According to Alec Fisher (2010), some of the fundamental critical thinking skills are:
- Identifying the elements in a reasoned case, especially reasons and conclusions
- Identifying and evaluating assumptions
- Clarifying and interpreting expressions and ideas
- Judging the acceptability (especially the credibility) of claims
- Evaluating arguments of different kinds
- Analysing, evaluating, and producing explanations
- Analysing, evaluating, and making decisions
- Drawing inferences
- Producing arguments
Fisher goes on to point out that while this is a good place to start, there are other thinking skills a critical thinker might wish to develop.
