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Webinar Q&A Sessions
in the Center for Critical Thinking Community Online

Participate in webinar Q&A sessions with our internationally recognized Fellows and Scholars.

See below for upcoming webinars. Some are free to the general public, while others are exclusive to members of the Center for Critical Thinking Community Online. (If you are brand new, a 30-day free trial is available for this membership website.)

Typically, our webinar announcements provide optional activities for you to complete ahead of time in the Community Online. These will be relevant to the topic at hand; although the activities are not madatory, the new understandings you gain by completing them will help you to ask more refined questions at each webinar.

Please note that these sessions are recorded for later viewing by members of the Community Online, and some clips may be posted on other platforms. If you do not want your person or voice recorded, you can submit your questions via text chat.

 

 "Thank you for your discussion this evening. It has helped me to see the beauty of the framework you have created."

"Thank you for this sharing session. It is an eye-opening session for me."

" . . . always engaging . . . I look forward to learning from you in more sessions. Thank you!"


Upcoming Webinar Q&A Sessions

Open Critical Thinking Q&A: March 2023

Led by Dr. Linda Elder

Thursday, March 16th, 2023




8:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
(5:00 p.m. PDT)

Exclusive to Members of The Center for Critical Thinking Community Online!

What are your questions?

Together we ponder or answer them.

Thinking is driven by questions. The quality of your thinking is determined by the quality of the questions you ask. Fruitful questions, when properly addressed, lead to knowledge. Knowledge leads to important understandings. Important understandings, when actively employed by the mind, can lead to increasingly more fulfilling, satisfying, and joyful lives. In teaching and learning, the quality of our teaching can largely be captured in the questions students ask in our classes and the questions they ask when they leave our tutelage (not on how much information they have stored in short-term memory). 

Despite these insights, the importance of questions in thinking is – and always has been – largely ignored in human conversations, relationships and societies. The role of questions in thinking is rarely discussed in human life (though in academia, of course, there are some few classes on how to pursue questions, and some faculty do explore the role of questions in thinking). Theory about questions is still in its infancy. While Socrates believed the most effective way to teach was through questioning, 2,400 years later, his insights seemed to be little valued. Each of us needs to improve our ability to ask productive and rewarding questions.

In our regular (roughly monthly) question-and-answer webinars, led by one of our Fellows or Scholars, we open the floor to your questions about critical thinking and its unlimited applications to human life. Join us in this forum where you can practice asking questions similar to how we want our students to practice asking them – to improve their ability to ask powerful questions in everyday life. Some questions we will be able to answer easily; those that do not lend themselves to definitive answers, we will explore with you.

We will largely structure this Q&A webinar with the entire group together in one room, but on some occasions, we may break into smaller groups to explore a given question. We look forward to lively, convivial, and enlightening discussions based on your questions.

Please note that our webinars are recorded for later viewing by members of The Center for Critical Thinking Community Online, and some clips may also be posted on other platforms. If you do not want your person or voice recorded, you can submit your questions via text chat.


How Your Egocentricity Affects You and Others


Led by Dr. Linda Elder

International Authority on Critical Thinking


Tuesday, April 4th, 2023



8:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
(5:00 p.m. Pacific)

Duration: 60 Minutes

Open to All!

 

Egocentric thinking comes from the unfortunate fact that humans do not naturally consider the rights and needs of others, nor do we naturally appreciate others’ points of view or the limitations in our own. We become explicitly aware of our egocentric thinking only if trained to do so; we do not naturally recognize our egocentric assumptions, the egocentric way we use information, the egocentric way we interpret data, the sources of our egocentric concepts and ideas, or the implications of our egocentric thought. We rarely recognize our self-serving perspectives, and when we do, we often try to rationalize them with convoluted reasoning instead of working to correct them.

Egocentricity frequently has severe consequences for the thinker, the thinker’s social circle, and for humanity and other species at large. It results in tremendous ongoing losses of opportunity, resources, and good will, and has negative implications for one’s mental well-being. In this webinar, Dr. Elder will discuss the concept of egocentricity and how we can intervene in our irrational self-centered thinking.

Because this webinar Q&A partially depends upon your questions as participants, we recommend completing as many of the following activities as you can beforehand. These require an account in the Community Online, where a 30-day free trial is available for new users. You are not required to complete the activities to join the webinar, but doing so will help you better grasp the concept of egocentricity.

