Critical and Creative Thinking Glossary

Critical and Creative Thinking Glossary

Artefacts

Any object made by humans with a view to subsequent use.

Begging the question

A fallacy in which the premise of an argument presupposes the truth of its conclusion; in other words, the argument takes for granted what it is supposed to prove.

Circular argument

Also known as circular reasoning, this is a type of reasoning in which the proposition is supported by the premises, which is supported by the proposition, creating a circle in reasoning where no useful information is being shared.

Closed questions

A closed question can be answered with either a single word or a short phrase, such as ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Cognitive bias

A pattern of deviation in judgment, whereby inferences about other people and situations may be drawn in an illogical fashion.

Concrete models

A student is introduced to or develops an idea by acting it out with real objects.

Deductive reasoning

Deductive reasoning, or deduction, starts out with a general statement, or hypothesis, and reaches a conclusion about a specific instance.

Disaggregate

To separate out into smaller units or component parts.

Egocentric language

Language centred around, or arising from, a person's own existence or perspective.

Experiential language

A persuasive way of talking that describes what you are personally experiencing.

Fallacious

Containing a fallacy; logically unsound.

False dichotomies

A false dichotomy occurs when an argument presents two options and ignores, either purposefully or out of ignorance, other alternatives.

Ideation

The formation of ideas and thoughts.

Incubation

A process of unconscious development and/or recombination of thought elements that were stimulated through conscious work at one point in time, resulting in novel ideas at some later point in time.

Inductive reasoning

Inductive reasoning makes broad generalisations from specific observations.

Mind map / mindmapping

A mind map is a visual representation of connected ideas using words and images.

Mnemonics

Memorising information by use of an aid such as a pattern, rhyme, acronym, visual image.

Open questions

An open question can have a variety of equally valid responses and requires reasoning to support the answer.

Pictorial models

A student is introduced to an idea or a skill through representations, such as a diagram or picture of the problem.

Premises

Basis, stated or assumed, from which reasoning proceeds.

Proposition

Any statement that could be true or false.

Rhetorical devices

A technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective, using sentences designed to encourage or provoke a rational argument from an emotional display of a given perspective or action.

Synthesised

To construct by combining parts or elements.

Temporal element

An element of, or relating to, time.