Thinking Skills Vocabulary and Definitions

Dr. Bob Kizlik

Updated July 13, 2009

The vocabulary below can help you sort out some o f this so that it makes sense to you.

PART I: GLOBAL TERMS

Thinking - thinking refers to the process o f creating a structured series o f connective transactions between items o f perceived information.
Metacognition - metacognition refers to awareness and control o f one's thinking, including commitment, attitudes and attention.
Critical thinking - critical thinking refers to reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do. Critical thinkers try to be aware o f their own biases, to be objective and logical.
Creative thinking - refers to the ability to form new combinations o f ideas to fulfill a need, or to get original or otherwise appropriate results by the criteria o f the domain in question.

PART II: SPECIFIC TERMS

Activating prior knowledge: recalling something learned previously relative to the topic or task
Analyzing skills: core thinking skills that involve clarifying information by examining parts and relationships.
Attention: conscious control o f mental focus on particular information.
Attitudes: personally held principles or beliefs that govern much o f one's behavior.
Classifying: grouping entities on the basis o f their common attributes.
o f self that involves a decision to employ personal energy and resources to control a situation.
Comparing: noting similarities and differences between or among entities.
Composing: the process o f developing a composition, which may be written, musical, mechanical, or artistic.
Comprehending: generating meaning or understanding.
Concept formation: organizing information about an entity and associating the information with a label (word).
Conditional information: information about the appropriate use o f an action or process important to a task.
Core thinking skills: cognitive operations used in thinking processes.
Creative thinking: original and appropriate thinking.
Critical thinking: using specific dispositions and skills such as analyzing arguments carefully, seeing other points o f view, and reaching sound conclusions.
Curriculum: a structured series o f intended learning outcomes.
Decision making: selecting from among alternatives.
Declarative information: factual information.
Defining problems: a focusing skill used in clarifying puzzling situations.
Disposition: inclinations to engage in some types o f behavior and not to engage in others. Certain dispositions are associated with critical and creative thinking.
Elaborating: adding details, explanations, examples, or other relevant information from prior knowledge.
Encoding skills: remembering skills that involve storing information in long term memory.
Establishing criteria: setting standards for making judgments.
Evaluating (as applied to metacognition): assessing one's current knowledge state.
Evaluating skills: core thinking skills that involve assessing the reasonableness and quality o f ideas.
Executive control: evaluating, planning, and regulating the declarative, procedural, and conditional information involved in a task.
Focusing skills: core thinking skills that involve selected to selected pieces o f information and ignoring others.
Formulating questions: an information-gathering skill that involves seeking new information through inquiry.
Generating skills: core thinking skills that involve producing new information, meaning, or ideas.
Identifying attributes and components: determining characteristics or parts o f something.
Identifying errors: disconfirming or proving the falsehood o f statements.
Identifying relationships and patterns: recognizing ways elements are related.
Inferring: going beyond available information to identify what may reasonably be true.
Information-gathering skills: core thinking skills that involve bringing to consciousness the relevant data needed for cognitive processing.
Integrating skills: core skills that involve connecting or combining information.
Knowledge and control o f process: a component o f metacognition that involves executive control o f declarative, procedural, and conditional information relative to a task.
Knowledge domain: a body o f information commonly associated with a particular o f area or field o f study.
Metacognition: a dimension o f thinking that involves knowledge and control o f self and knowledge and control o f process.
Mnemonics: a set o f encoding strategies that involve linking bits o f information together through visual or semantic connections.
Observing: an information-gathering skill that involves obtaining information through one or more senses.
Oral discourse: talking with other people.
Ordering: sequencing entities according to a given criterion.
Organizing skills: core thinking skills that involve arranging information so that it can be used more effectively.
Philosophic tradition: an approach to studying thinking that focuses on broad issues about the nature and quality o f thinking and its role in human behavior.
Planning: developing strategies to reach a specific goal; delineation o f end-means relationships.
Predicting: anticipating an outcome based on the use o f one's personal knowledge.
Principle formation: recognizing a relationship between or among concepts.
Problem solving: analyzing a perplexing or difficult situation for the purpose o f generating a solution.
Procedural information: information about the various actions or processes important to a task.
Psychological tradition: an approach to studying thinking that focuses on the nature o f specific cognitive operations.
Recalling skills: remembering skills that involve retrieving information from long-term memory.
Regulating: checking one's progress toward a goal.
Rehearsal: an encoding strategy that involves repeated processing o f information.
Remembering skills: core thinking skills that involve conscious efforts to store and retrieve information.
Representing: changing the form o f information to show how critical elements are related.
Research: conducting inquiry for the purpose o f confirming or validating one or more hypotheses.
Restructuring: changing existing knowledge structures to incorporate new information.
Retrieval: accessing previously encoded information.
Schemata: knowledge structures associated with a specific state, event, or concept
Self-knowledge and self-control: a component o f metacognition that involves commitment, attitudes, and attention.
Setting goals: a focusing skill that involves establishing direction and purpose.
Summarizing: combining information efficiently into a cohesive statement.
Thinking processes: relatively complex and time-consuming cognitive operations - such as concept formation, problem solving, and composing, all o f which employ one or more core thinking skills.
Verifying: confirming the accuracy, truth, or quality o f an observation, hypothesis, claim, or product.

