This Web site is in the process of construction. Comments and suggestions would be appreciated. Send to Robert H. Ennis, Director, Illinois Critical Thinking Project: rhennis@uiuc.edu
 
 

Definition of Critical Thinking. Critical thinking is here assumed to be reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do. This rough overall definition is, we believe, in accord with the way the term is generally used these days. Under this interpretation, critical thinking is relevant not only to the formation and checking of beliefs, but also to deciding upon and evaluating actions. It involves creative activities such as formulating hypotheses, plans, and counterexamples; planning experiments; and seeing alternatives. Furthermore critical thinking is reflective -- and reasonable. The negative, harping, complaining characteristic that is sometimes labeled by the word, "critical", is not involved
 
 

As it stands, this definition requires elaboration in order to be of use in teaching, curriculum planning, and assessment. See A Superstreamlined Conception of Critical Thinking (click on it to read it) for a brief elaboration, or Outline of Goals for a Critical Thinking Curriculum and Its Assessment (click on it to read it) for a more elaborate conception that includes some criteria for making judgments. However, both of these items are without examples. For exemplification, see Ennis' text, Critical Thinking (Prentice Hall, 1996). He would be pleased to receive comments and suggestions at the above e-mail address regarding any of these items. Other items regarding the nature of critical thinking, as well as teaching, curriculum matters, and assessment, can be found listed on Ennis' Web site, http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/rhennis.
 
 

Teaching Critical Thinking. For some brief advice about teaching critical thinking, click on Teaching Critical Thinking: A Few Suggestions. There is much more to be said about the topic and there are many sets of teaching materials. For available textbooks, see Critical Thinking Texts. For a broad variety of materials,  see www.critical thinking.com.   A good general critical thinking site has been organized by Tim van Gelder of the University of Melbourne. http://www.philosophy.unimelb.edu.au/reason/critical/index.html.
 
 

Assessment. Critical thinking assessment is a topic often unfortunately postponed until after crucial decisions have been made. Click on An Annotated List of Critical Thinking Tests for a brief introduction. Van Gelder's Web site is also useful, as is Ennis' site (both mentioned above).
 
 

Other Sites. In addition to the Web sites listed, the broadest of which is van Gelder's, there are many other web sites that can be discovered by doing a search for "critical thinking" through your browser or some other search engine. We here avoid unnecessary duplication.