1. On pages 23 & 24 of A Glossary to Critical Thinking Terms & Concepts, read the entry for egocentricity.

2. Watch the following videos on egocentricity. (Please ignore the opening frame of each video, which in some cases will use the incorrect part number in the series.)

a. Human Egocentricity and Critical Thinking – Part 2
b. Human Egocentricity and Critical Thinking – Part 3
c. Human Egocentricity and Critical Thinking – Part 4
d. Human Egocentricity and Critical Thinking – Part 5

3. Complete the activity, “Analyze a Self-Centered Person You Know Well.”

4. Review your responses to activity #3 above. Try to think of ways in the past (especially recently) that you have exhibited, to some degree, these same behaviors, thoughts, emotions, and motivations. Briefly write out a summary of each case.

This can be a challenging exercise to complete in good faith. If you find yourself struggling, remember that the idea is not to assume you exhibit egocentric traits to the same extent as the person you reflected on in activity #3. Rather, you are looking for instances in which you exhibited these traits to some extent.

5. Reflect on activity #4 above. As you worked through it, what kinds of thoughts and feelings did you experience? Did you find yourself automatically trying to justify your egocentric thoughts and behaviors? Did you find yourself experiencing negative emotions, and did these emotions impede your ability to complete the activity or reinforce your efforts toward justifying your egocentricity?

Please note that our webinars are recorded for later viewing by members of The Center for Critical Thinking Community Online, and some clips may also be posted on other platforms. If you do not want your person or voice recorded, you can submit your questions via text chat.





Archived Webinar Q&A Sessions

Teaching Students to Think Through Complex Questions


Led by Dr. Gerald Nosich

International Authority on Critical Thinking


Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023

View Recording Here


8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
(5:00 p.m. Pacific)

Duration: 60 Minutes

 

Questions with more than one arguable answer are not questions of fact or preference, but of reasoned judgment. These are questions with better and worse answers. The better answers are well-supported and well-reasoned; the worse answers are poorly-supported and/or poorly-reasoned. In reasoning through complex questions, critical thinkers seek the best answer(s) within the relevant range of possibilities. They systematically evaluate potential answers to these questions using universal intellectual standards such as clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, logicality, breadth, fairness and sufficiency. These questions are prominent in the human disciplines, such as history, philosophy, economics, sociology, psychology, and art, but can be found in most primary domains of thought. Here are examples within humanities:

  • How can we best address the most basic and significant economic problems of the nation today?
  • What can be done to significantly reduce the number of people who are harmed by pharmaceuticals in the mental health profession? What about people who become addicted to dangerous illicit drugs?
  • Should capital punishment be abolished?
  • To what extent is psychology scientific? To what extent is it not?
  • Is democracy compatible with capitalism? What does each concept presuppose and imply?
  • What are the fundamental differences between love, friendship, and mere emotional attachment?

Within the natural sciences (such as physics, biology, and chemistry) complex questions frequently emerge, including whenever natural sciences are applied to situations involving the interests of humans or other living creatures. Here are some examples:

  • How should we engineer aircraft wings to optimize safety, costs, and efficiency?
  • Medically, what is the best diagnosis for someone with this complicated array of symptoms?
  • What can be done to improve and sustain the health of the earth in all its aspects?

In approaching complex questions, students (and others) often give impulsive answers because they lack the skills to reason through difficulties in these questions. In this webinar, Dr. Nosich will discuss complex questions and offer some approaches to reasoning through them using foundational tools of critical thinking (and teaching students to do the same).

Because this webinar Q&A partially depends upon your questions as participants, we recommend completing as many of the following activities as you can beforehand. These require an account in the Community Online, where a 30-day free trial is available for new users. You are not required to complete the activities to join the webinar, but doing so will make the session significantly more effective for yourself and others.

1. Read pages 8 & 9 in The Thinker’s Guide to Asking Essential Questions. Then, think of several examples of each category of question (questions of fact, of preference, and of reasoned judgement).

2. Read pages 11 & 12 in The Thinker’s Guide to Asking Essential Questions. Then, think of several examples each of simple and complex conceptual questions.

3. Read pages 5 & 6 in The Thinker’s Guide to Asking Essential Questions. Then, think of a time when you were pondering a difficult question of judgment and felt “stuck”; which of the sample questions on pages 4 & 5 of Asking Essential Questions might have helped you proceed more effectively?

4. Using a complex question of reasoned judgement, complete the activity, “Thinking Through Conflicting Ideas.” (Be sure to read the complete prompt at the top of the page first.)


Thinking Critically About the Earth’s Preservation


Led by Dr. Linda Elder

International Authority on Critical Thinking


Wednesday, February 1st, 2023

View Recording Here


8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
(5:00 p.m. Pacific)

Duration: 60 Minutes

 

It is essential that we do all we can, each of us, to make the world healthier and less endangered by human pollution (including artificial noise and light, solid garbage, industrial runoff, and greenhouse gases), wilderness encroachment with resulting habitat loss, and flagrant disregard for other species – including those on which our survival depends. A recent United Nations report warns that humans must act now if we are to avoid catastrophe.

