This course on critical thinking will help you learn a variety of skills and attitudes that can be applied in your Oral Communication, Written Communication, and Educational Technologies courses. These skills and attitudes also can be used in any context where someone is giving a reason (or, argument) for some claim, thesis, position, or point of view. This means that critical thinking appears used in argumentative contexts, not when a person or "text" (essay, book, article, editorial, speech) is simply giving an explanation, or command, or question (interrogatory) something, or exclamation (or, expression of their feelings or emotions). Whenever a person is called upon to "prove a point," "give a thesis," "give an argument," "defend a point of view," or "give reasons for doing or believing something," the person is asked to engage in critical thinking. This course will help MACCESS 2003 students learn how to engage in critical thinking; the ultimate goal is to improve the student's critical thinking, reasoning, and writing skills.

This course will be conducted in a combination lecture-discussion format and in conjunction with the course "Educational Technologies." Students will engage in cooperative learning activities both inside and outside the classroom on topics and "homework assignments" given in the Oral and Written Communication courses. MACCESS students also will learn how to use critical thinking to research and evaluate information and resources on the Internet, improve their skills and versatility with word processing, email, doing research, and other aspects of computing and educational technologies.