All students in the Sixth Form at Camp Hill follow either a Critical Thinking or General Studies Course

Critical Thinking allows students to develop skills in thinking clearly and analytically. At the heart of the subject is argument and time is spent pulling apart arguments – lots of short ones and some longer ones. It is not about agreeing or disagreeing with these so much as looking at how they are constructed, how the reasoning and conclusions fit together, the flaws that they may contain, the underlying assumptions that they depend upon. As well as this, the credibility of evidence is examined, documents and sources (including pictorial and electronic data) are scrutinised to see how far they can be relied on. At A2 level we also look at decision making processes.

Why study Critical Thinking?

The skills acquired studying Critical Thinking can be transferred to other subjects as students learn to dissect reasoning and craft their own arguments. The subject is of value to all as it enhances analytical skills which are an essential quality in any professional career.

Critical Thinking is intended to equip those who study it to think and write clearly about everyday topical matters and is a vehicle for learning about any number of matters of contemporary interest. This qualification will be valuable when applying for university courses as it is looked on very favourably because of its rigour and the particular skills which it fosters. The subject is intellectually challenging, but without the need to master a large body of knowledge. No prior knowledge is needed to study Critical Thinking.

The multiple choice questions at AS are very similar to those that appear in aptitude tests for Oxbridge (eg TSA, Cambridge), and courses such as Law (LNAT) and Medicine (BMAT), thus preparing students for these.

The Examinations

The OCR Critical Thinking examination consists of two papers each year that are all 1 hour 30 minutes.

AS Paper One: Introduction to Critical Thinking

This unit explores the language of reasoning, that is how arguments are constructed, and also the credibility of documents and witnesses, partly studied on a case study basis (in the past we have looked at the sinking of the Titanic, the Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland, what happened to the Princes in the Tower, for example).

AS Paper Two: Assessing and developing argument

This builds on Unit 1, extending the analysis and evaluation of arguments and includes 20 multiple choice questions. It tests your ability to think critically about arguments, training you to detect flaws, find underlying assumptions, understand what would weaken or strengthen an argument, evaluate analogies, identify counter-arguments and clarify words used in arguments. Finally, you will construct your own short arguments. We proceed in a very structured way through short answer questions – there are no essays to write in Critical Thinking at AS level.

A2 Paper One: Ethical Reasoning and Decision Making

This takes you through a decision-making process, from identifying a problem all the way to arriving at a solution. Very often these involve ethical issues. The process includes examining problems of definition, identifying possible courses of action, evaluating evidence, and applying relevant criteria such as ethical principles to aid the decision-making. This year we have looked at a very wide range of topical issues ranging from what to do about violent computer games to how we might ‘make poverty history’. This unit requires some more extended answers.

A2 Paper Two: Critical Reasoning

The final unit builds on the AS in particular, but presents a different level of challenge, with analysis and evaluation of more sophisticated arguments found in newspapers, journals, books and magazines. Again there are structured questions set on longer passages, but no multiple choice questions this time.

For additional information relating to the topics taught in each year and useful websites, please click here