Observation, Evaluation, and Critical Response and Application Skills

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Observation, Evaluation, and Critical Response and Application Skills[1]


Observation Skills:
Critical thinking is a process of thinking about an idea or ideas in a methodical way and from a variety of angles.  One method of thinking critically involves a series of questions to be applied to the idea under consideration.  Here are some observation-based questions, which will help you identify the assertions, line of reasoning, and systematic explanations:
  • What are the meanings of the special terms in this text?
  • What is the point of the text, namely the author’s conclusions (thesis)?
  • What evidence does the author give?
  • What is the actual path of reasoning offered?

Evaluation Skills:
Evaluation-based questions evaluate the stated text in relation to the history of its ideas and imbedded beliefs.  Here you will look at contextual elements such as the method of gathering evidence, the mode of presentation, the assumptions behind the logic of the reasoning, and the events, which led to the methods, presentational form, and assumptions.  In other words, in evaluation questions, we historicize the stated text.
·      Are the meanings of the special terms ambiguous in any way?  How so?
·      Does the evidence make sense?  Why or why not?
·      Does the evidence match the conclusions?  If not, what might explain the mismatch?
·      Does the reasoning lead well from assertion through evidence to conclusions or are there gaps in the sequencing or ambiguity in the language?
·      What other conclusions might be drawn?
·      What other evidence might be brought to bear on the reasoning?
·      What other assertions might have been made?
·      Why might the author have left out evidence, which changes the meaning of the text?
·      Does the form (mode) of the text limit its meaning?  How so?
·      Why might the author have chosen a personal essay (or scientific treatise, or story) form?
·      Why might the author have settled on the assertion, evidence, reasoning, and conclusion that s/he chose?
·      Is there anything in the language of the text which indicates beliefs, feelings, values, and investments which help us understand why the author concluded as s/he did?
·      What are the value-laden words of the text?
·      What conclusions might we draw concerning the author’s personal, political, and social positions?
·      What events in the past might have led to the author’s position?
·      What is the text-beneath-the-text?  The hidden message or hidden agenda?
·      What events in the past might shape the underlying assumptions of the text?

Critical Response and Application Skills:
To further reveal the mosaic of idea, evidence, and invention, the critical thinker will usually include him/herself in some way as part of the context, using a third set of questions.  If we take logic and evidence-based critical thinking seriously, we hold off our conclusions until we have applied observation and evaluation questions to the text.  The following response/application questions lead to a critical understanding of the reader’s relationship to a text.
  • What is it about this text which interests me?
  • Did I agree or disagree strongly with the author any time during the course of reading the text?  What is the precise language I disagree with?
  • Does the idea under consideration relate in any way to my own life or the lives of people I know?  How so?
  • Why am I interested in this text?
  • Why did I agree or disagree strongly with the idea or method of explanation in a text?
  • Is there something I might gain or lose by accepting the conclusions of the author?  What is the gain or loss?  How great is the gain or loss?
  • Do the values and beliefs of the author appear to match my own?  If not, is this mismatch responsible for my judgment of the idea?

As you can see, the response/application questions, like evaluation questions, are “why” questions.  They dig into the causal factors shaping ideas, evidence, methods, and presentational forms of thought.  As such, they are the foundation of thoughtful critique and argumentation.







[1] Borrowed from Searching for Great Ideas, by Thomas Klein, Bruce Edwards, and Thomas Wymer Harcourt Brace, 1998

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