Over the last ten years I created a lot of resources while working in a Sixth Form college in the UK, teaching Critical Thinking and helping students prepare for university entrance tests such as TSA (for some Oxford and Cambridge courses) and BMAT (to study Medicine at some UK universities). This blog is primarily to find a place for these resources that someone might stumble across and find helpful.
I stopped teaching a year ago, and under the A level reforms it seems that Critical Thinking will no longer be a stand alone subject, which is fine – in an ideal world the thinking skills covered by that subject would be embedded in every subject and develop organically.
Yet at the moment we’re far from that ideal world – basic flaws in thinking are rife in news reporting and on social media.
I and many of my students found it very useful to learn and practise these skills discretely. Studying the CT syllabus – in order to be able to teach it – certainly made me more skilful and confident in my thinking and decision-making.
So firstly I’ll share resources for the university entrance tests as they require understanding of key critical thinking concepts. As I get into the blogging process I’ll cast the net wider and also share relevant links and maybe comments on thinking errors in topical reports – we’ll see!
The first attachment is the introductory booklet I used for students taking the TSA or BMAT. Most of these had not studied AS Critical Thinking, so the information is quite basic, but covers the type of verbal reasoning questions used in the tests. It includes practice questions and the answers for the first two topics are in the attached PowerPoint, the others to follow shortly.
Thank you for reading.
thinkingcriticallyblog 