We simply cannot afford to continue shortsightedly placing money before sustainability of the earth’s limited resources. The devastation humans have inflicted upon other sentient creatures, and upon ourselves, has been clear for many generations. But we humans are skilled at deceiving ourselves in all kinds of ways, including that our precious desires and whims are more important than the health of the earth, the health of our families, and the future of the planet. This is why critical thinking is so important – because it helps us see through our self-deception to the real facts before us.

But what can we do to help mitigate the problem? First, we need to put our support behind only those leaders and politicians committed to drastically reducing and reversing ecological destruction, and we need to hold them responsible to follow through on their promises. Second, we need to do all that is within our individual power to reduce our impact on the earth and to enrich nature. One way of doing this is to reconsider how we think of nature itself and our responsibilities toward it. When we are educated about nature, and about the relationships between humans, plants, and other animals, our values should change according to the new information we internalize. Consequently, we should then have a far better chance of dealing with the vast sustainability problems we face, having learned to value nature more highly as an asset to be protected and supported. All of this requires critical thinking.

In this webinar, Dr. Elder will discuss ways that critical thinking can improve our chances of a healthy, sustainable future on earth. Because this webinar Q&A partially depends upon your questions as participants, we recommend completing as many of the following activities as you can beforehand. These require an account in the Community Online, where a 30-day free trial is available for new users. You are not required to complete the activities to join the webinar.

1. Read pages 5, 6, 8, 9, 17, and 18 in The Thinker’s Guide to Asking Essential Questions.

2. On pages 23 & 24 of A Glossary to Critical Thinking Terms & Concepts, read the entry for egocentricity (also known as egocentrism).

3. On page 67 of A Glossary to Critical Thinking Terms & Concepts, read the entry for sociocentricity (also known as sociocentrism).

4. Read about speciescentrism on pages 72-76 in Liberating the Mind: Overcoming Sociocentric Thought and Egocentric Tendencies.

5. Consider these questions:

a. What reasons do people tend to give for flagrant disregard for the rights and needs of other sentient creatures?

b. Do any of these reasons serve as valid excuses for the behavior? Why or why not?

c. If you see any of these reasons as valid excuses for the behavior, do you believe your view would change if you were being treated in the same ways humans treat other sentient creatures when disregarding their rights and needs?

6. Considering your reading in assignments 1-3 above, write out some connections you see between egocentrism, sociocentrism, and speciescentrism. Consider whether any of these seem to emerge as byproducts of one or both of the others.


Reasoning Through a Problem Using Critical Thinking


Led by Dr. Gerald Nosich

International Authority on Critical Thinking


Thursday, January 12th, 2023

View Recording


8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
(5:00 p.m. Pacific)

Duration: 60 Minutes

 

Due to the world’s rapid changes with increasing complexity, humans at all levels of society – down to that of the individual – now face problems far more intricate and complicated than ever before. Solving these problems effectively requires self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective reasoning. It entails skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them.

When you face a problem with an understanding of how to analyze, assess, and improve thinking, you are more inclined to:

• raise vital questions regarding the problem, formulating them clearly and precisely;

• gather and assess relevant data and information, using reasonable concepts to interpret them effectively;

• recognize what assumptions he or she is making and consider their soundness (or lack thereof);

• follow out the implications of various potential solutions;

• come to well-reasoned conclusions about how best to solve the problem; and

• where applicable, communicate effectively with others in articulating a reasonable solution and how to enact it.

In this webinar, Dr. Gerald Nosich will discuss how critical thinking can be used to solve problems effectively. Because this webinar Q&A partially depends upon your questions as participants, we recommend completing as many of the following activities as you can beforehand. These require an account in The Center for Critical Thinking Community Online, where a 30-day free trial is available for new users. Though you are not required to complete the activities to join the webinar, doing so will make the session more effective for yourself and others.

1. Review pages 12 and 14 in The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools.

2. Read the article, “The Elements of Reasoning and the Intellectual Standards.”

3. Using a complex problem you are now facing, complete the activity “Analyze the Logic of a Problem or Issue” and save it. (Be sure to read the content at the top of the page first.)

4. Read pages 19 and 20 in The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools.

5. Watch the following videos:

a. Intellectual Virtues by Dr. Linda Elder – Part 1

b. Intellectual Virtues by Dr. Linda Elder – Part 2

c. Intellectual Virtues by Dr. Linda Elder – Part 3

6. Return to your answers in the activity, “Analyze the Logic of a Problem or Issue.” Considering your reading and viewing on the intellectual standards (in assignments 4 and 5 above), how can your answers be improved or elaborated upon?


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