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What are the suggested retail prices for Critical Thinking?
Critical Thinking CD
[CD only version]
ISBN 0-9712355-1-1
$55 US [Free Shipping in US]
Critical Thinking [paperback edition]
[same CD with texts also in paperback]
ISBN 0-9712355-0-3
$79 US [Free shipping in US]
Self-Defense: A Student Guide to Writing Position Papers
[paperback, when sold separately]
ISBN 0-9712355-2-X
$10 US [Free shipping in US]
$5 US shipping outside the U.S.
Course site licenses and University-wide site licenses: Negotiated
Giving students a substantive and entertaining introduction to logic and critical thinking, while letting the computer correct and grade as many exercises and exams as the students need to hone and verify their critical thinking skill: Priceless ;-)
AS AN INSTRUCTOR: How do I request an examination copy?
Please send us an email, to kpossin@winona.edu, and we will send you a copy of the CD version of Critical Thinking for consideration in your course [similarly for the Self-Defense manual]. Please include the following information: Your name, mailing address, university affiliation, course name and number, projected enrollment, and current text.
How do I purchase CT?
To order, just send your request and a check to the Critical Thinking Lab, at the address below, or you can order through a PayPal account [which would be faster].
If your company is reimbursing or purchasing for you, please send us [by email or other means] a purchase order number obtained through your business office.
BOOKSTORES: Please call to set up an account and detail the order.
kpossin@winona.edu
507.452.0537
The Critical Thinking Lab
24847 County 17
Winona, MN 55987
USA
How do I pay by means of PayPal?
If you are a first-time user, you will have to set up a PayPal account. It's easy:
Go to http://www.PayPal.com Please use the link below.
Follow the site's directions for setting up a new account, using your credit card. It's really very easy and secure.
Once your PayPal account has been set up and confirmed, you're ready to buy:
Return to the PayPal site
Click the Send Money tab and key in the following info:
Recipient's email address: kpossin@winona.edu
Amount: Price + Shipping
Currency: U.S. Dollars
Subject: Specify purchase, by description or ISBN number
Note: Supply your postal address here and any helpful delivery info
You're done--We'll be notified by PayPal of your order.
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What's included in Critical Thinking?
Critical Thinking includes two texts--Critical Thinking and Self-Defense: A Student Guide to Writing Position Papers--and the CT Software, which provides unlimited practice exercises and exams. Also included is a CT Student Aids folder, with over a dozen extra exercise worksheets and an Excel Progress Log spreadsheet to record dates and scores. A manual is also included, explaining how to use the new mark-up features on the etexts.
Instructors also receive the CT Supplements CD, which includes a grading spreadsheet and many in-class discussion handouts and transparency masters.
How can I use Critical Thinking?
You can use CT as your sole source of content: texts, practice exercises, homework assignments, and exams. All the correcting, grading, and feedback are done by the CT Software--students just submit their practice and exam scores to verify their work and progress. Or, you can use CT merely as a means of providing unlimited practice and homework exercises, if you decide to give exams more traditionally in class. Or, you can use CT as recommended reading, to enhance students' background knowledge on critical thinking and argumentative writing, which is applicable to any course whatsoever. CT can be incorporated into any curriculum to any degree desired. It's also excellent prep for the LSAT exam.
What do other Profs say about Critical Thinking?
