Critical Thinking at University: An Introduction

Critical thinking, I learnt, was less about being critical in a negative sense and more about evaluating ideas through clear and structured thinking. The course helped me understand that critical thinking is a deliberate process of applying logic, reasoning, and evidence, rather than reacting based on opinion, habit, or emotion.

I learnt to use the critical thinking model, which moves through description, analysis, and evaluation. Description focuses on establishing context by asking questions such as who, what, when, where, and why. Analysis then looks deeper, asking how and why, examining methods, assumptions, causes, and alternative perspectives. Evaluation brings this together by asking so what and what next, allowing informed judgements about relevance, significance, and implications.

The course also clarified different levels of critical thinking, from limited to high, and showed how stronger academic work draws on evidence, balance, and independent judgement. It highlighted common challenges such as building subject knowledge, avoiding information overload, and developing confidence to engage critically. Practical strategies like making meaningful notes, using reading lists effectively, and evaluating sources were especially valuable.

Overall, the course gave me confidence and clarity about what critical thinking at university looks like. I now have a structured approach to reading, learning, and assessment, and a stronger sense of how to question information, connect ideas, and develop well-reasoned arguments that I can continue to build on.

Thanks to this practical course, I have a better grasp of what critical thinking is. Before I took this course, my approach to critical thinking was to ask questions whatever came up to me. However, this introductory course gave me a more structured approach. Especially, the critical thinking model helps me ask meaningful questions systematically. Furthermore, I came to realize that confidence to engage critically is partially about accepting uncertainty which has been one of my challenge.

Although this course is mainly targeted to undergraduate students, it is still helpful for someone like me who left college long time ago. Some of the exercises ask you to evaluate in writing which has a higher level of critical reasoning. Because you need to identify what is good and what is missing, they tested my understanding of critical reasoning.

One of the main shortcomings of this course is that it is a bit short. I wished this course had more exercises and examples of how critical thinking is applied to different academic fields.

Overall, this practical course gave me some confidence on how to think critically. It nicely builds on what I learned in “Think Again I~IV” which is a philosophy course offered by Coursera. Highly recommended.

This is an extremely helpful and well thought out course, which I feel would be particularly beneficial to those embarking on an undergraduate degree - I wish something like this had been available when I did my degree many years ago. It is invaluable in terms of de-mystifying accessing and evaluating relevant source material, note-taking, preparing for classes and class workshops and discussions and helping to improve confidence in these areas. It also gives a framework for approaching assignments or problems, highlighting the essential need to do this in an enquiring questioning and open-minded way, whilst also noting the additional benefit of critical thinking in increasing marks which can be gained. It has been a great refresher for me and also highlighted some weaker areas which I need work on.

The only criticism I would make is about the lack of feedback given to those undertaking the course. Those going through the course material are encouraged to post comments at the end of the page giving their own thoughts with regard to various questions or exercises. Presumably the idea is that this will generate discussion amongst those undertaking the course. However, no such discussion ensues, and most of the comments are very brief, and so students are left with no feedback as to their understanding of the topic and whether this is correct, other than in one exercise where another student provides feedback with regard to assessing source material. I found this aspect of the course really disappointing.