Download or read book Critical Thinking Better Decision Making and Problem Solving A Practical Guide to Solving Problems and Making the Right Decisions at Work and in Everyday Life written by Herbert Muncy and published by Herbert Muncy. This book was released on with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Critical thinking is a method of thinking that encourages individuals to think for themselves in the pursuit of the reasoned and logical truth about any subject. Elements of critical thinking guide the reasoning process. They include the purpose of your thinking, the information gathered, any predispositions you might have, relevant framing concepts, and the inferences and implications of what's learned. Learning to think critically at work will help you be a better problem solver and judge of information, and a more dynamic contributor and effective communicator. The elements are identifying your purpose, defining the question you need to answer, challenging your predispositions, applying framing concepts, checking inferences, and considering implications. In this book, you are going to learn: · What critical thinking practically is · The different parts of your thought process that comprise critical thinking · The advantages that you gain from exercising critical thinking · How you need to treat your brain so that it is healthy enough to pursue critical thinking · What to do in order to become an accomplished decision maker · Different strategies that you can employ in the critical thinking process · The best sequence of events to follow when engaging in the critical thinking process · The way to make best decisions in some group setup · The best way to frame your questions in order to improve your proficiency in critical thinking Strong critical thinkers are more effective in life. They can approach situations in ways that make more sense and can be defended logically. They are less prone to being caught into behaving in ways that are impulsive or incorrect, and because of that, you must learn to be a critical thinker.
Download or read book Think Smarter written by Michael Kallet and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Train your brain for better decisions, problem solving, and innovation Think Smarter: Critical Thinking to Improve Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills is the comprehensive guide to training your brain to do more for you. Written by a critical thinking trainer and coach, the book presents a pragmatic set of tools to apply critical thinking techniques to everyday business issues. Think Smarter is filled with real world examples that demonstrate how the tools work in action, in addition to dozens of practice exercises applicable across industries and functions, Think Smarter is a versatile resource for individuals, managers, students, and corporate training programs. Thinking is the foundation of everything you do, but we rely largely on automatic thinking to process information, often resulting in misunderstandings and errors. Shifting over to critical thinking means thinking purposefully using a framework and toolset, enabling thought processes that lead to better decisions, faster problem solving, and creative innovation. Think Smarter provides clear, actionable steps toward improving your critical thinking skills, plus exercises that clarify complex concepts by putting theory into practice. Features include: A comprehensive critical thinking framework Over twenty-five "tools" to help you think more critically Critical thinking implementation for functions and activities Examples of the real-world use of each tool Learn what questions to ask, how to uncover the real problem to solve, and mistakes to avoid. Recognize assumptions your can rely on versus those without merit, and train your brain to tick through your mental toolbox to arrive at more innovative solutions. Critical thinking is the top skill on the wish list in the business world, and sharpening your ability can have profound affects throughout all facets of life. Think Smarter: Critical Thinking to Improve Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills provides a roadmap to more effective and productive thought.
Download or read book HBR Guide to Making Better Decisions written by Harvard Business Review and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2020-02-11 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how to make better; faster decisions. You make decisions every day--from prioritizing your to-do list to choosing which long-term innovation projects to pursue. But most decisions don't have a clear-cut answer, and assessing the alternatives and the risks involved can be overwhelming. You need a smarter approach to making the best choice possible. The HBR Guide to Making Better Decisions provides practical tips and advice to help you generate more-creative ideas, evaluate your alternatives fairly, and make the final call with confidence. You'll learn how to: Overcome the cognitive biases that can skew your thinking Look at problems in new ways Manage the trade-offs between options Balance data with your own judgment React appropriately when you've made a bad choice Communicate your decision--and overcome any resistance Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, from a source you trust. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.
Download or read book Smart Choices written by John S. Hammond and published by Harvard Business School Press. This book was released on 2015-08 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where should I live? Is it time to get a new job? Which job candidate should I hire? What business strategy should I pursue? We spend the majority of our lives making decisions, both big and small. Yet, even though our success is largely determined by the choices that we make, very few of us are equipped with useful decision-making skills. Because of this, we often approach our choices tentatively, or even fearfully, and avoid giving them the time and thought required to put our best foot forward. In Smart Choices, John Hammond, Ralph Keeney, and Howard Raiffa--experts with over 100 years of experience resolving complex decision problems--offer a proven, straightforward, and flexible roadmap for making better and more impactful decisions, and offer the tools to achieve your goals in every aspect of your life. Their step-by-step, divide-and conquer approach will teach you how to: * Evaluate your plans * Break your potential decision into its key elements * Identify the key drivers that are most relevant to your goals * Apply systematic thinking * Use the right information to make the smartest choice Smart Choices doesn’t tell you what to decide; it tells you how. As you routinely use the process, you’ll become more confident in your ability to make decisions at work and at home. And, more importantly, by applying its time-tested methods, you’ll make better decisions going forward. Be proactive. Don’t wait until a decision is forced on you--or made for you. Seek out decisions that advance your long-term goals, values, and beliefs. Take charge of your life by making Smart Choices a lifetime habit.
