Critical Thinking Skills: Building Blocks for Success

Although research has been done to identity critical thinking skills, little has been done to extrapolate a comprehensive hierarchy of critical thinking skills sets necessary to the enhancement of academic performance. The link between critical thinking skills and course specific content has not been broken nor is there evidence to indicate that a link has been forged between course specific critical thinking skills and utility in life beyond the classroom. The extrapolation of a comprehensive hierarchy of sets of critical thinking skills provides the foundation to do the following: 1. Move beyond the course-specific link; 2. Develop methods to select appropriate critical thinking skills sets that may be utilized to incorporate critical thinking into most, if not all, aspects of the curriculum; 3. Develop methods by which to evaluate the results of such endeavors; and, 4. Promote an understanding of the utility of critical thinking skills in classrooms as well as electronically delivered courses