...Critical thinking in higher education: What is it and how do we assess it?
What is critical thinking? Not surprisingly, this question is at the heart of the literature on critical thinking... In its simplest form, critical thinking could be said to be - challenging a claim or an opinion (either one's own or another person's) with the purpose of finding out what to believe or do....Robert Ennis described critical thinking in this way:
"Critical thinking is reasonable and reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do." (Norris & Ennis, 1989, p. 1)
...the following definition by Halpern is more embedded in
cognitive theory.
"Critical thinking is the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome. It is used to describe thinking that is purposeful, reasoned, and goal directed – the kind of thinking involved in solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihood, and making decisions when the thinker is using skills that are thoughtful and effective for the particular context and type of thinking task."
(Halpern, 1996, p. 5)
....
http://textos.pucp.edu.pe/pdf/1112.pdf