Departments: Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking is a one year AS course that is offered in the Enrichment Programme for sixth form students. Critical Thinking aims to give candidates the opportunity to develop the skills which are central to the process of arriving at reason-based judgement. It is not a content-based course, but rather one which aims to develop skills of reading, thinking logically, evaluating arguments and expressing ideas and opinions clearly and concisely. Students are expected to read about and discuss a wide variety of topics and to develop skills of analysing arguments. There will be practice in writing responses to the topics discussed, but also there will be plenty of opportunity for class debate. Topics to be covered this year will include: Cloning, Censorship, The Warren Report on the Assassination of J.F. Kennedy (assessing credibility of sources), the rights of Asylum Seekers, proposals to introduce I.D. cards, the Trial of Craig and Bentley and the Death Penalty.
Topics selected are used to cover the following areas: identifying the elements of reasoning; evaluating reasoning of different kinds; recognising and evaluating assumptions; clarifying expressions and ideas; presenting arguments.
Assessment (OCR) is through two examination papers taken in the Summer Term, each 1 hour 30 minutes.
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