Thinking Skills

DESCRIPTION:

Thinking Skills, Second edition, is the only endorsed coursebook that provides complete coverage of the Cambridge AS and A Level Thinking Skills syllabus offering substantially updated, new and revised content. It also contains extensive extra material to cover related awards. Written by experienced and highly respected authors, this book includes features such as clearly focused and differentiated units, stimulating student activities with commentaries to develop analytical skills, summaries of key concepts to review learning, end-of-chapter assignments to reinforce knowledge and skills, and a mapping grid to demonstrate the applicability of each unit to awards including Critical Thinking, BMAT and TSA.

FEATURES:

• Clearly focused and differentiated units.
• Stimulating student activities with commentaries to develop analytical skills.
• Summaries of key concepts to review learning.
• End-of-chapter assignments to reinforce knowledge and skills.
• A mapping grid to demonstrate the applicability of each unit to awards including Critical Thinking, BMAT and TSA.

CONTENTS:

Unit 1. Thinking and Reasoning: 1. Thinking as a skill
2. An introduction to critical thinking
3. Solutions not problems
Unit 2. Critical Thinking: the Basics: 1. Claims, assertions, statements
2. Judging claims
3. Argument
4. Identifying arguments
5. Analysing arguments
6. Complex arguments
7. Conclusions
8. Reasons
9. Assumptions
10. Flaws and fallacies
Unit 3. Problem-solving: Basic Skills: 1. What do we mean by a 'problem'?
2. How do we solve problems?
3. Selecting and using information
4. Processing data
5. Finding methods of solution
6. Solving problems by searching
7. Recognising patterns
8. Hypotheses, reasons, explanations and inference
9. Spatial reasoning
10. Necessity and sufficiency
11. Choosing and using models
12. Making choices and decisions
Unit 4. Applied Critical Thinking: 1. Inference
2. Explanation
3. Evidence
4. Credibility
5. Two case studies
6. Critical thinking and science
7. Introducing longer arguments
8. Applying analysis skills
9. Critical evaluation
10. Responding with further argument
11. A live text
Unit 5. Advanced Problem-solving: 1. Combining skills - using imagination
2. Developing models
3. Carrying out investigations
4. Data analysis and inference
Unit 6. Problem-solving: Further Techniques: 1. Using other mathematical methods
2. Graphical methods of solution
3. Probability, tree diagrams and decision trees
4. Have you solved it?
Unit 7. Critical Reasoning: Advanced Level: 1. Conditions and conditionals
2. Soundness and validity: a taste of logic
3. Non-deductive reasoning
4. Reasoning with statistics
5. Decision-making
6. Principles
7. An argument under the microscope
8. Critical writing
End-of-chapter assignments: answers and comments
Appendix
Index
Acknowledgements.