GEOG 882
Geographic Foundations of Geospatial Intelligence

Lesson 1.13 Cognitive Skills

PrintPrint

The following six pages provide an example of higher order thinking in the context of a military operation by the 450th Movement Control Battalion in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

As heard in Facione's video on the previous page, "Critical thinking is the human process of forming reflective well-reasoned judgments about what to believe or what to do. As such, it relies on our skills of analysis, interpretation, inference, evaluation, explanation, and, most importantly, self-reflection."

Ball symbolizing "purposeful reflective judgement" that is surrounded by halos of critical thinking skills that include interpretation, inference, self-regulation, analysis, explanation, and evaluation
The critical thinking skills
Credit: Critical Thinking Skills by Facione is under the Creative Commons 4.0 International License and free to use.

Cognitive Skills

  • Interpretation
  • Analysis
  • Evaluation
  • Inference
  • Explanation
  • Self-Regulation

Critical Spirit

The experts also said that a true critical thinker has a critical spirit. This is not to say that they are by any means negative or mean. It does mean that they have:

"a probing inquisitiveness, keenness of mind, a zealous dedication to reason, and a hunger or eagerness for reliable information."

Note 

The following six pages provide an example of higher order thinking in the context of a military operation by the 450th Movement Control Battalion in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.