PART III: THINKING PROCESSES

A thinking process is a relatively complex sequence o f thinking skills.

Concept formation - organizing information about an entity and associating that information with a label. A concept may be defined a perceived relationship between two or more facts.
Principle formation - recognizing a relationship between or among concepts.
Comprehending - generating meaning or understanding by relating new information to prior knowledge.
Problem solving - analyzing a perplexing or difficult situation for the purpose o f generating a solution.
Decision making - the process o f selecting from among available alternatives.
Research - conducting inquiry for the purpose o f confirming or validating one or more hypotheses.
Composing - developing a product, which may be written, musical, mechanical, or artistic.
Oral discourse - talking with other people.


PART IV. CORE THINKING SKILLS

Thinking skills are relatively specific cognitive operations that can be considered the "building blocks" o f thinking. The following (1) have a sound basis in the research and theoretical literature, (2) are important for students to be able to do, and (3) can be taught and reinforced in school.

FOCUSING SKILLS - attending to selected pieces o f information and ignoring others.

1. Defining problems: clarifying needs, discrepancies, or puzzling situations.
2. Setting goals: establishing direction and purpose.

INFORMATION GATHERING SKILLS - bringing to consciousness the relative data needed for cognitive processing.

3. Observing: obtaining information through one or more senses.
4. Formulating questions: seeing new information through inquiry.

REMEMBERING SKILLS - storing and retrieving information.

5. Encoding: storing information in long-term memory.
6. Recalling: retrieving information from long-term memory.

ORGANIZING SKILLS - arranging information so it can be used more effectively.

7. Comparing: noting similarities and differences between or among entities.
8. Classifying: grouping and labeling entities on the basis o f their attributes.
9. Ordering: sequencing entities according to a giver criterion.
10. Representing: changing the form, but not the substance o f information.

ANALYZING SKILLS - clarifying existing information by examining parts and relationships.

11. Identifying attributes and components: determining characteristics or the parts o f something.
12. Identifying relationships and patterns: recognizing ways elements are related.
13. Identifying main ideas: identifying the central element; for example the hierarchy o f key ideas in a message or line o f reasoning.
14. Identifying errors: recognizing logical fallacies and other mistakes and, where possible, correcting them.

GENERATING SKILLS - producing new information, meaning or ideas.

15. Inferring: going beyond available information to identify what may reasonably be true.
16. Predicting: anticipating next events, or the outcome o f a situation.
17. Elaborating: explaining by adding details, examples, or other relevant information.

INTEGRATING SKILLS - connecting and combining information.

18. Summarizing: combining information efficiently into a cohesive statement.
19. Restructuring: changing existing knowledge structures to incorporate new information.

EVALUATING SKILLS - assessing the reasonableness and quality o f ideas.

20. Establishing criteria: setting standards for making judgments.
21. Verifying: confirming the accuracy o f claims

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thank you so much Dr. Salah

It is a very useful topic

Thank you ,dr Salah you are enriching our knowledge.GO ON

It's a great glossary on thinking skilss.
Thanx our master for your valuable selections that enrich this great Academy