"Critical Thinking is the best intro to logic software around. I think the exercises are wonderful...so good, so deep,...and the course as a whole looks great." -- Patrick Grim, The Group for Logic & Formal Semantics, SUNY at Stony Brook
"The materials are superb--you deserve five stars for both the texts and the CD." --Jefferson White, University of Maine
"Kevin Possin (Winona State University) has developed a program for students in critical thinking courses with an aim of giving them as much assisted practice as they need to master informal logic skills. His article "Critical Thinking: A Computer-assisted Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking" is a brief overview of the features of this tool. Having sampled the program, I say that this project should be generously supported for further development and subsequently put into the hands of as many middle-school, high-school, and undergraduate students as possible. Developing and maintaining critical thinking skills is essential to our national health. Dr. Possin has produced a means to that end." -- Jon Dorbolo (Ed.), APA Newsletter: Philosophy and Computers, Fall 2003, Vol. 03, #1
"Professor Kevin Possin (Winona State University, Minnesota) shares with us "Critical Thinking: A Computer-assisted Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking," in which he describes the many excellent features of the instructional CD he authored and uses in Winona State's "Critical Thinking" courses. Anyone who has taught logic or CT knows the variation in student learning speed, and the importance of multiple exercises and prompt feedback on course modules which encourage practice, practice, practice! If only all this could be done in a large class, right? Well, Dr. Possin's Critical Thinking CD might have just solved the problem! The reader will probably rush to his website, which he includes. I did.
Your experiences and expertise in instructional uses of technology are commendable. And don't be surprised if you get some email from our readers. Well done!" -- Ron Barnette (Ed.), APA Newsletter: Philosophy and Computers, 3:1, Fall 2003, Vol. 03, #1
"In general, the examples that are used [in Critical Thinking] to illustrate particular aspects of arguments are drawn from a wide variety of sources, e.g., advertisements, scientific, political, religious, or ethical texts, and even personal experiences of the author. This provides a rich context for practicing the techniques introduced in the text. In addition, throughout the text are insertions marked "BTW" or "Pop Quiz" that ask specific questions regarding the material just introduced to stimulate the students' own thinking about the subject.
An important and most valuable part of the CT package is the software, which runs on both Windows and Macintosh platforms. It is easy to install, and includes over 3000 exercises of various levels of difficulty. The exercises are designed to practice the skills presented in the textbook. This offers the student an invaluable opportunity to hone her skills, to test her knowledge, and to identify points of confusion. The software offers "practice" and "exam" modes. In practice mode, immediate feedback is provided to the student; when an exam is complete, the missed questions can be viewed.
It seems to me that the possibility of practicing one's critical thinking skills with a seemingly endless supply of examples and with immediate feedback is what makes CT a useful tool for critical thinking education. After all, competency is achieved in large part through "practice, practice, practice" (187)." --Dirk Schlimm, Teaching Philosophy, 26:3, Sept. 2003
What do students say about Critical Thinking?
"The fact that we could take practice tests at home whenever we wanted really helped! Also, being able to take tests over & over again made sure we were walking away from this course actually learning something."
"The format of this class is BY FAR the best I've ever seen: the class work, out of class tests (relieving test anxiety), the ability to retake exams and learn WHY something is right or wrong, and not just whether it's right or wrong."
"Easy to use software, very helpful in understanding the text."
"I think the computer assistance is a very helpful tool & I don't believe I would have done as well as I did without it."
"I found being able to retake exams to achieve my highest potential gave me an opportunity to learn from my mistakes and kept me from getting discouraged."
"I liked the way the tests were taken, because it forced you to really try and pass every test rather than just taking what you get and trying to make up for it, and I liked that we could retake tests later as our understanding of them got better."
"The computer software helps a great deal because you get immediate feedback so you know what you're doing wrong and can fix it or review the book again to learn it again."
"Having the chance to simulate an infinite number of tests at home is an excellent tool for assessing what has been mastered and what one needs to work on."
"The CT Software was a good way to actually apply the material learned in class & the exams made sure that you knew the material. It wasn't all luck. Plus, it was a lot less stressful & I was able to learn more by going back to see which problems I got wrong."
"I definitely appreciate the chance to retake the tests on the computer as many times as we want after getting 60% by the deadline! Having the CT Software to practice @ home makes this class MUCH more comprehendible! Thanks!"
Do students prefer Critical Thinking?
Only 1 student in the 216 surveyed [at Winona State University] would have preferred the traditional approach of working exercises in a textbook rather than doing practice exercises using the CT Software.
