Critical thinking can be called real world intelligence and many would agree that there is nothing which contributes more to our lives’ fulfilment as does this kind of thinking.
If you have already gone through the free critical thinking courses and would like to continue the learning journey, take a look at the list below. It includes the 10 best paid online critical thinking classes with details on the time and money you need to invest. Happy learning!
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- Mindware: Critical Thinking for the Information Age
- Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking Specialization
- Critical Thinking Skills for University Success
- Effective Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
- Critical Thinking
- Critical Thinker Academy: Learn to Think Like a Philosopher
- Master Cognitive Biases and Improve Your Critical Thinking
- Introduction to Critical Thinking (Or, How to Survive in the Era of “Fake News”)
- Master your Decision-Making, and Critical Thinking Skills
- Rational Compassion Masterclass: Critical Thinking for Good
| Critical Thinking Resource | Institution/ Author | Total Time Investment | General VS. Specific | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mindware: Critical Thinking for the Information Age | University of Michigan | 13 hours | General | £36 per month (part of Coursera subscription) |
| Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking Specialization | Duke University | 80 hours | General | £36 per month (part of Coursera subscription) |
| Critical Thinking Skills for University Success | The University of Sydney | 25 hours | General | £36 per month (part of Coursera subscription) |
| Effective Problem-Solving and Decision-Making | University of California, Irvine | 5 hours | General | £36 per month (part of Coursera subscription) |
| Critical Thinking | EtonX | 10 hours | General | £49 |
| Critical Thinker Academy: Learn to Think Like a Philosopher | Kevin deLaplante | 19 hours | General | £124.99 |
| Master Cognitive Biases and Improve Your Critical Thinking | Kevin deLaplante | 2.5 hours | General | £89.99 |
| Introduction to Critical Thinking (Or, How to Survive in the Era of “Fake News”) | Gordon Bonnet, Carol Bloomgarden | 1.5 hours | General | £49.99 |
| Master your Decision-Making, and Critical Thinking Skills | Sivakami S. | 4 hours | General | £89.99 |
| Rational Compassion Masterclass: Critical Thinking for Good | Logan Sullivan | 4.5 hours | General | £44.99 |
Mindware: Critical Thinking for the Information Age
Offered by: University of Michigan
Description:
13 hours
Most professions these days require more than general intelligence. They require in addition the ability to collect, analyse and think about data. Personal life is enriched when these same skills are applied to problems in everyday life involving judgment and choice. This course presents basic concepts from statistics, probability, scientific methodology, cognitive psychology and cost-benefit theory and shows how they can be applied to everything from picking one product over another to critiquing media accounts of scientific research. Concepts are defined briefly and breezily and then applied to many examples drawn from business, the media and everyday life.
What kinds of things will you learn?
- Why it’s usually a mistake to interview people for a job.
- Why it’s highly unlikely that, if your first meal in a new restaurant is excellent, you will find the next meal to be as good.
- Why economists regularly walk out of movies and leave restaurant food uneaten.
- Why getting your picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated usually means your next season is going to be a disappointment.
- Why you might not have a disease even though you’ve tested positive for it.
- Why you’re never going to know how coffee affects you unless you conduct an experiment in which you flip a coin to determine whether you will have coffee on a given day.
- Why it might be a mistake to use an office in a building you own as opposed to having your office in someone else’s building.
- Why you should never keep a stock that’s going down in hopes that it will go back up and prevent you from losing any of your initial investment.
- Why it is that a great deal of health information presented in the media is misinformation.
Contents:
- Introduction
- Statistics
- The Law of Large Numbers
- Correlation
- Experiments
- Prediction
- Cognitive Biases
- Choosing and Deciding
- Logic and Dialectical Reasoning
- Conclusion
Cost: part of Coursera subscription- £36 per month
Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking Specialization
Offered by: Duke University
Description:
80 hours: 4 months to complete/ 5 hours per week
By taking Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking you will improve your ability to identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments by other people (including politicians, used car salesmen, and teachers) and also to construct arguments of your own in order to convince others and to help you decide what to believe or do. This specialization introduces general standards of good reasoning and offers tools to improve your critical thinking skills. These skills will help you determine when an argument is being given, what its crucial parts are, and what it assumes implicitly. You will also learn how to apply deductive and inductive standards for assessing arguments and how to detect and avoid fallacies.
This specialization includes four courses and an optional final project. In the final project you will construct your own argument on any topic that interests you. You will develop a thesis statement and write an argument of 400–600 words to support your thesis.
