Our Vision for this Course

1. We’re aiming at a 1.0 version for December 2013. After that, we will use feedback from volunteers and members to keep improving the course. (It’s your country too — so feel free to suggest improvements!)

2. No one will be an expert critical thinker at the end of this (unless they already were one) but we believe people who do the reading and exercises will be much better!

3. We’re aiming at something that would take no more than 14 hours to do (at your own pace.)

4. We are imagining (or pretending) that millions of adult Americans will someday be taking this course, or an enhanced version of this, with many videos. So we’re aiming at a broad segment of Americans.

5.  On our team, we’re fortunate to have a cognitive psychologist who’s aware of some of the latest research in decision-making and things that hinder critical thinking. We plan to make use of these insights in the course’s design.

6.  Skills to be taught:

– Analyzing an argument to see if it’s weak, strong or completely irrelevant.

– Recognizing unfair influence tactics, and errors in thinking (logical fallacies.)

– Assessing candidates so you can pick the ones most likely to match your interests.

– Determining which arguments and discussions are likely to be unproductive (and walking away from them!)

– Figuring out which issues would be most worth your time to support or fight against.  (Prioritization)

– Media literacy — learning how to ‘unpack’ messages of all kinds to avoid being manipulated.

– Assessing the quality of news and blogs sources.

– Figuring out your critical thinking blind spots and weak areas.

– Teaching tolerance for opposing views (that often come from holding other values.)

7.  Learning this will be easier than you think, because you’ll be given checklists to prompt you with the questions you should be asking yourself. After some practice, you will probably internalize the questions.

8. No one learns skills without practice. Since the PTTN Member Agreement asks members to do regular news intake, regular advocacy on issues they care about, and study of candidates in issues right before you vote, these are times when we expect you to consciously practice your skills.

9. We plan to do assessments of test participants to see if they are still using the skills three months, six months, a year and two years later. We will use information collected to enhance the design and long-term impact of the course.

10. In some areas we will offer an optional, more advanced level for those who either already know the basics, or want advanced skills. (Or we’ll offer links to these resources.)

11. As a bonus, we will offer some tools for critical thinking in life. From another point of view, if you aren’t a good critical thinker in life, you will make poor decisions that would probably eat up the time and energy you’d use for political critical thinking. — So it makes sense for use to give you general tools as well.

 

 

67 Comments

  32. Thanks for your marvelous posting! I truly enjoyed reading it, you will be a great author.I will remember to bookmark your blog and will often come back from now on. I want to encourage one to continue your great posts, have a nice evening!

  44. You can conserve yourself and your stock by being cautious when buying pharmaceutical online. Some pharmacopoeia websites operate legally and provide convenience, privacy, cost savings and safeguards for purchasing medicines. http://playbigbassrm.com/fr/

  47. I’ll immediately grasp your rss feed as I can not in finding your email subscription link or newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please permit me know so that I may just subscribe. Thanks.

  50. This is really interesting, You are a very skilled blogger. I have joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of your wonderful post. Also, I’ve shared your web site in my social networks!

  51. Nice post. I be taught one thing more challenging on different blogs everyday. It should always be stimulating to learn content from different writers and practice slightly one thing from their store. I’d prefer to use some with the content material on my blog whether or not you don’t mind. Natually I’ll provide you with a link on your internet blog. Thanks for sharing.

  52. Hello there, You have performed a great job. I’ll certainly digg it and individually recommend to my friends. I am sure they’ll be benefited from this website.

  54. I do trust all the ideas you’ve offered in your post. They’re really convincing and can definitely work. Still, the posts are too quick for starters. May you please prolong them a bit from subsequent time? Thank you for the post.

  55. slot365 rtp Sau gần 5 năm hoạt động, thương hiệu không chỉ có được vị thế vững chắc trên thị trường mà còn khẳng định đẳng cấp của mình khi sở hữu đầy đủ giấy chứng nhận hợp pháp từ PAGCOR và CEZA. Do vậy, bạn hoàn toàn có thể yên tâm tham gia cá cược thỏa mãn đam mê của mình mà không cần lo ngại về những vấn đề pháp lý khác.

  57. Hey there! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this website? I’m getting sick and tired of WordPress because I’ve had issues with hackers and I’m looking at options for another platform. I would be awesome if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.

  60. The very root of your writing while sounding reasonable in the beginning, did not really work perfectly with me after some time. Somewhere within the paragraphs you actually managed to make me a believer but only for a very short while. I nevertheless have got a problem with your leaps in logic and you might do nicely to help fill in all those gaps. In the event you can accomplish that, I could undoubtedly be impressed.

  61. I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself? Plz reply back as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to know wheere u got this from. thanks

  62. Fantastic goods from you, man. I’ve be mindful your stuff previous to and you’re just extremely great. I really like what you have got here, certainly like what you’re saying and the way in which you say it. You are making it enjoyable and you still take care of to keep it wise. I cant wait to learn much more from you. That is really a terrific website.

  64. Usually I don’t read article on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thanks, very nice post.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *