Extending and developing your thinking skills

Diagrams, mind-maps, tables, graphs, time lines, flow charts, sequence diagrams, decision trees: all can be used to organise thought. This free course, Extending and developing your thinking skills, will introduce you to a variety of thinking skills. Asking and answering questions is at the heart of high-quality thinking. Questions naturally arise from the desire to know and learn about things and may be the starting point for a journey of understanding.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 Overview
• 1 Overview
• 2 Understanding the importance of thinking skills
• 2 Understanding the importance of thinking skills
• 3 Different kinds of thinking
• 3 Different kinds of thinking
• 3.1 Thinking in a higher gear
• 3.2 Looking at the thinking a further education course involves
• 4 A thinking disposition and the process of development
• 4 A thinking disposition and the process of development
• 5 Other people
• 5 Other people
• 6 Questions
• 6 Questions
• 7 Giving structure to thinking
• 7 Giving structure to thinking
• 7.1 Hierarchies of ideas
• 7.2 Other ways of structuring thought
• 7.3 Systematic approaches
• 7.4 Visual tools
• 7.5 Mind-maps
• 8 Analysis, argument and critical thinking
• 8 Analysis, argument and critical thinking
• 8.1 Balanced argument
• 8.2 Broadening perception
• 8.3 Academic arguments
• 9 Putting it all together
• 9 Putting it all together
• Conclusion
• References
• Further reading
• Acknowledgements