Download or read book Thinking Fast and Slow written by Daniel Kahneman and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2011-10-25 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Major New York Times Bestseller *More than 2.6 million copies sold *One of The New York Times Book Review's ten best books of the year *Selected by The Wall Street Journal as one of the best nonfiction books of the year *Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient *Daniel Kahneman's work with Amos Tversky is the subject of Michael Lewis's best-selling The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds In his mega bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, world-famous psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions. Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Topping bestseller lists for almost ten years, Thinking, Fast and Slow is a contemporary classic, an essential book that has changed the lives of millions of readers.
Download or read book The New Critical Thinking written by Jack Lyons and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-08-09 with total page 607 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is it so hard to learn critical thinking skills? Traditional textbooks focus almost exclusively on logic and fallacious reasoning, ignoring two crucial problems. As psychologists have demonstrated recently, many of our mistakes are not caused by formal reasoning gone awry, but by our bypassing it completely. We instead favor more comfortable, but often unreliable, intuitive methods. Second, the evaluation of premises is of fundamental importance, especially in this era of fake news and politicized science. This highly innovative text is psychologically informed, both in its diagnosis of inferential errors, and in teaching students how to watch out for and work around their natural intellectual blind spots. It also incorporates insights from epistemology and philosophy of science that are indispensable for learning how to evaluate premises. The result is a hands-on primer for real world critical thinking. The authors bring over four combined decades of classroom experience and a fresh approach to the traditional challenges of a critical thinking course: effectively explaining the nature of validity, assessing deductive arguments, reconstructing, identifying and diagramming arguments, and causal and probabilistic inference. Additionally, they discuss in detail, important, frequently neglected topics, including testimony, the nature and credibility of science, rhetoric, and dialectical argumentation. Key Features and Benefits: Uses contemporary psychological explanations of, and remedies for, pervasive errors in belief formation. There is no other critical thinking text that generally applies this psychological approach. Assesses premises, notably premises based on the testimony of others, and evaluation of news and other information sources. No other critical thinking textbook gives detailed treatment of this crucial topic. Typically, they only provide a few remarks about when to accept expert opinion / argument from authority. Carefully explains the concept of validity, paying particular attention in distinguishing logical possibility from other species of possibility, and demonstrates how we may mistakenly judge invalid arguments as valid because of belief bias. Instead of assessing an argument’s validity using formal/mathematical methods (i.e., truth tables for propositional logic and Venn diagrams for categorical logic), provides one technique that is generally applicable: explicitly showing that it is impossible to make the conclusion false and the premises true together. For instructors who like the more formal approach, the text also includes standard treatments using truth tables and Venn diagrams. Uses frequency trees and the frequency approach to probability more generally, a simple method for understanding and evaluating quite complex probabilistic information Uses arguments maps, which have been shown to significantly improve students’ reasoning and argument evaluation
Download or read book The Great Mental Models Volume 1 written by Shane Parrish and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2024-10-15 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.
Download or read book An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity written by Joe Y. F. Lau and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-12-22 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A valuable guide on creativity and critical thinking to improve reasoning and decision-making skills Critical thinking skills are essential in virtually any field of study or practice where individuals need to communicate ideas, make decisions, and analyze and solve problems. An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity: Think More, Think Better outlines the necessary tools for readers to become critical as well as creative thinkers. By gaining a practical and solid foundation in the basic principles that underlie critical thinking and creativity, readers will become equipped to think in a more systematic, logical, and imaginative manner. Creativity is needed to generate new ideas to solve problems, and critical thinking evaluates and improves an idea. These concepts are uniquely introduced as a unified whole due to their dependence on each other. Each chapter introduces relevant theories in conjunction with real-life examples and findings from cognitive science and psychology to illustrate how the theories can be applied in numerous fields and careers. An emphasis on how theoretical principles of reasoning can be practical and useful in everyday life is featured, and special sections on presentation techniques, the analysis of meaning, decision-making, and reasoning about personal and moral values are also highlighted. All chapters conclude with a set of exercises, and detailed solutions are provided at the end of the book. A companion website features online tutorials that further explore topics including meaning analysis, argument analysis, logic, statistics, and strategic thinking, along with additional exercises and multimedia resources for continued study. An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Creativity is an excellent book for courses on critical thinking and logic at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The book also serves as a self-contained study guide for readers interested in the topics of critical thinking and creativity as a unified whole.
