Lesters writing on critical thinking V4.docxVIP

对培养批判性思维能力的理解湖北省黄冈中学刘琦My Ideas on Developing Critical Thinking SkillsLester, Hubei Huanggang Middle School We live in a world surrounded by billions of people, each having their own views and perspectives, each having their own beliefs and understanding of the world around them. So, how do we know what information is true and factual and what is biased opinion? This is where critical thinking comes into play.1. What is critical thinking?What is critical thinking? To put it simply, critical thinking is a valuable skill to help us identify, analyze, evaluate and reason about arguments so that we can come to logical, rational conclusions about issues and make informed decisions about what to believe and do without biases.Critical thinking is the ability to remove all biases and misinformation a person might have, to look only at facts and evidence, and then through sound and consistent logic, not social or emotional influences, apply analysis and evaluation.2. Why is critical thinking important?As far as the students are concerned, they also need the ability to ask questions on uncertain or debatable information to earn their place in their future life. It is clearly stated in the New English Curriculum Language Skills part that to meet with high school students’ communicative needs and enhance their cognitive development, high school English teaching should attach greater importance to developing students’ ability to analyze and solve problems with English and to developing students’ critical thinking skills.In their present-day life, reading is the chief source of information, which is why reading accounts for a rather large percentage in examinations. So, today, I would like to talk about my ideas on how to develop students’ critical thinking by applying critical reading. As is stated in the New English Curriculum, students are required to master the following reading skills: skimming, scanning, prediction, getting the main idea, telling facts from opinions, word gu