViaSylB  Citations Design Other DE Sites Posted at Wisc DE Clearinghouse Wisc DE Clearinghouse Contents Welcome Glossary from DE Clearinghouse (Wisc) Clearinghouse DE Definitions ViaSylP  INTRODUCTION Papers Spring 2006 ViaSyl-Blog (viasyl-g.blogspot.com)  A to Z Welcome Written Communications Now (writcom-now.blogspot.com)  Sal -- Definition of Alcoholism Adil M -- Persuasion -- Capital Punishment ML King I Have a Dream Speech Writing Matters 2  APA Cribsheet from U of Minnesota, Crookston APA Style Checklist from Bill Southerly APA at Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) Wikipedia Matters from Chronicle of Higher Education Spelling and Pronunciation English Spelling from Wikipedia Flickr Grammatical Reference Links How do you spell "e-mail"? fast-access FAQ Alpha Subjects from Quotationspage.com APA Spellilng Guide Reference Bookmarks

 
Pasted from <http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en>