Download or read book Values Information from AI written by The Values We Share Project and published by The Values We Share Project. This book was released on with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Values information from AI is a collection of information and images of values generated from an AI tool as part of The Values We Share Project to promote values. All information in this book can be used to promote values and can be used as material in values formation programs. All information in this book will also be used in The Values We Share Project videos, materials and courses in the future. Visit The Values We Share Project at http://thevaluesweshare.info.
Download or read book Decision Based Learning written by Nancy Wentworth and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-16 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book you will read stories told by faculty who have redesigned their university courses using the Decision-Based Learning pedagogy and the impact this powerful strategy can have on student learning. It should be of use to anyone teaching and designing curricula in higher education settings.
Download or read book How Women Decide written by Therese Huston and published by HMH. This book was released on 2016-05-10 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An authoritative guide to help women navigate the workplace and their everyday life with greater success and impact” (Forbes). So, you’ve earned a seat at the table. What happens next? We all face hard decisions every day—and the choices we make, and how others perceive them, can be life changing. There are countless books on how to make those tough calls, but How Women Decide is the first to examine a much overlooked truth: Men and women reach verdicts differently, and often in surprising ways. Stress? It makes women more focused. Confidence? Caution can lead to stronger resolutions. And despite popular misconceptions, women are just as decisive as men—though they may pay for it. Pulling from the latest science on decision-making, as well as lively stories of real women and their experiences, cognitive scientist Therese Huston teaches us how we can better shape our habits, perceptions, and strategies, not just to make the most of our own opportunities, but to reform the culture and bring out the best results—regardless of who’s behind them.
Download or read book Critical Thinking written by Jennifer Wilson and published by . This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Critical Thinking: A Beginner's Guide To Critical Thinking, Better Decision Making and Problem Solving!" is a great introduction to the fundamental principles of critical thinking. It is a book that offers insightful tips, as well as steps that are easy to follow for effective problem solving. Amazingly, the tips provided are not geared towards solving only one type of problem. Instead, you can follow them to find solutions to a wide range of challenges. At the same time, the simple guidelines that the book outlines are not restricted for use by people of only one profession. On the contrary, they are applicable to all professions, and even other spheres of life. For example, businesspeople are bound to find the techniques of critical thinking described in the book very useful in solving business related problems, while politicians are likely to find the same techniques handy. In fact, the lessons taught in this book are useful to everyone who looks forward to seeking and finding solutions to simple as well as tough challenges. Once you have mastered the art of critical thinking and start to apply the skills, you will, very likely, marvel at how much of your precious resources you are capable of saving. You will also realize that you can streamline systems in a way that cuts down on waste and inefficiencies. Besides these formal advantages, you will love it when critical thinking begins to come to you as a matter of fact process in your day-to-day life. In this book, you are going to learn: What critical thinking practically is The different parts of your thought process that comprise critical thinking The advantages that you gain from exercising critical thinking How you need to treat your brain so that it is healthy enough to pursue critical thinking The techniques of critical thinking that are best for solving problems Steps to become an accomplished decision maker Ways to enhance the critical thinking process Strategies that you can employ in the critical thinking process The best sequence of events to follow when engaging in the critical thinking process The way to make the best decisions in a group setting The best way to frame your questions in order to improve your proficiency in critical thinking Buy your copy today!
Download or read book Special Educational Needs for Newly Qualified Teachers and Teaching Assistants written by Rita Cheminais and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-09-10 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This completely revised and updated edition addresses the most recent developments in Special Educational Needs. Essential reading for newly qualified teachers and teaching assistants, Rita Cheminais’s classic text now relates to current initiatives including Every Child Matters (ECM) and using personalised learning approaches. Many aspects vital to effective classroom practice are explored, including: the latest Qualified Teacher Status Standards and the Occupational Standards for Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools recent legislation and key official reports and documents relating to SEN and ECM the effective partnership working with multi-agency practitioners up-to-date tips on how to meet OFSTEDs inspection requirements in relation to pupils well being, attainment and achievement how to evaluate the impact of SEN/additional provision. The book reflects the DCSF/National Strategies Inclusion Development Programme (IDP), and practical tips and strategies are given on how to meet the needs of a diverse range of pupils with additional educational needs (AEN), including: Speech, Language and Communication Needs, Moderate Learning Difficulties, Social Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, sensory impairments and physical disabilities. Featuring helpful checklists, templates and photocopiable resources to support professional development, this practical resource contains a wealth of valuable advice, as well as signposting to further information. This authoritative text will provide fascinating reading for trainee and newly qualified teachers as well as experienced teachers and teaching assistants. Lecturers in higher education and consultants and advisors in Local Authority Children’s Services will also find this book a useful resource.
