Critical Thinking Skills - Outline

Comprehension Skills
	Ability to understand information stated explicitly.
	Ability to distinguish main ideas from supporting data
	by differentiating primary from secondary significance.
	Ability to differentiate information states
		a process from its stages,
		a category from its exponents,
		a statement from examples,
		an act from opinion,
		a proposition from argument.
	Ability to understand and interpret information drawn from
	the factual world.
	Ability to comprehend a range of specialized texts,
		reference books,
		journals,
		manuals,
		technical documents
		computer printouts.
	Communication Skills
	Ability to understand, generate, and utilize everyday
	English in communicative contexts.
	Colloquial language: Ability to understand features of
	colloguial speech
	Basic fluency in listening, reading, writing, and
	speaking.
	Ability to distinguish communicative purpose.
	Ability to recognize language patterns
		of statements,
		questions,
		requests,
		commands
		in both affirmative
		and negative forms.
	Ability to exchange information and express meaning
		through speaking,
		writing,
		and nonverbal means.
Inferential skill.
	Skill in deriving meaning from situation (verbal and
	physical).
Academic Skills
	Ability to read a variety of texts with comprehension.
	Ability to comprehend lectures.
	Ability to participate in class discussions.
Skill in academic writing
	Skill in taking notes on lectures.
	Ability to write examinations for courses.
	Skill in writing course papers based upon research.
	Ability to write fairly detailed essays
	on general academic subjects.
	Competence in research
	on an assigned topic.
Analytical Skills
	Ability to infer cause and effect relationships.
	Ability to analyze facts.
	Ability to separate subjects into component parts.
	Ability to infer analogies.
	Anticipatory skills.
	Ability to recognize and use indicators for
	anticipating an objection or contrary view.
Application Skills
	Ability to analyze written material and apply to
	relevant situations.
	Argumentation: Ability to expoundand argument
	Ability to communicate a point of view in speech and
	in writing.
Clarification Strategies:
	Ability to recognize and use discourse indicators
	for explanation
	or clarification of points already made.
Consensus: Ability to recognize and use modes for
	coming to consensus of opinion in groups.
	Classification: Skill in classification techniques.
	Ability to separate information
	Ability to classify according to attributes.
	Cohesion: Ability to understand and express relations between
	parts of a text through grammatical cohesion devices of
	reference, substitution, ellipsis, time and place relations,
	logical connectors.
Conceptual Meaning: Ability to understand conceptual
	meaning,
	especially:
	quantity and amount,
	definiteness and indefiniteness,
	comparison and degree,
	time (tense and aspect),
	means and instrument,
	relationships
	cause,
	result,
	purpose,
	reason,
	conditions,
	Ability to describe
	and analyze conditions.
	contrasts,
	analogies.
	Ability to mark boundaries in discourse using verbal
	and vocal cues.
	Introduction
	Development
	Conclusion
	Ability to recognize and use indicators for
	concluding an idea.
	Ability to conclude appropriately (excuse, concede,
	pass, etc.).
	Ability to use verbal cues for summing up.
Affective Communication Skills
	Attitude: Ability to interpret and express the attitudinal
	dimension of a communication.
	Certainty: Ability to distinguish and express degrees of
	certainty, including probability, possibility, conjecture,
	negation, doubt, disbelief
Adaptive ability: Ability to recognize change and adapt to change