Critical Thinking - Reasoning and Communicating with Rationale™

Preface

Critical thinking, reasoning and the ability to produce a well-structured essay are essential skills for students in (higher) education. The question arises as to how students will master critical thinking skills.

Conducting research is becoming more and more important in higher education: the ability to conduct research is also one of the necessary skills for the execution of one’s professional practice. So how will students acquire the critical, inquiring attitude required for their studies and their professional lives?

The method Critical Thinking with Rationale is an answer to these questions.

In higher education little attention has been paid to the development of critical thinking skills, that is to say, in a systematic manner. And even if it is a point of interest, it may be questioned whether this is done properly. Generally, students are supposed to have acquired the ability of critical thinking or to pick it up automatically during their college education.

At the University of Melbourne the research group of Tim van Gelder has devoted, for many years, their research to the improvement of critical thinking skills. On the basis of this research, they have developed a method - supported by a program called Rationale - to advance these skills.

Since 2006, we have been working closely together with Tim van Gelder and his colleague Fiona Patterson in order to make this method available for the Dutch speaking regions. One of the reasons which has led to this, is the fact that comparative research has proved the effectiveness of this particular method.

Tim van Gelder and Fiona Patterson have formulated within the framework of this method the so-called Topics in Reasoning. The main part of this book consists of these Topics. They are important, not only to learn to reason - a core part of critical thinking - but also to write a well-structured and convincing argument. Subsequently, the undersigned have edited this book, along with an introduction and additional information.

This book – part of the method Critical Thinking with Rationale - focuses on students in higher education. Critical thinking with Rationale has been well received within the world of education. In the last years thousands of students have followed a course focusing on Critical Thinking with Rationale.

We owe many thanks to Tim van Gelder and Fiona Patterson for their cooperation and their willingness to share the results of their efforts.

Timo ter Berg, Sytske Teppema August 2013

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This fourth edition contains the following changes:

• we added some maps and handouts with Critical Questions in Chapter 2.5: Evaluation
• you can now open all the maps in the book in Rationale (account needed)
• the references are updated.

Timo ter Berg
January 2026

Introduction

This book aims to assist students in acquiring critical thinking skills and the critical, inquiring attitude that goes with it. The word ‘critical’ is derived from the Greek verb ‘krinein’, meaning ‘to discern’, ‘to decide’, ‘to judge’. These positive meanings, which will be discussed later, are also included in the concept of ‘critical thinking’. So, in this context the word ‘critical’ is not associated with the negative connotation of ‘to find fault with everything’. Neither is it associated with criticizing on the basis of moral standards or political convictions.

Nowadays, the importance of critical thinking is undisputed. Critical thinking is essential to meet academic requirements, to conduct research and to pursue a career for innovative professional practice, for which the ability to take evidence-based decisions is of increasing importance. Sound judgment is also necessary for citizens to function in a democracy, and for the perpetuation of democracy itself.

So there is every reason to introduce a research-based method which, measured by inter- nationally recognized standards, has proven to be successful. This method aims to develop a critical, inquiring attitude by focusing on practicing critical thinking skills. A purpose-built program, Rationale, was developed to support this development process.

Additionally, the method includes all that is necessary for a thorough academic course in critical thinking, such as websites with exercises, lessons, assignments with key answers and a teacher’s guide. Rationale serves many purposes; it can be used to structure an argument, plan a thesis or to give a presentation. Rationale may be very useful for teachers who wish to integrate critical thinking into their courses.

Critical Thinking with Rationale is focused on reasoning, arguments and communicating. That is to say, students will learn how to form sound judgments and how to communicate them. The concept of ‘dispute’ has been deliberately left out in this book. Apart from a well-reasoned argument, disputing includes the use of rhetoric to work on people’s feelings. Rhetoric is not within the scope of this book.

This book is not designed as a handbook and, on no account, as a textbook on informal logic or argumentation theory. Then, what is it? This book forms the theoretical part of Critical Thinking with Rationale and is, as such, integrated into the entire method. It starts with a brief introduction of the concept of critical thinking. How do you learn critical thinking? And, with regard to this, what is the impact of argument mapping and of Rationale as supporting program?

Within the framework of this method, the Topics form the main part of this book. They are essential in obtaining critical thinking skills and, therefore, explained in detail. Next to this, all terminology of this method is briefly explained under the heading Definitions. Finally, some important concepts are represented in diagram form.

The Topics are structured on the basis of four important skills which are closely related to critical thinking: Grouping (classifying information), Reasoning, Analyzing and Evaluating (arguments as a whole or parts of it). These include being able to recognize arguments in other people’s texts, and to be able to apply these four skills to write your own convincing argument. Hence, a fifth skill, Structuring has been added with the relevant Topics.

For more information on Critical Thinking with Rationale, see www.ReasoningLab.com.

For samples of argument maps, Guides on how to use Rationale in education, see: www.rationaleonline.com and www.ReasoningLab/materials.