Contents:
Think Again I: How to Understand Arguments
Think Again II: How to Reason Deductively
Think Again III: How to Reason Inductively
Think Again IV: How to Avoid Fallacies
Cost: part of Coursera subscription- £36 per month
Critical Thinking Skills for University Success
Offered by: The University of Sydney
Description:
25 hours
In this course, you will learn how to develop your Critical Thinking Skills to help you achieve success in your university studies. After completing this course, you will be able to:
- Use critical thinking and argumentation in university contexts to improve academic results
- Understand the importance and function of critical thinking in academic culture
- Use a variety of thinking tools to improve critical thinking
- Identify types of argument, and bias within arguments, in order to better evaluate the strength of arguments
- Use evidence to support claims in arguments
- Apply critical thinking and argumentation to real world problems and issues
Contents:
- Introduction to Critical Thinking in Academic Culture
- Critical Thinking in Academic Contexts
- Logic and Reasoning
- Argumentation
- Demonstrating Critical Thinking
- Summative Assignment
Cost: part of Coursera subscription- £36 per month
Effective Problem-Solving and Decision-Making
Offered by: University of California, Irvine
Description:
5 hours
Critical thinking – the application of scientific methods and logical reasoning to problems and decisions – is the foundation of effective problem solving and decision making. Critical thinking enables us to avoid common obstacles, test our beliefs and assumptions, and correct distortions in our thought processes. Gain confidence in assessing problems accurately, evaluating alternative solutions, and anticipating likely risks. Learn how to use analysis, synthesis, and positive inquiry to address individual and organizational problems and develop the critical thinking skills needed in today’s turbulent times. Using case studies and situations encountered by class members, explore successful models and proven methods that are readily transferable on-the-job.
Upon completing this course, you will be able to:
- Choose and apply appropriate problem solving and decision making processes and methods
- Identify common obstacles to effective problem solving and decision making
- Recognize the human variable in problem solving and decision making
- Assess major conceptual blocks and significant situational challenges
- Apply concepts to enhancing personal development and organizational performance
- Explain the key elements of problem solving and decision making and the barriers associated with them
Contents:
- Introduction to Problem Solving
- Charts and Diagrams
- Decision Making Methods
- Implementing Decision
Cost: part of Coursera subscription- £36 per month
Critical Thinking
Offered by: EtonX
Description:
10 hours
This course is right for you if you are aged 14–20 and you want to:
- Use critical thinking skills to boost your academic success
- Improve your decision-making based on good reasoning
- Deepen your understanding of how the world works
Contents:
- Introductory Class
- What is Critical Thinking?
- Bad Arguments
- Evaluating Evidence
- Data and Statistics
- Emotion, Bias and Prejudice
- Critical Thinking in Practice
Cost: £49
Critical Thinker Academy: Learn to Think Like a Philosopher
Offered by: Kevin deLaplante
Description:
19 hours
- fundamental concepts of critical thinking (logic, argument analysis, rhetoric, reasoning with probabilities, the importance of background knowledge, etc.)
- the importance of critical thinking for personal development, participation in democratic society, and the pursuit of wisdom
- the role that critical thinking principles play in good essay writing
- how cognitive biases make us prone to errors in how we form beliefs and make judgments
- how our tribal psychology and political polarization affect our ability to think critically
- how debates in science often turn on the meanings of key terms, like “theory”, “fact”, “hypothesis” and “law”
Contents:
- Why Critical Thinking is Important
- The Five Pillars of Critical Thinking
- Cognitive Biases and Critical Thinking
- Tribalism, Polarization and Critical Thinking
- Cognitive Biases, Tribalism and Politics
- Special Topic: Critical Thinking About Science- The Vocabulary of Science
- Special Topics (Conspiracies, Causation, God and the Big Bang
- Basic Concepts in Logic and Argumentation
- Basic Concepts in Propositional Logic
- Formal Fallacies: Common Valid and Invalid Argument Forms
- Informal Fallacies: A Guided Tour
- Reasoning with Probability: What is Probability?
- Reasoning with Probabilities: the Rules
- Fallacies of Probability and Judgment
- Coincidences: When the Impossible Becomes Inevitable
- The Gambler’s Fallacy: Bias, Randomness and the Illusion of Control
- The Small Sample Fallacy
- How to Write a Good Argumentative Essay
- How to Cite Sources and Avoid Plagiarism
- Bonus Lecture
Cost: £124.99
Master Cognitive Biases and Improve Your Critical Thinking
Offered by: Kevin deLaplante
Description:
2.5 hours
- Understand what cognitive biases are and why they’re so important for critical thinking.
- Understand the concept of “mindware” as a component of improving critical thinking and reasoning.
- Understand how ignoring cognitive biases can open the door to disastrous decisions, reduced performance and social injustice.
- Understand why many businesses and industries are offering cognitive bias training to their managers and employees.
- Be able to describe several important cognitive biases — such as confirmation bias, pattern-seeking, anchoring, and hindsight bias — and give examples that illustrate how they operate.
- Understand what “debiasing” is, and be able to describe several effective strategies for reducing the harmful effects of cognitive biases.
- Explain why many businesses and organizations resist implementing debiasing strategies.
Contents:
- Getting Started
- What is a Cognitive Bias?
- Cognitive Biases and Their Importance for Critical Thinking
- Why Are So Many Industries Offering Cognitive Bias Training to Their Employees?
- A Gentle Introduction to Cognitive Biases
- Confirmation Bias
- Pattern Seeking
- The Anchoring Effect
- Hindsight Bias
- Introduction to Debiasing Strategies
- Why Businesses Often Resist Debiasing
- Debiasing Strategies that Work
- Wrapping Up
Cost: £ 89.99
Introduction to Critical Thinking (or, How to Survive in the Era of “Fake News”)
Offered by: Gordon Bonnet, Carol Bloomgarden
Description:
1.5 hours
Contents:
- Fallacies: The Illogical Ways in Which We Think
- Argument Clinic: How to Recognize Good (and Valid) Arguments
- Statistics and How They’re Used (and Misused)
- Science Literacy: How to Understand and Interpret Science-y News
- Conclusion and Further Reading
Cost: £49.99
Master your Decision-Making, and Critical Thinking Skills
Offered by: Sivakami S.
Description:
4 hours
Improve the Quality and ROI (Return on Investment) of all your Big decisions !!
Decision-making and Problem Solving are Leadership and Management skills, that are crucial for pretty much everyone !!
Learn how critical insights from research and advances in Psychology, Cognitive, Behavioral science, and Behavioral Economics, can help you make better and more rational decisions, and analyze/solve problems better. The Course is explained with a lot of examples and research studies for ease of understanding! It can help upgrade your Leadership Skills and Management Strategies significantly.
Learn about the evolutionary context of your decision making, heuristics and biases, logical fallacies, the costs of irrationality, and understand how you can optimize your Paleolithic brains to optimize your decision-making process in today’s world! Learn some powerful techniques and strategies to de-bias and reduce the irrationality in your judgements and decisions.
This Course is essential for all Business Managers and Leaders, as well as everyone else, who wants to become a more Informed, Influential and Effective Decision Maker.
Contents:
- Introduction
- How We Think, Judge and Decide
- Some Key Cognitive Biases
- The Cost of Irrationality and IQ vs. Rationality
- De-Biasing and De-Biasing Techniques
- Logical Fallacies
- Concluding Checklist for Decision Making
Cost: £89.99
Rational Compassion Masterclass: Critical Thinking for Good
Offered by: Logan Sullivan
Description:
4.5 hours
BY THE END OF THIS COURSE, YOU WILL USE CRITICAL THINKING TO:
- identify and overcome dangerous cognitive biases, logical fallacies and other common misconceptions that render ineffective changemakers
- dissect the key complexities of causes and issues (both global and local) that cause harm to humans, nonhuman animals and the environment
- understand how you relate to these issues and which solutions you’re empowered to contribute to
- maximize your positive impact per unit of effort exerted, your ROI if you were a resource for change
- calculate both the impact and footprint of your choices and actions, both negative and positive
- multiply Your impact by 10x, 100x, 1,000x by doing good smarter, not working harder
- take action for causes, volunteer for nonprofits, donate to charity, and utilize careers and pastimes in the most high impact intelligent ways we can
- balance a joyful life with a high impact life — neurologist’s and psychologist’s formula for happiness and lasting fulfillment
The uncritical mind is optimized for making itself feel better about what burdens it. We do this by adjusting our perceptions of that burden, not by taking actions to improve upon the undesirable reality that burdens us to begin with. We convince ourselves we’re all charities are cur
A mind exercising rational compassion is optimized to solve problems instead of hiding from them, to address the root of that burden, to impact positive change highly effectively and efficiently.
Contents:
- You are a resource of change: Know your worth and invest yourself wisely
- Outsmart misconceptions and think o the margins
- Overcome cognitive biases and logical fallacies
- Apply critical thinking in taking high-impact action
- Doing good while doing well: an impactful, happy and fulfilling life
Cost: £44.99
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