Only 6 students out of the 216 would have preferred taking three traditional in-class exams rather than taking exams with immediate reviews and retakes using the CT Software.
72% preferred the informal style of the Critical Thinking texts to a more formal style of a traditional introductory logic text.
Do students prefer Critical Thinking for independent study?
"I just wanted to thank you for putting together such wonderful educational material. I am an adult student at DePaul University. I purchased your Critical Thinking series, and after reviewing it, I was not only able to pass the Critical Thinking exam at DePaul University, I also used the Self-Defense Guide to assist me in passing out of their Writing Course as well. I followed your suggestions and it worked! Because of your materials, I was able to pass out of both classes and save my company over $3000 in fees for the classes and books. Thanks again!" -- L. D.
How effective is Critical Thinking?
Critical Thinking, by Kevin Possin, is proven to enhance students' critical thinking skills.
IN A CONTROLLED STUDY, CRITICAL THINKING WAS DEMONSTRATED TO IMPROVE THE CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS OF STUDENTS IN A SINGLE SEMESTER AS MUCH AS WOULD OTHERWISE HAVE TAKEN AN ENTIRE FOUR YEARS' OF UNIVERSITY COURSEWORK TO ACCOMPLISH.
After completing the Critical Thinking curriculum [which includes the Critical Thinking text, the CT Software, and Self-Defense: A Student Guide to Writing Position Papers], 416 students were given the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z. Their mean score was 30.42, with a standard deviation of 5.15. As a control group, 129 students about to begin a similar-level general education philosophy course were given the Cornell Test. Their mean score was 26.98, with a standard deviation of 4.53. The students who completed the Critical Thinking curriculum scored an average of 3.44 points higher on the Cornell Test than the control group, with this difference in scores being statistically significant at the 0.05 level (p < 0.0001). The 95% confidence interval estimate of the mean difference was (2.45, 4.43). This difference translates into an average percentage improvement of 6.6%, based on 52 questions, with a 95% confidence interval estimate of (4.7%, 8.5%).
Yet another way to represent this difference is to say that Critical Thinking raised the critical thinking skills of the students by approximately .76 of the standard deviation--which is considered to be a large increase, in the research literature on assessment and the effectiveness of various means of critical thinking instruction. [See research by, e.g., Hitchcock, Facione, Hatcher, and van Gelder.] It should be noted that this same published research has never found a measured increase in critical thinking skills greater than a single standard deviation and that the curriculum and recommended format consistently found to have the greatest measured increase in critical thinking skills is exactly that of Critical Thinking--a computer-assisted, work-to-competency, hybrid course with a component dedicated to constructing and assessing position papers.
When administering the Cornell Test to the control group, 10 students were found to have previously taken the course using Critical Thinking. Their scores were culled from the control group beforehand and became a subsample, "CT Past," with a mean score of 30.20 and a standard deviation of 4.10. The mean score, again, of the group just finishing their study of Critical Thinking was 30.42, with a standard deviation of 5.15. This indicates that after studying Critical Thinking, the students had retained their enhanced critical thinking skills (p = 0.8943).
Is there a users' manual for the CT Software?
No, one really isn't necessary. The CT Software is so easy to use that all you need to do is read the brief install directions on the inside of the CD insert and just play around with CT to see what its buttons do. Honestly, a users' manual would have been an insult to your intelligence.
What platform do I need for the CT Software?
CT runs on both Windows and Mac platforms.
The minimal OS requirement for Windows is Windows 98.
The minimum OS requirement for the Mac is 9.0 with the CarbonLib 1.6 extension installed [available as a free download at http://www.apple.com]. CT runs natively on OS X.
Do I need to be online to use Critical Thinking?
No, fortunately. CT's etexts and the CT Software install off the CD in seconds, and then you can use them on any computer without being at the mercy of your phone line, your modem, your ISP, your network, etc.
Do I need a special reader for the etexts?
