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Critical Thinking Methods for Sustainable Development

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Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education

Synonyms

Critical reflection methods; Critical skills strategies; Methods for critical reasoning

Definition

Critical thinking is a high-level cognitive process. It includes several skills needed for evaluating and understanding specific events and conditions, defining goals and effectively planning actions for reaching them.

Introduction

Critical thinking is, nowadays, an essential cognitive competence, cause to the current historical period, particularly characterized by complexity. Not only, indeed, current social, economic, cultural, and political issues are due to multidimensional events and interrelated causes, but people are overwhelmed by a huge amount of contrasting pieces of information, perspectives, beliefs, and approaches to reality. In this condition, learn to reflect critically, analyzing the events from different perspectives and considering all the elements that can be involved in, striving to reach a specific relevant goal, becomes essential for pursuing the objective...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology (FISPPA), University of Padova, Padova, Italy

    Eleonora Concina

Authors
  1. Eleonora Concina
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eleonora Concina .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Life Sciences, World Sustainable Development Research and Transfer Centre, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

Section Editor information

  1. KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Ingrid Molderez

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Concina, E. (2019). Critical Thinking Methods for Sustainable Development. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11352-0_205

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