Download or read book Problem Solving 101 written by Ken Watanabe and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-03-05 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fun and simple problem-solving guide that took Japan by storm Ken Watanabe originally wrote Problem Solving 101 for Japanese schoolchildren. His goal was to help shift the focus in Japanese education from memorization to critical thinking, by adapting some of the techniques he had learned as an elite McKinsey consultant. He was amazed to discover that adults were hungry for his fun and easy guide to problem solving and decision making. The book became a surprise Japanese bestseller, with more than 370,000 in print after six months. Now American businesspeople can also use it to master some powerful skills. Watanabe uses sample scenarios to illustrate his techniques, which include logic trees and matrixes. A rock band figures out how to drive up concert attendance. An aspiring animator budgets for a new computer purchase. Students decide which high school they will attend. Illustrated with diagrams and quirky drawings, the book is simple enough for a middleschooler to understand but sophisticated enough for business leaders to apply to their most challenging problems.
Download or read book STTS Think Smart Work Smarter written by Tremaine du Preez and published by Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. This book was released on 2011-07-15 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Your mind produces up to 70,000 thoughts a day—most of which are responsible for the decisions that you make. These decisions also determine your success both professionally and personally. However, we are taught what to think and not how to think. Information overload, short time frames and past failures can make even simple decisions and problems daunting. Do you lack confidence in your problem solving ability? Do you feel anxious when faced with a tough decision, or overwhelmed by lots of alternatives? Do you wish there was a formula for getting everything right? Executive coach and educator, Tremaine du Preez, fills this book with practical tools and effective techniques, all presented in a clear and practical manner. Making the right decision will be a breeze and no problem will be too difficult to handle when you are armed with these new and proven strategies.
Download or read book Models for Critical Thinking written by Rutherford Albert and published by Vdz. This book was released on 2019-08-17 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stay alert and avoid being tricked. Apply logic and analysis to your everyday life. Detect hidden assumptions, spot inconsistencies, and recognize dishonesty. The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of our thinking. And the quality of our thinking is often determined by the quality questions we ask from ourselves.Critical thinking is the art of asking relevant, necessary, and meaningful questions to discover the objective truth behind words, events, and opinions in general. Today we have more access to information than ever before. Information influences our world view and decisions often without us noticing it. Following wrong idols can lead us to bad decisions which lead to unhappiness and a dissatisfying life. When what's "right, beautiful, successful, and cool" gets dictated around us we often forget to think for ourselves and make our own choices. Thus we make bad decisions based on the opinion of others - not even our own. Who should make your life choices for you? You've put your own thoughts, wishes, and opinions off for too long. It's time for that to change. Models for Critical Thinking provides you with unique insights into the nature of thinking and reasoning - why are we often so wrong, why we are so inclined to avoid the responsibility of thinking for ourselves, and how can we develop solid, objective patterns of thought. This book is a guide for the notoriously "trusting," "overwhelmed," and "gullible". It is a deep psychological dive into what makes us stop thinking for ourselves, and how to systematically combat those compulsions. It's a book that stands apart from others because of the plethora of real-life examples, studies, and solutions. If you wish to add to your critical thinking toolkit, you'll find the step-by-step answer in here. Models for Critical Thinking lays out: - The function of critical thinking and its main obstacles. - The varied elements of critical reasoning. - Important abilities and traits of critical thinkers. - The vocabulary of critical analysis, - The models essential to critical thinking. The most secure way of making good decisions is to have well-practiced and predictable strategies that you can use when you are faced with a problem that requires deeper analysis. This book will provide you with helpful exercises and tips to help you can find better solutions to your problems. - Learn the essential critical thinking skills when reading, writing, and speaking; - Be on your guard for hidden cognitive traps when shopping and interacting with advertisers. - Discover the tools and strategies can help you become a more disciplined thinker, developing your analytical, reasoning, and reflective thinking skills. Be ready to learn. Be ready to argue intellectually. - Learn to read between the lines and assess the validity of statements. - Identify and separate logical and illogical reasoning. - Learn how to construct a fair, well-reasoned argument with the help of formal and informal logic. As a physicist and computer scientist, I was always looking for logical, well-founded answers to questions. Yet, I needed to stay open to question my knowledge fairly often, revise my beliefs held, and unlearn some.
Download or read book Think Again written by Sydney Finkelstein and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2009-02-03 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do smart and experienced leaders make flawed, even catastrophic, decisions? Why do people keep believing they have made the right choice, even with the disastrous result staring them in the face? And how can you be sure you're making the right decision--without the benefit of hindsight? Sydney Finkelstein, Jo Whitehead, and Andrew Campbell show how the usually beneficial processes of the human mind can become traps when we face big decisions. The authors show how the shortcuts our brains have learned to take over millennia of evolution can derail our decision making. Think Again offers a powerful model for making better decisions, describing the key red flags to watch for and detailing the decision-making safeguards we need. Using examples from business, politics, and history, Think Again deconstructs bad decisions, as they unfolded in real time, to show how you can avoid the same fate.
