Critical Thinking: The Role of Cognitive Development, Logic, and Emotionality Definitions of critical thinking range from simple statements reflecting one's ability to create logical conclusions based on reasoning to more complex definitions which take into consideration a person's emotions, personal feelings, and cultural biases. According to the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, "critical thinking is a broader term describing reasoning in an open-ended manner, with an unlimited number of solutions" (…showed first 75 words of 756 total…

…showed last 75 words of 756 total…Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi. New York: Basic Books. Hoffman, W. C. (n.d.). The formal structure of dialectical psychology. Retrieved December 6, 03, from http://www.goertzel.org/dynapsyc/1996/formstr.html Kirby, G. R., & Goodpaster, J. R. (2002). Thinking (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.. University of Alberta. (n.d.). Piaget's stage theory of development. Retrieved December 6, 2003, from http://web.psych.ualberta.ca/%7Emike/Pearl_Street/Dictionary/contents/C/cognitive_development.html