Because critical thinking involves thoughts and processes that are occurring inside your head, for example processes such as weighing and evaluating evidence, it is not something that can be evaluated easily by others. It is only when you show evidence of critical thinking, for example in an essay or an oral presentation, that others can observe and evaluate evidence of your critical thinking.

Critical thinking is occurring and is evident when a student engages in some or all of the following actions that are part of completing an assignment.

Critical thinking: An outline of some processes and actions

Analysing tasks

Identifying assumptions

Analysing & classifying

Making comparisons

Problem solving

Analysing tasks

Questioning & challenging ideas

Observing facts, comparing them to hypotheses & assumptions

Judging the validity of the source & the worth of evidence

Forming opinions / arguments

Making connections between ideas, texts, theories, frameworks, disciplines

Evaluating & weighing up

Drawing inferences

Making generalisations

(Partially adapted from: James et al., 1999; Grierson, 2001)

Some examples of what critical analysis or a critical response is NOT:

a summary of a text

a descriptive comment on the text

a rehash of the theory you have learnt in class

a statement of your own unsupported views