No, you just need Acrobat Reader 7.0 to view them and to highlight the texts and personalize them with your notes.
Is it possible to download CT?
Yes, that can be arranged. Site licenses are available that would enable students to access Critical Thinking from a course server. However, it is usually easier to use the CD version CT.
Can students save their practice and exam scores to a database?
No, as timesaving as it might sound, databasing scores is probably more time-consuming than traditional means of class record keeping. Here's why: To implement such a means of keeping track of students' practice and exams, a database must be set up on a networked server, all students must correctly set up their user names and passwords on it, and the database must be secure so that only the instructor has access to the entered scores. Setting up all this takes time and requires professional IT support. And this also requires the students to be online in order to submit their scores.
With the CT Software, practice and exam scores are simply printed out and handed in or emailed directly to the instructor or assistant. Students can keep a record of their scores and exam deadlines by using the Progress Log spreadsheet included on the Critical Thinking CD. Just Drag and Drop it to any computer and open it using Excel. Faculty can use the Progress Log to manage students' scores for the entire class.
This would mean that students are not taking their exams online?
Yes, that's right. Online testing is notoriously unsecure and prone to crashes. With online testing, there are fewer measures to stop students from having someone else take exams for them. There are fewer measures to keep students from using their books to simply look up answers, as opposed to developing their critical thinking skills and verifying and demonstrating those skills on their exams. As old-fashioned as it may sound, assessment is still best done under secure conditions, where a supervisor can ensure that the students are doing their own work and demonstrating their own competencies.
How can I set up a secure computer lab test facility?
If you would want to use the Exam mode of the CT Software as your sole or primary source of giving exams and evaluating your students, I would recommend using a secure computer lab. You basically take the same precautions as you do when giving an in-class exam--making sure everyone does their own work without using various means of cheating such as notes, books, crib sheets, or cell phones.
What do I mean by a secure lab? Really, any computer lab will do for starters. Just have the IT people servicing the lab put only the CT Software on the hard drives [and not the CT etext pdf files]. This is the same CT Software that comes on every student's CD. Adopting Critical Thinking gives you permission to install the CT Software in any computer lab you're using for testing purposes.
Once you have the CT Software installed on all the machines, you then address the same old security issues that you would face in class--you need to have the students monitored while they take exams. This can be done in various ways. I have my own CT Lab and my own Lab Assistants keeping watch over the students; they are former CT students who have aced the course and now serve also as tutors. The Lab is open 9-5 and students can come in anytime to take and retake exams.
Instructors who don't have their own computer labs have done very well simply reserving scheduled time slots at their universities' general computer labs. They have the IT people [maintaining the labs] install the CT Software, and then have the students meet in the lab to take exams at least once a week. One current prof has multiple sections, so he has back-to-back periods reserved in the general lab, so students can take and retake exams for 1-2 hours. The only downside to this is that it limits the capacity for students to do retakes and work towards getting exactly the grade they want. But, of course, students always have unlimited access to practice exercises in Practice mode and even unlimited access to practice taking exams in Exam mode on their own computers; so not giving them an opportunity for unlimited retakes is not exactly short-changing them--especially in comparison to the traditional approach of having only one chance at taking an exam.
Some universities have a general testing facility, where all basic testing for the university is done and any prof can have software installed and have their students take exams there. I'd love that!
There are so many ways for you to use Critical Thinking, depending on your facilities. And any computer lab can easily become a testing facility. Please contact me, Kevin Possin, at the Critical Thinking Lab, either by phone or email, for assistance.
In the meantime, please click on the Link below marked "Critical Thinking @ WSU" for a description of one possible way to set up your own Critical Thinking Lab.
Can students submit practice and exam scores via the Internet?
Yes. With the new version 3.0 of the CT Software, students can email their practice scores, summary scores, and exam scores directly to their instructor, simply by typing in the server's and the instructor's address. This is great for independent studies and distance-learning.
