Strategies for Facilitating Critical Thinking


Overview/Description
Target Audience
Expected Duration
Lesson Objectives
Course Number


Overview/Description
"Workplaces are not typically associated with reflection or critical self-reflection, ideas that are often considered 'soft' to the bottom-line, results-oriented world of business.... Yet, paradoxically, reflection is becoming more part of the lifeblood of organizations in today's economic environment." Victoria Marsick's words illustrate why businesses can no longer thrive on the unexamined repetition of established formulas. Today, people at all levels of the organization are asked to think in new ways about themselves, their work, and their organizations. In this course, managers can learn a variety of strategies to encourage the development of critical thinking skills within their organizations, for both individuals and teams, and to ensure that critical thinking is deployed effectively.

Target Audience
supervisors, managers, directors, executives, team leaders, project leaders, and coaches

Expected Duration (hours)
4.5

Lesson Objectives

Making the Transition to Critical Thinking

  • recognize the benefits of supporting the transition from uncritical thinking styles to critical thinking.
  • associate uncritical thinking styles with examples.
  • identify questions that demonstrate underlying intellectual attributes of critical thinking.
  • use questions that assess critical thinking attributes in a given situation.
  • select examples of elements of performance systems that support critical thinking.
  • apply the elements that support deployment of critical thinking in a hypothetical performance system.

    • Help and Support Strategies

  • recognize the benefit of supporting the development of critical thinking skills.
  • identify ways in which emotions and thought are interrelated.
  • identify examples of statements employing affirmation methods that facilitate critical thinking behavior.
  • employ appropriate affirmation methods to facilitate critical thinking in a simulated workplace dialogue.
  • select examples of practices that encourage critical thinking.
  • apply encouragement practices in a given business situation.
  • match role model traits that support critical thinking with examples.

    • Empowering Critical Thinking Teams

  • recognize the benefits of understanding strategies of team empowerment for critical thinking
  • select examples of questions that facilitate choosing members of a critical thinking team.
  • use questions to choose members of a critical thinking team.
  • associate conditions necessary for successful team empowerment with examples.
  • apply organizational conditions for successful team empowerment in a simulated workplace scenario.
  • identify examples of common obstacles that hinder success for empowered teams.

    • Course Number:
    PD0253