Is there an Instructor's Manual for the Critical Thinking curriculum?
No, it really isn't necessary. The curriculums for both Critical Thinking and the Self-Defense manual are very accessible. In the instructors' CT Supplements CD, I have provided a syllabus that many instructors have found helpful to use as a timetable for the course. This CT Supplements CD also has answer keys for some of the in-class worksheets now included in the CT Student Aids folder on every CT CD. It also contains masters for transparencies that prove helpful for class demonstrations and discussions.
For other pedagogical ideas, please click on the Link marked "Critical Thinking @ WSU" at the bottom of the page, to see how I happen to be using Critical Thinking and Self-Defense in my courses. Or please feel free to contact me at kpossin@winona.edu, and we can talk directly about how to tailor Critical Thinking to your particular course and set of resources.
How does CT score the user's answers?
The goal of critical thinking is the pursuit of truth AND the avoidance of error. And so that's the basic principle CT uses to grade answers. You get credit for correct answers, but you get docked for incorrect ones. Thus, the "shotgun approach" to answering should not and will not work well.
Can I add more exercises and exam problems to the CT Software?
No, it really isn't necessary. That work has all been done for you. Other textbooks and software packages provide such a small set of rather elementary exercises that the desire to add more is only natural. But the CT Software contains over 4,000 exercises, which it uses to create its practice sessions and exams, so there is really no need to add more.
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What if I have a problem with the CD?
The instructions, regarding settings and use, that come with the CT CD indeed solve most problems. So read or review the install instructions provided on the inside of the CD insert:
Critical Thinking Software 3. for WINDOWS:
TO INSTALL: Insert and open the CriticalThinking CD. Open the CT for PCs folder. Drag and drop the Critical Thinking folder onto your desktop. remove the CD and you're done.
TO LAUNCH: Open your Critical Thinking folder and double-click Critical Thinking.exe. Insert your name and section number on the Welcome screen and hit Enter. For convenience, you may create a Shortcut for Critical Thinking.exe or put an icon for it on your Taskbar.
IMPORTANT: Always keep Critical Thinking.exe and its Data folder TOGETHER in the Critical Thinking folder. CT can't run without its Data.
The minimum OS requirement for Windows is Windows 98.
Critical Thinking Software 3. for MACS:
TO INSTALL: Insert and open the CriticalThinking CD. Open the CT for Macs folder. Drag and drop the Critical Thinking folder onto your desktop. Remove the CD and you're done.
TO LAUNCH: Open your Critical Thinking folder and double-click Critical Thinking. Insert your name and section number on the Welcome screen and hit Return. For convenience, you may create an alias for Critical Thinking or put a Critical Thinking icon on your dock.
IMPORTANT: Always keep Critical Thinking and its Data folder together in the Critical Thinking folder. CT can't run without its Data.
For best appearances, increase or decrease screen font smoothing to your personal taste, and set your display color high.
The minimum OS requirement for the Mac is 0.9, with the CarbonLib 1.6 extension installed [available as a free download at http://www.apple.com]. CT 3.2 runs natively and best on OS X.
CT's Email Diagnostic:
Here is a little list of how the Critical Thinking Software behaves when incorrect entries are made in its SendMail dialog box:
Correct TO but incorrect FROM: TO receives email, but FROM does not.
Correct FROM but incorrect TO: FROM receives cc and also receives separate email that email was not deliverable.
Incorrect SMTP Server address: Name Resolution Error.
Incorrect SMTP Server Port Number: Tries to send for a while but eventually Name Resolution Error.
Not connected to the Internet: Name Resolution Error.
Critical Thinking etexts:
TO INSTALL: Drag and drop the pdf files onto your desktop. Open with Acrobat Reader 7.0. Please read the short etext Manual.doc for instructions on how to highlight and post notes in etexts using Reader 7.0.
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PLEASE VISIT THE REST OF OUR SITE BY CLICKING THE LINKS BELOW.
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